Scientists surprised that formerly shrinking glacier is growing again
The Jakobshavn glacier, located in Greenland, had been shrinking about 130 feet a year since 2012. But to the surprise of scientists, the last two years has seen the glacier growing at about the same rate it was shrinking.
I'm waiting for the inevitable explanation for the glacier's growth being global warming - which was no doubt the reason it was shrinking.
“That was kind of a surprise. We kind of got used to a runaway system,” Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland ice and climate scientist Jason Box told AP reporters Monday. “The good news is that it’s a reminder that it’s not necessarily going that fast. But it is going.”
Jakobshavn is “arguably the most important Greenland glacier because it discharges the most ice in the northern hemisphere. For all of Greenland, it is king,” said Box, who was not part of the study. The lead authors of the Nature Geoscience study claimed the natural cyclical cooling of North Atlantic waters was likely the catalyst for the reversal. They also say the phenomena is probably temporary.
This is ultimately bad news on the long-term because it suggests ocean temperature is a bigger player in glacier retreats than previously thought, NASA climate scientist Josh Willis told reporters. Throughout the next several years water will be warming from climate change, he noted, adding that more than 90 percent of the heat greenhouse gasses trap folds into the ocean.
The study comes on the heels of research in 2017 showing that some of the largest non-polar glaciers in the world are either stable or growing due to a “vortex” of cold air over a 1,200-mile section of the greater Asia. Climate models have been unable to reproduce the phenomenon, an August 2017 study published in Nature revealed. The system is keeping Karakoram mountain range glaciers from melting.
Every day it seems we get further proof of our true ignorance of the science of climate. Models of what the future climate might look like 100 years from now only reveal how much we don't know about the subject.
And yet, some scientists are confidently - and hysterically - predicting disaster. If this were a purely scientific inquiry, it would be fascinating. It also wouldn't cost us trillions of dollars. That is the major problem with the whole issue of global warming. We are being asked by nincompoops like Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to return to the Middle Ages technologically based on models that have yet to prove themselves to be anywhere near accurate.
Yes, the subject should continue to be studied. But if we have to do something now to save the planet, perhaps we can start by agreeing that no action should be taken on climate change until we find out a little more about it.