More on Climate

Since I read Lovelock's book (see previous post) there have been two reports supporting the argument that this is all happening much faster. One was widely reported last week which was the collapse of the Wilkins Shelf Ice Bridge in Antarctica. The second was the publication of a report by the American Meteorological Society about falling water levels in rivers all over the world.

Here is a link to a BBC report about the ice shelf. The article describes the surprising speed at which this ice shelf and others before it are shrinking. The last two paragraphs of the article are particularly important:

"Separate research shows that when ice shelves are removed, the glaciers and landed ice behind them start to move towards the ocean more rapidly. It is this ice which can raise sea levels, but by how much is a matter of ongoing scientific debate.

Such acceleration effects were not included by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) when it made its latest projections on likely future sea level rise. Its 2007 assessment said ice dynamics were poorly understood." (My emphasis) This supports Lovelock's argument that policymakers are complacent about the speed of climate change.