A new study has found that the glaciers of Greenland are not behaving as predicted.
The uncertainty of science: A new study has found that the glaciers of Greenland are not behaving as predicted.
In northwestern Greenland, for example, where most of the glaciers move relatively quickly and flow directly into the sea rather than ending on land, average speed jumped by 8% between 2000 and 2005 and rose another 18% from 2005 to 2010. Nevertheless, the researchers report online today in Science, the glaciers in this region showed no uniform pattern of acceleration. About one-third flowed at the same rate throughout the decade, one-fourth slowed during the interval, and about 15% slowed during the first half of the decade and then surged from 2005 to 2010.
Similarly, many of the individual glaciers in southeastern Greenland don’t follow the region’s overall trend. Although the average speeds for these glaciers increased by 28% over the decade, substantial accelerations by some glaciers were balanced by considerable slowing by others. About 43% of the glaciers in the region sped up between 2000 and 2005, but around 25% slowed down by more than 15% from 2005 to 2010.
In other words, if there is any warming, it hasn’t manifested itself in a predictable manner in the glaciers of Greenland. In fact, the data above suggests instead that if there has been any warming, it either has been far less than predicted, or has had relatively little influence on the Greenland ice sheet.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
The uncertainty of science: A new study has found that the glaciers of Greenland are not behaving as predicted.
In northwestern Greenland, for example, where most of the glaciers move relatively quickly and flow directly into the sea rather than ending on land, average speed jumped by 8% between 2000 and 2005 and rose another 18% from 2005 to 2010. Nevertheless, the researchers report online today in Science, the glaciers in this region showed no uniform pattern of acceleration. About one-third flowed at the same rate throughout the decade, one-fourth slowed during the interval, and about 15% slowed during the first half of the decade and then surged from 2005 to 2010.
Similarly, many of the individual glaciers in southeastern Greenland don’t follow the region’s overall trend. Although the average speeds for these glaciers increased by 28% over the decade, substantial accelerations by some glaciers were balanced by considerable slowing by others. About 43% of the glaciers in the region sped up between 2000 and 2005, but around 25% slowed down by more than 15% from 2005 to 2010.
In other words, if there is any warming, it hasn’t manifested itself in a predictable manner in the glaciers of Greenland. In fact, the data above suggests instead that if there has been any warming, it either has been far less than predicted, or has had relatively little influence on the Greenland ice sheet.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
This was an important study that shows the following:
1. The ice loss during the last 10 years was nearly 30%. The study showed that there was variation between the individual glaciers…some more than 30%, some less. Still a loss of 30%.
The lead author, Twila Moon (graduate student), has said:
“The old term “glacial pace” may require some rethinking. It turns out that the ice in many glaciers on the Greenland ice sheet moves more than 1km per year and, in some glaciers, more than 10 km per year. Most of these fast glaciers connect the interior of the ice sheet to the ocean and act like big conveyor belts of ice.”
They are all shrinking, some faster than others
Sounds like warming to me.
2. The conclusion of the report was that this amount of loss does not equate to the “worst case scenario” predicted from some climate models. Climate models predicted worst case, as well as less worse cases. The worst case had predicted that it could be as much as 6 feet. She believes that is unlikely, but it still could be as much as 4 to 8 inches.
The researchers said:
“That may not sound like much, but when other causes of sea rise around the globe are added, the total could still be about 3 feet by the end of the century.” Greenland glaciers are only a part of the driving force to sea level rise.
“’Glacial pace’ is not slow anymore,” said study author Twila Moon.
3. The authors cautioned that more study was needed.
Ian Howat, one of the authors, said:
“There’s the caveat that this 10-year time series is too short to really understand long-term behavior,” Howat said. “So there still may be future events — tipping points — that could cause large increases in glacier speed to continue. Or perhaps some of the big glaciers in the north of Greenland that haven’t yet exhibited any changes may begin to speed up, which would greatly increase the rate of sea level rise.”
Uncertainty of science indeed. But still worrisome.
You don’t have to explain to us whether you think AGW is truly happening. As you stated, it “sounds like warming” to you. Seriously though, a true believer already knows that the science is settled due to the concensus of academics and pronouncements from AlGore and Hollywood celebrities. It is tough to give up a belief system or ideology. Your belief that man-made global warming is caused by CO2 forces you to parse out from this latest data on glacier melting what you want to see. News flash: the emperor has no clothes on. What you attest to as science, is not so as it does not follow the scientific method.
The predictions have all been wrong and so have the computer models but not to worry people have faith that the science will support their political world view eventually. But we can’t wait for science to catch up to consciousness, we must act now even if our actions wont change anything.
Just quoting the study cited. Go read it for yourself.
If you are going to post the study as a valid point of view, don’t be selective in what the study says.
Again, nearly 30% reduction in ice over 10 years.
It may cast doubt on the worst case scenarios (but even the authors think 10 years may not be enough to do that definitively), but it has not cast doubt on other bad scenarios.
Quite honestly, if the point is to prove that either GW does not exist, or that the glaciers are not melting, you’ve got the wrong study. It proves the opposite.
But don’t take my word for it…to look it up.