Thursday, December 13, 2007

But..but..the science is settled!

Magma May Be Melting Greenland Ice
In recent years, Greenland’s ice has been melting more and flowing faster into the sea—a record amount of ice melted from the frozen mass this summer, according to recently released data—and Earth’s rising temperatures are suspected to be the main culprit.

But clues to a new natural contribution to the melt arose when scientists discovered a thin spot in the Earth’s crust under the northeast corner of the Greenland Ice Sheet where heat from Earth’s insides could seep through, scientists will report here this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

This is why science by consensus is always suspect. Just like making political decisions and pronouncements based upon poll data should always be suspect.

“The behavior of the great ice sheets is an important barometer of global climate change,” said lead scientist Ralph von Frese of Ohio State University. “However, to effectively separate and quantify human impacts on climate change, we must understand the natural impacts too.”

The corner of Greenland where the hotspot was found had no known ice streams, the rivers of ice that run through the main ice sheet and out to sea, until one was discovered in 1991. What exactly caused the stream to form was uncertain.

“Ice streams have to have some reason for being there,” von Frese said, “and it’s pretty surprising to suddenly see one in the middle of the ice sheet.”

The newly discovered hotspot, an area where Earth’s crust is thinner, allowing hot magma from Earth's mantle to come closer to the surface, is just below the ice sheet and could have caused it to form, von Frese and his team suggest.

“Where the crust is thicker, things are cooler, and where it’s thinner, things are warmer,” von Frese explained. “And under a big place like Greenland or Antarctica, natural variations in the crust will makes some parts of the ice sheet warmer than others.”


While not completely discounting the anthropomorphic causes of Global Warming/Climate Change, von Frese is saying that there are many other sources of heat and variability in temperature that need to be examined.

Just two rules to remember:
1- If someone tells you something is impossible, he is probably wrong.
2- If someone tells you something is settled, he is probably wrong.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” - William Shakespeare

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