Is Global Warming Real?
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- Jan Wolter on unknown date:
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I need to undertake a serious update of this essay. The estimate that
it would take 1000 years to melt the Greenland ice sheet, for example,
is probably misleading. New studies show that as ice resting on dry
land begins to melt, a layer of water forms between the bottom of the
ice and the land. This effectively greases the hillsides, causing the
ice to slide down off the land and into the ocean much faster than
anyone previously guessed. Once the ice is floating at sea instead of
resting on the land, it immediately contributes to raising the sea
level, even though it hasn't melted yet. The thousand year estimate
assumed that the ice would just sit there slowly melting and slowly
raising the sea level. But if the ice breaks up and goes to sea without
melting, the sea level rise could be much faster.
- Anonymous on unknown date:
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The likely slowdown in the Gulf Stream is only one the most widely reported predicted effect
of global warming. There are many, many currents that influence weather, e.g. the Benguela
and Agulhas currents of the south-eastern tip of Africa. Little appears to be known about
how they might shift as a result of global warming, and what this might due to the climate
there.
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