glaciers

First we lose Manhattan…

by Gareth July 16, 2009

It looks as though the Petermann Ice Tongue in northern Greenland is about to lose another major chunk of ice. This New Scientist video (accompanying text here) shows a team working on the tongue, documenting events as they happen. They expect a major break-up event within weeks: When this happens, an island of ice the [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

Climate alarmist spouts nonsense

by Gareth June 4, 2009

New Zealand agriculture is doomed and the country will go bust if it adopts measures to restrain carbon emissions, claims Dennis T Avery of the “centre for global food issues” at right wing US think tank the Hudson Institute. Avery is notorious as a vocal climate crank, and was invited to speak at last month’s [...]

21 comments Read the full article →

A coral room

by Gareth April 18, 2009

Sea level rise is usually considered to be a relatively slow process, at least in human terms. Even a one metre rise over the next century (well within the bounds of possibility) is “only” one cm a year. It seems like a small number, even if when those small numbers start accumulating they bring big [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Extreme Ice

by Bryan Walker April 15, 2009

“It’s a strange, evil, gorgeous, horrible, fantastic place,” calls out photojournalist James Balog as he abseils a short way down into a deep hole in the Greenland ice opened up by surface meltwater rushing down perhaps to bedrock hundreds of metres somewhere below. It’s understandable Balog should have mixed feelings.  The view is stunning. But [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

This is hardcore

by Gareth March 19, 2009

The last time that atmospheric CO2 levels were as high as today, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) regularly retreated or collapsed, causing sea level rises of up to 7 metres according to the first analysis of the first ANDRILL core, published in Nature today. The ANDRILL (Antarctic Geological Drilling) programme, a joint effort by [...]

10 comments Read the full article →

Down down

by Gareth March 12, 2009

New Scientist has posted this remarkable footage of a camera being lowered down a moulin in Greenland, and reveals that Konrad Steffen’s team, moulin explorers extraordinaire, are inventing a new extreme sport: Later this year, the team will be boldly going where no researchers have gone before. Under the guidance of expert climbers, they plan [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Flying high

by Gareth March 9, 2009

NZ glacier experts are flying round the Alps at the moment shooting glaciers (with cameras and GPS units), conducting their annual ice mass balance audit. TV One sent a reporter to see what Trevor Chinn and Jim Salinger were up to, and on Sunday broadcast a nice little item about the process. Highlights: Jim Salinger [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Reelin’ in the year

by Gareth February 25, 2009

The International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-8 formally draws to a close today, and when today arrives in Geneva there will be a press conference to mark the release of a summary report, The State of Polar Research [PDF], which covers some of the preliminary findings. [BBC report here]. In the run up to this event, [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Five feet high and rising!

by Gareth February 12, 2009

Yesterday, while dissembling, I had what I might loosely describe as a “bugger” moment. Yale’s Enviroment360 web site (which I plugged on its introduction last June) currently features an interview with Robert Bindschadler, a NASA ice expert who is working on the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in West Antarctica. The “bugger” moment? e360: And [...]

22 comments Read the full article →

Monckton & the case of the missing Curry

by Gareth January 28, 2009

Monckton’s eruptive bellow was still echoing round the halls of Tannochbrae Manor when old Scrotum, the wrinkled retainer, shuffled quietly into the laird’s library. “You called, Sir?”, he queried in his soft Highland brogues. The last few weeks had been hectic at Tannochbrae — the master had been unusually busy with his scientific interests — [...]

9 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →