More data show that ‘Yes, climate change is happening, ice is melting at alarming rates, and the time for action is now.’

Independent research using state-of-the-art modeling and satellite observations shows that melting of the Greenland ice sheet is speeding up.

Four months ago, new research showed that Arctic sea ice was at its lowest point in about 800 years, another study a couple months ago showed suprisingly fast melting in Greenland and Antarctica. Now, research from other scientists in Bristol (UK) published in Science confirms that ice sheets in Greenland are melting at an unprecedented rate.

There has been a lot of effort in the past few months to knock down climate change activists, say it isn’t happening. No wonder, of course, given that we are quickly approaching one of the most important meetings in the history of the human race — the climate change conference in Copenhagen. This new report shows again that whether we admit it or not, ice is melting, sea levels are bound to rise, climate change is happening, and the whole world will be changed as a result of it.

Read more of this story »

Permafrost, or permanently frozen ground - soil, sediment or rock that remains at or below 0° Celsius for at least two continuous years - makes up about 24 percent of the exposed land mass in the Northern Hemisphere: that’s approximately 22.79 million square kilometers. Permafrost can be thousands of years old, or it can be just beginning. Either way, as permafrost thaws, it jeopardizes both man-made structures and natural features. Thawing permafrost on mountain slopes can lead to landslides.

And it’s melting.

Besides posing threats to structures and landscapes on a local scale, melting permafrost emits carbon dioxide and methane, according to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), making permafrost a threat on a global scale.

Read more of this story »

This photo shows the seaglider clearing its antennae from the water to send off data and receive mission instructions before plunging back into the arctic waters. The photo below shows the complete glider, which is about 3 metres (10 foot) long.

Read more of this story »

One of the most important findings of this project is a confirmation of what many climate scientists have suspected for a couple of years now–that the impact of climate change on our environment is happening at a much faster rate than previous computer models predicted. This is true even for the four major reports released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the last of which was released in 2007).

Read more of this story »

A team of UK scientists have discovered a natural process that could delay, or even end, the threat of global warming.

The researchers, aboard the Royal Navy’s HMS Endurance, have found that melting icebergs off the coast of Antarctica are releasing millions of tiny particles of iron into the southern Ocean, helping to create huge ‘blooms’ of algae that absorb carbon emissions. The algae then sinks to the icy depths, effectively removing CO2 from the atmosphere for hundreds of years.

According to lead researcher, Prof. Rob Raiswell of Leeds University, “The Earth itself seems to want to save us.”

Read more of this story »

And now, thanks to researchers from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and the Center for Space Research (CSR) in America, a new and accurate picture of Greenland’s shrinking ice cap has been formulated.

Subsequently, the researchers have found that Greenland is currently responsible for an annual increase of sea levels of up to half a millimeter.

Read more of this story »

According to two separate research groups, new evidence supports the possibility that the disappearing Arctic ice is a good thing for the planet.

Read more of this story »

“Satellite images gathered by NASA show that the north-west passage opened last weekend and the final blockage on the east side of the ice cap, an area of sea ice stretching to Siberia, dissolved a few days later.”

Whether or not you subscribe to the concept of global climate change due to human factors, there is no dispute that, for the first time in recorded human history, the North Pole is an island, with unobstructed sea between the Pole and both Canada and Russia.

“Measurements on August 26 showed an ice cap of just over two million square miles, confirming the second biggest ice cap melt since records began.”

via: Telegraph.co.uk and Aftenposten.no

image via: Telegraph.co.uk

For the past few years we have seen the Arctic ice sheet melt, dropping to lower and lower levels. And though we haven’t seen the 2008 melt season drop below 07’s record numbers, the ice has melted in such a way that now the Arctic has become an island.

Read more of this story »

Researchers who have been monitoring daily satellite images of Greenland’s glaciers from Ohio State University have discovered break-ups at two of the largest glaciers within the last month.

Read more of this story »