Melting ice sheet stuns and alarms scientists

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
7/27/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Greenland sheet melts the fastest this past month than in its entire history

In a development that has stunned and alarmed scientists the world over, the Greenland ice sheet melted at a faster rate this month than at any other time in recorded history. Captured by cameras mounted on satellites, rapid melting was noted along the entire ice sheet. The photos have deepened fears about the future consequences of climate change.

In a statement posted on NASA's Web site, scientists admitted that they at first thought there had to have been a mistake.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In a statement posted on NASA's Web site, scientists admitted that they at first thought there had to have been a mistake.

"This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: was this real or was it due to a data error?" Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said in the release.

Dorothy Hall, who studies the surface temperature of Greenland at NASA's space flight center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said that Greenland experienced unusually high temperatures in mid-July, with widespread melting over the surface of the ice sheet.

Confirming the melt as recorded by the satellites were climatologists Thomas Mote, at the University of Georgia, and Marco Tedesco, of the City University of New York.

"I think it's fair to say that this is unprecedented," Jay Zwally, a glaciologist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center told reporters.

The set of images released by NASA this week show a rapid thaw between 8 July and 12 July. Within that four-day period, measurements from three satellites showed a swift expansion of the area of melting ice, from about 40 percent of the ice sheet surface to 97 percent.

The sudden melt has been attributed to a heat dome, or a burst of unusually warm air which hovered over Greenland from July 8 to 16. Mote noted that Greenland had returned to more typical summer conditions by July 21 or 22 July.

The unprecedented event should be viewed along with other compelling evidence of climate change.

"What we are seeing at the highest elevations may be a sort of sign of what is going on across the ice sheet," he said. "At lower elevations on the ice sheet, we are seeing earlier melting, melting later in the season, and more frequent melting over the last 30 years and that is consistent of what you would expect with a warming climate."

About half of Greenland's surface ice sheet melts during a typical summer, but Zwally said he and other scientists had been recording an acceleration of that melting process over the last few decades.

He said he had never seen such a rapid melt over his three decades of nearly yearly trips to the Greenland ice sheet. Zwally was alarmed to see indications in the images of melting even around the area of Summit Station, which is about two miles above sea level.

It was the second remarkable event in Greenland in a matter of days, after an iceberg the size of Manhattan broke off from the Petermann glacier.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Greenland, ice sheet melt, climate change

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1 - 4 of 4 Comments

Susan E Webb
10 months ago
...another Amen from this Catholic household, John Luke! With statements like, "The unprecedented event should be viewed along with other compelling evidence of climate change." the author of this article has obvious bias in favor of the "Global Warming" agenda/religion. Like many articles Catholic Online publishes, it lends to the mistaken assumption by the average Catholic On-line subscriber that positions, political opinions and ideologies put forth in these questionably written articles which are contrary to Catholic Teachings (and in some cases, common sense) and promotes propaganda has the "approval" of the Conservative Catholic voices in the media and therefore the Church as a whole. "Global Warming" was based on what is called in the science world as "circular reasoning"..."A" must be true because we presume "B" is true because "C" hasn't been disproved because "A" is true. (it may take a minute to process that, lol) Global Warming and the agenda behind it has been exposed so they changed the language, now it is "Climate Change" because, of course, no one can deny that the climate is changing...(no duh, it changes from winter to spring to summer to fall...and has 20, 50, 100, etc. year cycles of drought, harsh winters, flooding, etc... Make no mistake, the use of the catch phrase, "Climate Change" is not referring to this, but to the same crackpot agenda of the Global Warming religion...same bad science, new name. Our "responsibilities to our environment" within the context of Church Teachings as Catholics is to be good stewards of our resources...what my husband and I like to call "Common Sense Conservationism" and is what we teach our children ...clearly making the distinction between Common Sense Conservatism and the "rabid, environmental activism" which is rooted in Relativism and worshiping nature; it places the environment and all animals on a higher plain of importance than people and it supports and promotes that most persons(everyone except the self-proclaimed environmentalists protectors) are the equivalent of a pestulance that must be irradicated from the face of the earth...enter in Zero Population propaganda, forced contraception, and the Margaret Sangers of the world. (Margaret Sanger, the founder of planned parenthood and its abortion mills which is fulfilling her legacy of racism and ueugenics; targeting minorities, esp. blacks and "the poor" around the world.) Catholic Online has a responsibility to at least put a disclaimer on articles such as this, if they insist on giving them "airtime" on their website.
Venerable Fulton Sheen, pray for us!!
Pat
10 months ago
This story fails to Mention an update from NASA that Greenland Ice Cores reveal that this massive melting occurred 150 years ago and deeper core samples show they occur every 150 years.
JoAnn
10 months ago
john luke: Amen! God bless.
john luke
10 months ago
It's part of the general game plan of our enemies sowing the so-called GLOBAL WARMING GORE PROPAGANDA.
Remember, the Global warming-Climate Change is the biggest single program designed for an all-out population control and establish the One World Government.
Beware of false prophets my dear co-Catholics.
Prayer a lot and discern more

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