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Somebody start the stopwatch and remind us in 5 years to see if the ice cap is still there.

Nov 07, 2008 Global concern about the ailing economy has led the European Environment Committee to revise its energy package. The committee announced that it agreed the European Union should revise key clauses in its climate and energy package to adjust for the current financial crisis. The economic slowdown has hurt carbon credit demand and pricing. Over the past few weeks EU member states have requested permission to make some revisions to protect their economies. Bulgaria, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Poland have criticized the proposed shift to a pan-European carbon credit auctioning mechanism and...

Melting ice caps may trigger more volcanic eruptions 10:38 03 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic Vatnajökull in the south-east is the largest ice cap in Iceland and conceals several volcanoes (Image: NASA) A warmer world could be a more explosive one. Global warming is having a much more profound effect than just melting ice caps – it is melting magma too. Vatnajökull is the largest ice cap in Iceland, and is disappearing at a rate of 5 cubic kilometres per year. Carolina Pagli of the University of Leeds, UK, and Freysteinn Sigmundsson of the University of Iceland have...

A new weblog has been launched called Icecap. Its mission, as they state on their website is: “ICECAP, International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project, is the portal to all things climate for elected officials and staffers, journalists, scientists, educators and the public. It provides access to a new and growing global society of respected scientists and journalists that are not deniers that our climate is dynamic (the only constant in nature is change) and that man plays a role in climate change through urbanization, land use changes and the introduction of greenhouse gases and aerosols, but who also believe...

Does CO2 really drive global warming? I don’t believe that it does.To the contrary, if you apply the IFF test—if-and-only-if or necessary-and-sufficient—the outcome would appear to be exactly the reverse. Rather than the rising levels of carbon dioxide driving up the temperature, the logical conclusion is that it is the rising temperature that is driving up the CO2 level. Of course, this raises a raft of questions, but they are all answerable. What is particularly critical is distinguishing between the observed phenomenon, or the “what”, from the governing mechanism, or the “why”. Confusion between these two would appear to be...

Los Angeles, CA) Bothered by the recent news reports of the Antarctic ice sheet losing ice due to global warming, several Hollywood actors and actresses have paid huge sums of money to have helicopters deliver replacement ice to the imperiled ice cap.

One of two Coast Guard divers who mysteriously died during a training dive in the Arctic last summer sank uncontrollably as far as 190 feet below the icy surface and suffocated, according to an autopsy summary obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday. The divers had slipped into a patch of open water near the ship's bow and were planning to dive to a maximum depth of 20 feet, said William Hill Jr., whose daughter Lt. Jessica Hill, along with Boatswain's Mate Steven Duque, died Aug. 17, 500 miles north of Alaska. A support team supposedly held ropes attached to...

Today's theme is people in isolation. I found this picture of the Pu'u O'o vent field on Kilauea strangely compelling (click for large size): Possible caption: "OK, I know I lost my glasses around here somewhere..." Vatnajokull Ice Cap (Iceland) from the road; click for full-size: Possible caption: "No outlet."

Link post: access the thread (and add to it) in the "chat" section: Geology Picture of the Week Addendum: Grimsvotn eruption

(click picture for full-size version; go to link above for some really great ones, but I couldn't grab them because the site uses frames) This picture is actually from this page: Grimsvotn eruption November 2nd 2004

Greenland's massive ice sheet could begin to melt this century and may disappear completely within the next thousand years if global warming continues at its present rate. According to a new climate change study, the melting of Greenland's ice sheet would raise the oceans by seven meters (23 feet), threatening to submerge cities located at sea level, from London to Los Angeles. Even a partial melting of the ice sheet could have catastrophic consequences for low-lying countries like Bangladesh and the Maldives. "A one-meter [three-foot] sea level rise would submerge a substantial amount of Bangladesh," Jonathan Gregory, the study's lead...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 24 Spring Dust Storms at the North Pole of Mars Credit: MSSS, JPL, NASA Explanation: Spring reached the north pole of Mars in May, and brought with it the usual dust storms. As the north polar cap begins to thaw, a temperature difference occurs between the cold frost region and recently thawed surface, resulting in swirling winds between the adjacent regions. In the above image mosaic...

Vostok: The Lake of ShadowsCover Story FATE Magazine 2002-06-01 00:00:00 by Scott Corrales “Doubt of the real facts, as I must reveal them, is inevitable; yet if I suppressed what will seem extravagant and incredible there would be nothing left.” —H. P. Lovecraft, “At the Mountains of Madness” The inspiration for this article began in the summer of 1996, when a series of email messages began to appear suggesting the possibility that “someone” or “something” was surreptitiously removing all recent maps of Antarctica. The notion was so outrageous that even die-hard conspiracy theorists found themselves having to clarify the...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 June 4 A Martian Metamorphosis Credit: Malin Space Science Systems, MOC, MGS, JPL, NASA Explanation: Is it an Escher, or Mars? Three different types of surfaces visible in the North Polar Cap of Mars morph into each other in a way perhaps reminiscent of the works of M. C. Escher. On the far left dark sand covers the ground, while the center shows a transition to a...