|
The following material is drawn from an article in the Boston Globe with comments from NewsBusters
source links:
Boston Globe (Original article)
News Busters (Quoted text below)
An international team of scientists, drilling deep into the ice layers of Greenland, has found
DNA from ancient spiders and trees, evidence that suggests the frozen
shield covering the immense island survived the earth's last period of
global warming.
The findings, published today in the journal Science, indicate Greenland's ice may be less susceptible to the massive meltdown predicted by computer models of climate change, the article's main author said in an interview.
"If our data is correct, and I believe it is, then this means the southern Greenland ice cap is more stable than previously thought,"
said Eske Willerslev, research leader and professor of evolutionary
biology at the University of Copenhagen. "This may have implications
for how the ice sheets respond to global warming. They may withstand rising temperatures."
How can that be? After all, soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore – who has had
absolutely no training in the relevant areas of science despite the
media belief that he is indeed the foremost expert on the subject –
says Greenland is going to thaw in the near future with devastating
repercussions. Surely he can’t be wrong:
A painstaking analysis of surviving genetic fragments locked in the ice of southern Greenland shows that somewhere between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago, the world's largest island had a climate much like that of Northern New England, the researchers said. Butterflies fluttered over lush meadows interspersed with stands of pine, spruce, and alder.
Greenland really was green, before Ice Age glaciers enshrouded vast swaths of the Northern Hemisphere.
Wait. Isn’t the debate over and the science settled on this issue? It appears not:
More controversially -- and as an example of
how research in one realm of science can unexpectedly affect
assumptions in another -- the discovery of microscopic bits of
organic matter retrieved from ice 1.2 miles beneath the surface
indicates that the ice fields of southern Greenland may be more
resilient to rising global temperatures than has been forecast. The DNA
could have been preserved only if the ice layers remained largely intact.
A scenario often raised by global warming specialists is that
Greenland's ice trove will turn liquid in the rising temperatures of
coming decades, with hundreds of trillions of gallons of water spilling
into the Atlantic. This could cause ocean levels worldwide to rise
anywhere from 3 to 20 feet, according to computer projections -- bad
news for seaport cities like Boston.
But the discovery of organic matter in ice dating from
half-a-million years ago offers evidence that the Greenland ice shield
remained frozen even during the earth's last "interglacial period" --
some 120,000 years ago -- when average temperatures were 9 degrees
Fahrenheit warmer than they are now. That's slightly higher than the
average temperatures foreseen by most scientists for the end of this
century, although some environmentalists warn it might get even hotter.
Incredible. And, as many scientists have been claiming regardless of
such falling on deaf press ears, this indicates just how nonsensical
and worthless climate models proclaiming imminent planetary doom are:
Researchers from the Danish-led team said
the unanticipated findings appear to fly in the face of prevailing
scientific views about the likely fate of Greenland's thickly-layered
ice, although Willerslev stressed that the findings do not
contradict the basic premise that the earth's temperature is rising to
worrisome levels, with gases emitted by industry, cars, and other human
activity playing a big role.
"But it suggests a problem with the [computer] models" that predict melting ice from Greenland could drown cities and destroy civilizations, according to Willerslev.
|