Is Greenland turning green?

[mark1447]

Nearly all of Greenland's massive ice sheet suddenly started melting a bit this month, a freak event that surprised scientists.

 

Even Greenland's coldest and highest place, Summit station, showed melting. Ice core records show that last happened in 1889 and occurs about once every 150 years.

 

Three satellites show what NASA calls unprecedented melting of the ice sheet that blankets the island, starting on July 8 and lasting four days. Most of the thick ice remains. While some ice usually melts during the summer, what was unusual was that the melting happened in a flash and over a widespread area.

 

"You literally had this wave of warm air wash over the Greenland ice sheet and melt it," NASA ice scientist Tom Wagner said Tuesday.

 

The ice melt area went from 40 percent of the ice sheet to 97 percent in four days, according to NASA. Until now, the most extensive melt seen by satellites in the past three decades was about 55 percent.

 

Wagner said researchers don't know how much of Greenland's ice melted, but it seems to be freezing again.

 

"When we see melt in places that we haven't seen before, at least in a long period of time, it makes you sit up and ask what's happening?" NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati said. It's a big signal, the meaning of which we're going to sort out for years to come."

 

Read more:

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120724/us-sci-greenland-melt/

[VWM]

Global Warming Strikes Back: Greenland Edition

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Well whatever is happening, one thing is clear... There will be some sort of consequence suffered by man for destroying Mother Nature. The amount of pollution around the world is frightening and everyone sits back and says "Oh it's okay". lol I believe that there is always a consequence for our actions. All I can say is I try to do my part. I try to recycle everything that I can and try to cut down on my useless waste like getting paperless bills and so on and so forth. If we're not taken care of by Global Warming, surely the amount of pollution and waste (as in trash) that we produce will do us in. I watched a show last year sometime talking about the amount of plastic that is in our oceans just floating about killing tons of wildlife and that at some point within the next 20 years we may have to start worrying about where our trash will go as trash sites start to fill up. Seeing how delicate we are as humans and how delicate Mother Nature is, I would expect the wild weather to continue. Some of the storms seen this year here in the city I've never seen before... So violent. Who knows though? Maybe it's just part of a cycle and we can continue our wasteful ways.

[KeystoneRegional]

No matter what, some sort of Global Warming is happening. Harsher winters and harsher summers will be coming more and more. Winters, we'll see extreme blizzards in one hemisphere [east/west wise], the other will see unseasonably warm temps. Summers, we'll see extreme heat, severe humidity by the seas, and severe droughts inland. Well, you might question why...

 

Don't let the industries fool you and say Global Warming is natural, yes the earth has had perhaps a great flood before and ice age before, however it comes slowly and steadily. The events as of recent is showing things are occuring way too fast and rapidly. The reason behind this is suspected to be CO2 emissions, and other toxins and pollutants. I believe every one of these come into play, and that we brought this consequence upon ourselves. What we should do is increase development of sustainable and renewable energy such as wind [wind mills, wind turbines], water [dam turbines, river turbines] and solar [solar panels], this way, we can sustain and at least help stabilize things instead of feeding more and more into it.

 

With so many extinctions and endangered species and unseasonably or even unusually odd tempratures and weather around the globe lately, it's time to get ourselves together and stop thinking about money required for the investments and start thinking how we can lower the price tag of investing into these renewable energy technologies.

 

And as VG8 already said, Recycle! That's one way to renew existing resources, so we don't have to visit the chemicals and mines again!

[CenSin]

No matter what, some sort of Global Warming is happening. Harsher winters and harsher summers will be coming more and more. Winters, we'll see extreme blizzards in one hemisphere [east/west wise], the other will see unseasonably warm temps. Summers, we'll see extreme heat, severe humidity by the seas, and severe droughts inland. Well, you might question why...

 

Don't let the industries fool you and say Global Warming is natural, yes the earth has had perhaps a great flood before and ice age before, however it comes slowly and steadily. The events as of recent is showing things are occuring way too fast and rapidly. The reason behind this is suspected to be CO2 emissions, and other toxins and pollutants. I believe every one of these come into play, and that we brought this consequence upon ourselves. What we should do is increase development of sustainable and renewable energy such as wind [wind mills, wind turbines], water [dam turbines, river turbines] and solar [solar panels], this way, we can sustain and at least help stabilize things instead of feeding more and more into it.

 

With so many extinctions and endangered species and unseasonably or even unusually odd tempratures and weather around the globe lately, it's time to get ourselves together and stop thinking about money required for the investments and start thinking how we can lower the price tag of investing into these renewable energy technologies.

Some man-made global warming doubters will also tell us that the average temperatures have been the same year after year with only a few degrees of difference. However, they neglect to mention the minimum and maximum. Given scorching hot summers, freezing cold winters, and out-of-place seasons, you could still calculate an average temperature that looks normal, but experience will tell us that something is off (like snow in October or the lack of it during most of the last winter).

 

If skeptics did their due diligence, they'd be convinced too like this guy: http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/07/berkeley-earth-project-is-back-to-re-re-confirm-earth-is-warming/?comments=1

[KeystoneRegional]

Some man-made global warming doubters will also tell us that the average temperatures have been the same year after year with only a few degrees of difference. However, they neglect to mention the minimum and maximum. Given scorching hot summers, freezing cold winters, and out-of-place seasons, you could still calculate an average temperature that looks normal, but experience will tell us that something is off (like snow in October or the lack of it during most of the last winter).

 

If skeptics did their due diligence, they'd be convinced too like this guy: http://arstechnica.c...ing/?comments=1

 

I fully agree with you and one of your observations is clearly a good example!

 

"Still, snow will happen mid to late fall and early to mid springtime" some doubters might debate, however recent trends have shown it's happening in places that usually don't see snow at the time of the year. Also, the Fall Foliage pattern has me concerned, because it's outta sync, and more numbers of trees still have last year's leaves during early springtime which is seriously an obnormal quantity.