Ice Core Records for the Last 800,000 Years

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/04/climatologist-mosley-thompson-warming-antarctica

There have been some extremely deep ice cores taken in Antarctica at Dome C that go back 800,000 or 900,000 years.  I understand that the Dome C record shows very clearly that we've got more CO2 in our atmosphere now than at any time in 800,000 years.

Mosley-Thompson: Oh yeah. Very clearly. If you look back over the eight glacial/interglacial cycles, you essentially see that CO2 never rises above 300 parts per million and we're at about 389 now. Methane never rises above about 800 parts per billion, and I think we're at about 1,700 parts per billion. So we're clearly outside the range of natural variability. I personally think that graph simply showing the natural fluctuations in those two important greenhouse gases, over almost a million years of Earth history — and then you see the two dots [today] that are so much higher than anything that we see in that near-million history — tells us very clearly that we have a serious problem.

Read the entire article at the link above.  And then sit dowm and weep - not necessarily in Grand Central Station.  Once you've expressed your anger and sorrow, write the Honorable Stephen Harper and demand that he revise Canada's climate change  policies .   Check out Transition Towns and work on an energy descent plan for your local community.  Push your pension plan to de-invest in companies that commit ecocide - like BP.  Revamp your RRSP holdings - click on the Corporate, Environmental and Social Responsibility link on my blogroll to vet a company.  Educate other people.  Make social connections.  Eat local food.  Devote your time, money , and energy to any cause that makes the world better - like http://www.350.org/. 

Greenland's Ice Losses

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-100

A new international study finds that ice losses from Greenland's ice sheet, which have been increasing over the past decade in its southern region, are now spreading rapidly up its northwest coast.

The researchers, including Isabella Velicogna, jointly of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California, Irvine, compared data from the JPL-built and managed Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission with continuous GPS measurements made from long-term sites on bedrock on the ice sheet's edges. The Grace and GPS data gave the researchers monthly averages of crustal uplift caused by ice mass loss. They found that the acceleration in ice loss began moving up the northwest coast of Greenland in late 2005. The authors speculate the dramatic ice mass losses on Greenland's northwest coast are caused by some of the big glaciers in the region sliding downhill faster and dumping more ice into the sea.

"These changes on the Greenland ice sheet are happening fast, and we are definitely losing more mass than we had anticipated," says Velicogna. "We also are seeing this trend in Antarctica, a sign that warming temperatures really are having an effect on ice in Earth's cold regions."

How much evidence does one need to pass meaningful legislation?  How long will we live in denial?  Perhaps we should direct these questions to the Right Honorable Stephen Harper.

Vancouver, BC Under Water

Ok - not quite. 

http://www.straight.com/article-298192/vancouver/get-ready-rising-sea

Bing Thom Architects has investigated how global warming might transform Vancouver’s shoreline if no dikes are built. ...Keenan, who chairs the Vancouver planning commission, pointed out that sea levels are based on average tide, but climate change will be accompanied by increased storm surges. “You have to add on high tide and the impact of a storm to look at the development area that will be impacted,” she said....So what is the likelihood of dramatically higher sea levels? According to Hadi Dowlatabadi, a professor at UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, a key consideration is what happens to the glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica. In a phone interview with the Straight, Dowlatabadi explained that as the oceans absorb more heat, they will expand. “Our current thoughts are that the amount of heat that is being absorbed by the oceans has already committed us to a sea-level rise of 40 or 50 centimetres this century,” he said.....Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey reported last month that ice shelves are retreating from the southern section of Antarctica because of climate change. This area contains five major ice shelves, including the Wilkins Shelf, which has lost more than 4,000 square kilometres since 1998. The Larsen B ice shelf, which was in the same area, collapsed in 2002.

If we cared about our grandchildren,  we would all be working to reverse climate change. And working to mitigate its effects and  figure out how to adapt.  And working to create a truly sustainable way of life.....

Hole in Ozone Layer Has Protected Ice Thus Far

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/01/ozone-antarctica

The hole in the Earth's ozone layer has shielded Antarctica from the worst effects of global warming until now, according to the most comprehensive review to date of the state of the Antarctic climate.   But scientists warned that as the hole closes up in the next few decades, temperatures on the continent could rise by around 3C on average, with melting ice contributing to a global sea-level increases of up to 1.4m.

The original report is at http://www.scar.org/  .

Various governments have been studying the issue of sea level rise  - including the province of British Columbia.  http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/climate/pdfs/sea-level-changes-08.pdf
The low to high estimates of sea level rise for Vancouver (on page 8) are .04 metres to 1.03 metres   Of course, these estimates by the provincial government are based upon IPCC predictions - so they may be far too low as they were set before the above SCAR reprot was released. 

  How many major cities in the world are located in a low lying coastal area?  How much money is sea level rise going to cost?  Before you answer, consider the destruction wrought by storm surges in Cockermouth and the Cowichwan valley..... Perhaps we should do something about greenhouse gas emissions while we still can....