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Science

South American Glaciers Melting Quickly 100

Posted by michael from the what-me-worry dept.
blike writes "The BBC is reporting that south american glaciers are melting so fast they've contributed 0.04mm per year to the global sea level since 1975. In the past 8 years, the glaciers have been melting especially rapidly; contributing nearly .1mm to the sea level every year. Another BBC Article further discusses the issue and examins how the changes affect the people living in these areas."
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South American Glaciers Melting Quickly More

South American Glaciers Melting Quickly

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  • So fast.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by trompete ( 651953 ) on Sunday October 19, 2003 @01:44PM (#7254755) Homepage Journal
    Well, being that it will only go up 6.5 mm in my lifetime, and I live at an elevation of 692 feet (Minneapolis), I won't have beach-front property any time soon.
    • At that astronomical rate, it's only a few hundred millenia or so before Waterworld becomes a reality.
      • The world has been turning into a bad movie for a long time now, this is nothing new.
      • Wishfull thinking ?

        Sorry, but there isn't enough water on this planet to make it a Waterworld.

        Worse case scenario: it will never be more than a hunderd meter or so (I live in the Netherlands, so good by), even though a great deal of the world would flood under, this still leaves a lot of land free of water.

    • Well, your calculation is way off since you only accounted for 9% of global glacial melting and you made the assumption that the rate of melting will remain constant during your lifetime.
      Aside from that, though, what kind of person thinks that as long as it's not a problem for them, then it's not a problem? You only consider your lifetime and your location. That's a really responsible attitude -- one normally associated with children.
      • Sadly, most of the human race thinks that way. And you know it.

        • Sadly, most of the human race thinks that way. And you know it.

          Maybe, but I don't concede that point.
          I think we're facing many challenges that absolutely cannot be solved as long as we think like that. Perhaps this is our challenge -- to grow up.
          Isn't it about time?
      • We've been over this on slashdot before. The world is actually cooler than it was in the 15th century. Yes, we're fucking up the planet, but the planet sways back and forth anyway.
        If you can invent that device that gives us unlimited power from an unlimited resource, GREAT. Otherwise, try to steal the patents away from the oil giants for existing technologies.
        • We've been over this on slashdot before.

          Yes, we have.

          The world is actually cooler than it was in the 15th century.

          But I don't remember anyone proving that the world was warmer in the 15th century than it is now.

      • Oops (Score:2)

        by 4of12 ( 97621 )

        You mean it's not

        "Think locally and act globally."
        ?
    • 1.6 million years before my home in colorado starts getting salty. I can live with that. And I'd got my hopes up thinking I'd soon be able to scuba dive in NY. Not enough global hair spray usage, I guess.
  • I started to calcute how fast glaciers will increase 1m the sea level etc. but then I noticed that the same trend of 0.1mm yearly contributions will not stay if the temperature stays the same. The area of melting will slowly become smaller leading to smaller contributions.

    Of course some people expect warmer times..
    • You also have to take into account the land shifting. When you're looking at the large amount of time it's going to take for the water to rise a significant amount, the land it's going to be covering is going to be different. If the land smushes together and becomes higher, we'll have less area to live on, but that less area will last longer, if it flattens out, we'll havbe more land to live on, but we'll be waste deep in water. Unless you're just concerned with how high the water is rising, I'm guessing
      • Actually the size of the continents or "land smushing" as you put it really won't that terribly much difference. What does make a very significant difference though is the spreading rate of mid-ocean ridges. During periods of high heat flow and rapid spreading, the ridges actually swell and displace quite a volume of water, changing the sealevel.
    • I started to calcute how fast glaciers will increase 1m the sea level etc. but then I noticed that the same trend of 0.1mm yearly contributions will not stay if the temperature stays the same. The area of melting will slowly become smaller leading to smaller contributions.

      But there is another, increasing, effect. As the amount of surface area of the earth which is covered by ice decreases, the amount of sunlight absorbed at sea level will increase. This is because ice reflects almost all of the sunligh

      • Interresting, but the ice is mostly on top and at the bottom of the world where the sun's light have little effect anyway (obviously).

        Beside, for the north pole at least, if the ice cap melts, the resulting ocean would receive the sunlight from a very low angle, which would be mostly below the total reflexion angle. In effect reflecting all sun light back to space anyway.

        Does somebody remember at what angle the water surface would totaly reflect ? would that cover the area covered by the northern ice area
    • I started to think the same thing through, but then I realized that the total change since 1975 is 1.12 mm. That made me wonder how in the hell they got measurements that accurate, and why our accuracy has not increased since 1975.

      IANAO, but I'd guess that the measurement error on something as big and dynamic as the ocean would be greater than a few millimeters.

      OTOH, if they are simply calculating the contribution of the loss of mass of the glaciers, they are assuming that that water has wound up in the o

  • So? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Shihar ( 153932 )
    Should I be the first to point out that .1 mm is not a lot? Think about it. Stand on a beach, now raise the water .1mm. Are you still ok? If you were to watch the sea lives rise at this rate for a 100 years, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.

    Global Warming is certainly an issue to worry about, it isn't an issue to freak out about. People seem to forget that no matter what happens, we are still humans, and humans are masters of changing their environment to fit their needs, and this grea

    • Re:So? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Red Rocket ( 473003 )

      Should I be the first to point out that .1 mm is not a lot?

      No. But keep in mind that that is a yearly increase and that it's only 9% of the total.

      People seem to forget that no matter what happens, we are still humans, and humans are masters of changing their environment to fit their needs, and this great power only grows stronger as we advance.

      Yes! We are GODS! Take THAT Mother Nature! IN YOUR FACE!

      Humans are mother natures dream come true and her ultimate creation.

      Yes, we are nature's g
      • You respond with a lot of sarcasm but no substance. The Sun is going to die one way or another. No, I really have little desire to check which method it is going to end in before posting because it is not relevant to the argument. Only the fact that it will die and the life on this planet will die with it is relevant.

        Second, there is no contradiction in calling human kind both a small disaster and the savings grace of nature. We are both. We are certainly destructive to the environment equivalent to a
        • There is one creature capable of changing this trend, and that is us.

          Ah, human hubris. Nothing we can do will stop the Sun dying - nothing. And when it does die, this planet dies a slow, cold death.

          Now, if you're talking about saving life on this planet, okay... then...

          Nature evolved a creature that has the potential to survive the lifeless vacuum and spread life throughout the universe.

          Yah, she did, and that creature is called "a bacterium" and "spores".

          If you just look at statistics, the chance th

        • So, let me spell it out clearly for you, as you seemed to have missed this. Life on this planet will die when the sun dies. There is one creature capable of changing this trend, and that is us.

          The irony of having someone who doesn't know the difference between "then" and "than" spelling something out for me is almost too much, but, believe it or not, I did understand your point. I just don't agree with it.

          By jumping in as a global warming apologist and then claiming that we are good for nature you bu
      • No. But keep in mind that that is a yearly increase and that it's only 9% of the total.

        And please, please keep in mind that this kind of thing happens naturally.

        People forget that we are still technically in an ice age.

    • If you were to watch the sea lives rise at this rate for a 100 years, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.

      Rising sealevels are indeed not a major concern expect in a few rare cases. The major concern is the potential economic damage caused by local climate changes that result from global climate change.

      Even under the absolutely worst case scenario it just means we have to live in enclosed habitats.

      The question is not one of survival. It is one of how much is my standard of living going

    • Re:So? (Score:1)

      by jo42 ( 227475 )

      Gadzooks! You really have your head up your backside. Mebbe been reading too many SF books? Watching way too many SF movies? The only thing that humanity has managed to demonstrate is how well we can truly f*ck things up out of ignorance, stupidity and selfishness. We are going to make ourselves extinct. And you know what? Humanity deserves this fate.
    • > One day the sun is going to go super nova and everything on this planet is going to die
      > Humans [...] is (SIC) the one species that has the capacity to [...] to (SIC) spread the seed of life throughout the galaxy

      Just in time to enjoy the heat-death or big-crunch that will kill all life in the universe anyway.

  • Stardust and Glaciers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cymen ( 8178 ) <cymenvig @ g m a i l . com> on Sunday October 19, 2003 @03:48PM (#7255508) Homepage
    So this means the rest of Stardust [pbs.org] should come to light post haste?
  • The melting of glaciers is only a part of the effect of(supposed) global warming and the rise of the sea level is fairly unimportant when compared to related issues of fresh water entering the worlds oceans. Slalinty levels (might)control the migration and breeding grounds of the first part of the oceans food chain, plankton, krill. If X millions of tons of (more) fresh water enter say an area of 1000 sq miles the effect can be dramatic. I do not think we know the full story of what can happen but somethin
    • There is, apparently, evidence that the salt level of the sea has not changed significantly since geological time, and the seas have gone up and down like a yo-yo since.

      Ocean life, or other mechanisms, regulates it.

      of course locally, the salt level change a great deal all the time: evaporation, melting ice flows or river streams modify the salt levels all over the place. These local changes even seem to power the great ocean streams like the gulf stream.

      But globally, it doesn't seem to change at all.
      • Thanks for your reply!
        • Your welcome.

          life is all about change. we tend to forget that. We would all like to see a forever unchanging world.

          It's just not like that.

          True, we, the people, are driving the change today at a frantic pace. But the world (Nature?) would do so too without any help, and just as wel (or bad?). Extinctions happened long before people came along.

          And we might become extinct as wel, either through our own doing, through a solar flare, an earth mantel slide (shifting the continents) or possibly the way of the
  • In geologic terms, glacier melting really doesn't make a huge impact on sea level rise or fall, there won't be a water world cuz of the glaciers melting, they are however, important to the water cycle, far more important than miami being the next Atlantis. So although it's not really proven the "Global Warming" theory is absolutely correct, and the change is slight, we best tread carefully, we honestly dun know what we kind of effect we can have, almost 90% of life on earth went extinct millions of years ag
  • Well, thank GOD almighty that nothing humans are doing is causing global warming. Otherwise, this might actually be a problem.

    What a relief!

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