*NEWS*GREENLAND FALLING INTO THE OCEAN

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Date: Friday February 17, 2006 10:04:00 am
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    Greenland’s Glaciers Are Melting Faster
    ST.
    LOUIS (Feb.06) – Greenland’s glaciers are dumping twice as much ice
    into the Atlantic Ocean now as five years ago because glaciers are
    moving and melting more quickly, researchers said on Thursday.
    This
    could mean oceans will rise even faster than forecast, and rising
    surface air temperatures appear to be to blame, the researchers report
    in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
    “This change, combined
    with increased melting, suggests that existing estimates of future sea
    level rise are too low,” Julian Dowdeswell of the Scott Polar Research
    Institute at Britain’s Cambridge University wrote in a commentary.
    “At
    1.7 million square km [656,000 square miles], up to 3 km [nearly two
    miles] thick and a little smaller than Mexico, the Greenland Ice Sheet
    would raise global sea level by about 7 meters [22 feet] if it melted
    completely.”
    The study did not explore what is causing the rising
    air temperatures in Greenland, but most scientists agree that human
    activity, notably the burning of fossil fuels, is playing an important
    role in global warming.
    Eric Rignot of NASA’s Jet Propulsion
    Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology and Pannir
    Kanagaratnam of the University of Kansas used satellite data to track
    the movement of Greenland’s glaciers, which slide slowly down to the
    sea and deposit ice.
    They calculated that Greenland contributes about 0.02 inch to the annual 0.1 inch rise in global sea levels.
    Since
    1996, southeast Greenland’s outlet glaciers have been flowing more
    quickly and since 2000 glaciers farther north have also sped up.Rignot
    and Kanagaratnam found that ice loss due to glacier flow has increased
    from 12 cubic miles of ice loss per year in 1996 to 36 cubic miles of
    ice loss per year in 2005.”It takes a long time to build and melt an
    ice sheet, but glaciers can react quickly to temperature changes,”
    Rignot said in a statement.He said the models now used to predict how
    much ice Greenland will lose, and what effect that will have on sea
    levels, may underestimate the outcome.Rising air temperatures are
    clearly a factor, the researchers told a meeting of the American
    Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes
    Science.Over the last 20 years, the air temperature in southeast
    Greenland has risen by 5.4 degrees F.Warmer air lubricates the bottoms
    of glaciers, helping them slide faster.
    “Climate warming can work in
    different ways, but generally speaking, if you warm up the ice sheet,
    the glacier will flow faster,” said Rignot.And it may melt even more
    quickly in years to come, he added.”The southern half of Greenland is
    reacting to what we think is climate warming. The northern half is
    waiting, but I don’t think it’s going to take long,” Rignot said.

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