This Can't Be Good - Lake Superior Drops 1 Foot in 1 Year; also Glacier Melting article

There are a few skeptic bloggers (global warming) on blog.ca who say things like, let's stop all the fuss and panic over global warming.

I don't know about you, but this excerpt from an article from the Toronto Star just doesn't seem like a good thing, especially if it a sign of things to come.

I say, Go ahead and panic a bit, and then go shopping to buy a compact fluorescent bulb or a programmable thermostat or a green-friendly cleaning product.

Biggest Great Lake seen heading for record lows

Jonathan Spicer, Reuters
Published: Wednesday, August 15, 2007

TORONTO (Reuters) - Warmer, drier weather coupled with alterations to the waterways of North America's Great Lakes will likely drive Lake Superior down to record low water levels sometime this year, experts say.

Lake Superior, the world's largest body of fresh water by surface area, has declined precipitously over the last decade but plunged down another 30 cm (1 foot) in the last year alone amid an "extreme drought," putting pressure on both commercial shipping and fish habitats.

"That's a dramatic fall," Cynthia Sellinger, a hydrologist at the U.S. Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, told Reuters. "Lake Superior has been in and out of an extreme drought since 2003, and now the drought has got more extreme on the lake's western basin."


For more of the article, here is the address: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=280c9963-8017-4439-9f84-79c88cd9418e&k=37510


Someone gave me a copy of June's National Geographic. The cover story is:

The Big Thaw: Ice on the Run, Seas on the Rise

On the first page of the story on page 56, it says:

The Big Thaw, It's no surprise that a warming climate is melting the world's glaciers and polar ice. But no one expected to happen this fast.

An explanation is also on the page to accompany the picture on the facing page. The caption says:

When melt water surging across Greenland's ice drains to the bedrock, the ice sheet slides faster to the sea -- one of the many feedback processes speeding global ice loss.

The part that says: "one of the many feedback processes speeding global ice loss" sounds a bit scary, doesn't it. It is only ONE of the MANY feedback processes. Yikes.

I don't mean to depress you by putting in articles that underline how serious the problem is. It is meant as a motivator to do something about it (besides blogging, I mean).

When I get a bit discouraged, I like to send emails to Harper or John Baird, the Environment Minister - questions, comments, anything I think of. I don't know why, but I find it very satisfying.

In the National Geographic article, there are before and after shots of glaciers - you know, one years ago when there was a sizable glacier, and more recently when it is visibly much, much smaller.

There is also on page 64-65, a diagram spreading out over two pages of the different stages in how ice sheets, like those over Greenland and West Antarctica, are shrinking:

1. Surface melting begs more melting.
2. Melt water fractures ice and lubricates the bottom, speeding flow.
3. Thinner ice has a weaker grip on the land and can't hold the accelerating glacier.
4. Warmer oceans erode floating ice at its base.

Climate Connections For more coverage of Earth's changing climate from National Geographic and NPR, visit ngm.com/climateconnections and npr.org/climateconnections. Then join a discussion in our forum at ngm.com/0706.

I don't know whether I should find another scary, panicky article for tomorrow (for the skeptics) or a good news story.

I have all kinds of newspaper clippings on my cubicle wall at work (and yes, people do think it is weird to have made global warming wallpaper, but putting up so many articles on a whole wall).

All I have to do is remember to bring one home.