Deny this: Himalaya glaciers really are melting, and doing so at a rapid pace – Kind of like climate change

By David Biello, Scientific American27 July 2012 Remember when climate change contrarians professed outrage over a few errors in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s last report? One of their favorite such mistakes involved an overestimation of the pace at which glaciers would melt at the “Third Pole,” where the Indian subcontinent crashes into […]

Video: Meltwater from Greenland glacier wipes out key crossing

By Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, www.guardian.co.uk25 July 2012 The gust of warm air that caused the unprecedented thaw in Greenland’s surface ice also appears to have caused unusually high runoff from a glacier, wiping out a crossing near a key research and transport hub. Scientists who fly in Kangerlussuaq, near the western edge of […]

Thirsty South Asia’s river rifts threaten ‘water wars’

By Nita Bhalla, Reuters23 Jul 2012 KANZALWAN, India-Pakistan Line of Control (AlertNet) – As the silver waters of the Kishanganga rush through this north Kashmir valley, Indian labourers are hard at work on a hydropower project that will dam the river just before it flows across one of the world’s most heavily militarised borders into […]

Greenland ice sheet melted at unprecedented rate during July 2012

By Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, www.guardian.co.uk24 July 2012 The Greenland ice sheet melted at a faster rate this month than at any other time in recorded history, with virtually the entire ice sheet showing signs of thaw. The rapid melting over just four days was captured by three satellites. It has stunned and alarmed […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of iceberg calving from Petermann Glacier, 17 July 2012

Caption by Michon Scott with information from Walt Meier and Ted Scambos, National Snow and Ice Data Center; and Konrad Steffen, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.17 July 2012 The Petermann Glacier grinds and slides toward the sea along the northwestern coast of Greenland, terminating in a giant floating ice tongue. Like […]

Massive landslide in Alaska sweeps over glacier, possibly the largest landslide ever recorded in North America

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, 12 July 2012 (AP) – Even by Alaska standards, the rock slide in Glacier Bay National Park was a huge event. It was a monumental geophysical event that was almost overlooked until a pilot happened to fly over where the cliff collapsed and snapped some photographs nearly a month later. When the cliff […]

Bavaria glaciers could disappear in 30 years with warming rate double the global average

3 July 2012 (Spiegel) – The high-altitude landscape of the Bavarian Alps is prized by mountain sports lovers around the world, but it could change significantly in the coming years. Temperatures in the region are rising at an above-average rate, which will likely melt most of the glaciers there within the next 20 to 30 […]

Graph of the Day: Greenland Reflectivity Anomaly, June 2012

Satellite data of Greenland reflectivity 1-22 June 2012 versus the same periods in previous Junes back to 2000. The blue colors indicate a decrease in reflectivity compared to previous Junes. In a new study, Box and a team of researchers describe the decline in ice sheet reflectivity and the reasons behind it, noting that if […]

Greenland ice sheet melt nears critical tipping point ‘into a state of inevitable decline’

By Andrew Freedman29 June 2012 The Greenland ice sheet is poised for another record melt this year, and is approaching a “tipping point” into a new and more dangerous melt regime in which the summer melt area covers the entire land mass, according to new findings from polar researchers. The ice sheet is the focus […]

U.S. National Research Council predicts higher rates of sea level rise

22 June 2012 (AFP) – Global sea levels could rise two to three times higher over the next century than previous UN estimates, according to a study released Friday by the US National Research Council. A committee of experts evaluated the latest UN data and updated those projections with new data on polar ice-cap melting […]

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