Greenland and Antarctica ‘big gorillas’ in climate change
Icebergs in Greenland. (Photo: Nick Russill)
Uncertainty about sea level rise from climate change looms largest at Earth’s poles, according to many scientists.
Earth & Sky spoke with polar scientist Richard Alley of Penn State University. He’s a lead author on a report released in late 2007 by the IPCC, or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Estimates vary, but Alley spoke of a recent rise in sea level of 2.5 centimeters – that’s about an inch – per decade.
Richard Alley: Now when we look to the future, Greenland and Antarctica are the big gorillas. If Greenland were to melt, it’s about 23 feet vertically for sea level.
Lately, Alley said, massive ice sheets have shrunk a little bit and have defied the predictions of the best scientists. Earth & Sky asked him what he thought is the most important thing to tell the public about global warming today.
Richard Alley: We have high scientific confidence that human activities are changing the composition of the atmosphere, that that is changing the climate, and that will affect most of the living things on the planet. And that as the changes become larger, if they keep doing what we’re doing that the changes become negative for most living things.
Your thoughts on global warming? Tell us in the comment section below. Our thanks to NASA, in celebration of the International Polar Year.
one inch!!! I guess that is a lot of water if you took one inch of water off the oceans. But still how do they accurately measure this stuff? What about tides and weather. Those are variables and they can effect a good acuurate measurement. Even temperature of the water and air will effect that measurement. Even the distance of the sun and moon effects it. The air pressure. Even for satalites that is to hard to acurately measure. I mean I could believe a foot but an inch I really doubt
cool