http://www.climateoutcome.kiwi.nz/blog.html

Melting land ice.

29/8/2016

We all understand that Greenland is melting and the Arctic sea ice is also disappearing rapidly but some areas are so high and so cold that they do not normally melt. Satellites have now identified two new areas of melting that have been discovered because they are making lakes of meltwater that are visible from space and they are in new regions.

One region is in East Antarctica which had previously been thought to be too cold to melt. West Antarctica is melting and the sea ice is melting from underneath due to warmer sea water but this is a new area to be seen melting.

The second surprise was on the high plateau of Mongolia which is so cold that the region is called the third pole. This region, which in its entirety would include the Himalayas, has thousands of glaciers and the summer melt provides water for some of the biggest in the world and supplies water for about 1.2 billion people in Asia and India all the way from Pakistan to China. The danger is that the ice will melt away and in the end their will not be enough water to supply the rivers in the summer leaving millions of people and whole nations short of water.

5 Comments

Bob Bristow

11/10/2016 06:14:08 pm

I've been somewhat worried at the slow pace of action in addressing the post industrial revolution carbon cycle breakdown. Somewhat cheered and reassured to read that N.Z have now ratified the Paris 2015 charter. Bravo N.Z, let's do it.

"There was also strong agreement in New Zealand, where parliamentary votes are often highly contested. This point was noted by the country’s minister for climate change, Paula Bennett—a person of mixed indigenous Maori and European heritage—in her statement to the press: “I’d like to thank the select committee and my parliamentary colleagues for the cross-party support of New Zealand’s involvement in this significant agreement.” She emphasized the importance of the event. “New Zealand has helped make history today by ratifying the Paris agreement. … Although New Zealand contributes only a small proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions, our contribution counts.”

http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2016/10/10/melting-glaciers-help-spur-a-message-on-climate/

Bob Bingham

15/10/2016 02:35:40 pm

Hello Bob. In New Zealand we despair of any major policy actions that will deal with our emissions but have high hopes for Paula Bennett who is a very active minister. Our problem is that we already are at 85% renewables for electricity production and so can't make many savings there but our transport and cattle farming are where we have to make savings. Cattle farming of dairy and beef our one of our biggest primary industries and exports so that is a difficult one and this leaves transport. Our rail system is small and not really up for electrification and we are left with road transport. The problem with electric cars is that currently there are hardly any in mass production and they tend to be expensive but the government has announced plans for bulk buying and Auckland and Wellington councils are switching to electric so we are seeing some action. It all takes so long for anthing to happen.

Dennis Janicek link

20/10/2016 03:08:13 pm

In North America, we have a hole of no climate change that the the "#tree_ring" (#dendrochronology) scientists at Columbia University doing work in the Ozarks are calling a **“warming hole”**. I have put more information on this along with the relevant hyperlinks in my post on FaceBook:

**North American Dipole**
https://www.facebook.com/dennis.janicek/posts/1158783377526133

There is a scholarly article on this:

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres: Recent amplification of the North American winter temperature dipole, Aug 2016
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016JD025116/full

This certainly as interesting as the two regions you mention: East Antarctica and the Mongolian Plateau (Central Siberia to the Himalayas). On reason is that it occurs in the middle of the US, the center of the climate deniers. In addition, this North American Dipole is responsible for the weather in the British Isles:

Weird weather? Blame the North Atlantic, Jan 2016.
https://theconversation.com/weird-weather-blame-the-north-atlantic-53271

where the British are calling it the North Atlantic Tripole. The cold blob in the North Atlantic forms a dipole with the warm blob off of California, so we in the US are calling it the North American Dipole. Some day we might call it by the same term.

Bob Bingham

21/10/2016 10:16:28 am

Hello Dennis. Those are a good series of reports which show that the term 'climate change' is exactly that and any sort of change. either wetter or drier for a prolonged period can have disastrous consequences. The climate deniers have wasted thirty years during which we could have contained the damage but now we are up to 400 ppm of CO2 we can expect some very big changes. The only bit in doubt is the timing.
Thanks for making a contribution. Bob

Dennis Janicek link

21/10/2016 02:02:52 pm

I am afraid climate change has already happened and the question is not the bit in doubt in the timing. The question is how we can the changes, while the world determines its timing. Now the military produced a good report on climate change. See:

Implications for US National Security of Anticipated Climate Change
https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Newsroom/Reports%20and%20Pubs/Implications_for_US_National_Security_of_Anticipated_Climate_Change.pdf

which is discussed at:

*Military View on Climate Change*
It’s eroding our national security and we should prepare for it
https://theconversation.com/a-military-view-on-climate-change-its-eroding-our-national-security-and-we-should-prepare-for-it-65535

Very Respectfully
Dennsi

Bob Bingham Blog page.

Melting land ice.

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