Giant Ice Shelf Breaks off Canada's Ellesmere Island
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 01. 1.07
National Geographic
As the Economist might say, another pesky ice shelf obstructing commerce and energy exploration has broken up in Canada's north. the 66 square km (25 square miles) Ayles Shelf was one of six major shelfs (floating ice connected to land) left in the Arctic. Scientist Warwick Vincent said ""This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years. We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead," The shelfs are normally held in place by pack ice, but now ocean movement gets at them and they can be broken apart. Geographer Luke Copeland said "Arctic ice shelves are "not as sexy as polar bears, but these are very unique environments, and we just lost one of them." ::National Geographic and ::Corporate Knights
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It's Canadians using the ice shelf as a land claim. It's alot like bottom nets with the areas they already control.
I don't think the Americans will agree it's global warming if the Canadians are using it for land claims in the area.
So what really happened was the shelf said "no way, I don't want to be part of Canada! How dare you lay claim on me?" so it ran away?
I know humor is good way to relieve stress, but it's time to face reality.
"There are tipping points in the system," said Bruno Tremblay, an assistant professor of atmospheric and ocean sciences at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
"When we reach them, things accelerate in a nonlinear way."
According to Tremblay, as the ice thins due to climate warming, a particularly warm summer or a pulse of warm water from a modified circulation pattern could cross a tipping point threshold.
Tremblay, about artic ice, "For us to say it could happen by 2020 or 2030 is not unrealistic," he said. "We are already seeing very strong signs in the rate of sea ice change."
Glaciers surge when ice shelfs break up (affecting sea level) http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0913larsen.html
It is very possible that we will see a logarithmic rise in sea level with our life time.
Ever see a house of cards fall?
Either It's time to wake up, or it may already be to late. Regardless, I'll be off the grid and growing my own food within 6 months.
Will Portland, Oregon become a flowing waterfall? Will the ocean come in so far that it will flow through the cascades, down the highway and create a beautiful waterfall into the Columbia River.
why not call the ice shelf a loss of land. If you can stand on it for thousnads of years, it should be considered permenant land. if the ice shelves break off and melt it will cause the rise in sea levels. when the sea takes over islands and beaches, are you going to call it a loss of land?
Please note that it is not the melting of (or the breaking off of) the ice shelves that change the sea level, it is the surge of the glaciers from land into the ocean that may effect it.
Try this if you do not belive me...
take a glass full of water then put in a few ice cubes - not so much that they touch the bottom but enough to raise thelevel of the water in the glass. Then mark the level of the water in the glass. next allow the ice to melt and see where the level is at... If you did it correctly (no touching) you will not see a rise.... same thing is true with the shelves, since they are floating they dont raise the sea level.