Greenland – A chunk of ice four times the size of Manhattan broke away from Greenland and may drift toward shipping lanes in the North Atlantic and off the Canadian coast, researchers said.
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The 100-square mile ice island, with enough stored water to keep the Hudson River flowing for more than two years, split off from the Petermann Glacier last week, according to Andreas Muenchow, an associate professor of ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware.
The ice is the largest to detach from an Arctic glacier since 1962 and follows the six warmest months on record. Glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than predicted, accelerating their march to the sea and adding to the rising ocean levels that threaten coastal communities worldwide, according to many scientific studies.
“So far, 2010 has been the hottest year on record, and scientists agree Arctic ice is a canary in a coal mine that provides clear warnings on climate,” said U.S. Representative Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts and chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, on the panel’s website.
The ice island has been drifting in the sea lane between Canada and Greenland since Aug. 5, Muenchow said on the university’s website. It may block the channel, break into smaller pieces or hit land, he added.
Real Islands
The ice will encounter real islands in the Nares Strait and may drift along the coast of Canada’s Baffin Island toward Labrador, eventually reaching the Atlantic in about two years, Muenchow said.
The Petermann Glacier covers about 500 square miles. Researchers at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University are monitoring a rift in the ice, according to NASA. Over a two-week period last summer, the glacier lost 11 square miles, NASA said.
Natural disasters over the past few months have also pushed up the price of wheat and caused fires in Russia. Wheat has jumped 50 percent in Chicago since the start of July amid concern that a smaller harvest in Russia will reduce availability of the grain in world markets.
Moscow has been choking on smoke from forest fires and burning peat bogs since last week. The worst heat wave on record has devastated villages, forests and crops, causing the government to ban grain exports and threatening to slow Russia’s recovery after the economy shrank 7.9 percent last year.
Oy gevalt move out of Seagate now!!!
Any of those who doubted Al Gore’s dire forecast of the impending doom from global warming need to read this carefully and do tshuvah in this month of elul. Global warming is the greatest threat we face today and we need to engage in a massive program of tikun olam to save mankind from the tragic consequences of the melting of polar ice caps. This is only the beginning and hashem clearly chose this time of year to provide a siman of what is about to happen.
CHICAGO???
Reply to #2
You speak emes…our rav is going to focus on global warming and how we as jews should respond to this challenge in his dvar torah for the second day of Rosh Hoshanah
Our rov is going to focus on spiritual matters not liberal make you feel good garbage, how about some tikun of our own selves! What on earth is tikun olam anyway? A conservative mitzva??
hashem already promised there wont be anther flood killining everything. moshiach is coming anyday and then what the world will flood? no this is part of some plan which we know nothing of and cant even beging to know but it wont kill us. tyhats for sure
Reply to #2 : THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER MABUL. Don’t be so quick to believe every word spoken by scientists, on the flip side, spend more of your energy focusing on the words of the creator of all things, who promised never to bring another mabul, so yes, do teshuva, but no, don’t expect another mabul. (Even though we might deserve one nebach)
Wow! Open space, fresh air and no noisy neighbors! I’d love to move there. How much is the rent?? Does Bloomy have dibs?
I suggest you all to watch the movie 2012….looks like they weren’t that off.
To #2 … you are a bona fide nutball…cooock…left wing looney
Global warming? “Since 1962” how did it break then when the world was soooo cold? Man made global warming is the biggest myth and apikorses
They should nuke this iceberg into dust.
Please its all headlines look what happened to the oil spill in the gulf its almost all gone they where scaring us to death have AMUNA and BITUCHAN hasham will fix everything
#2 ,
My rov usually reserves the high holy days for a sermon from the torah not the newspaper. I’m sorry to hear that you are modern orthodox and G-d plays no part in your world except to send to Fedex messages via glaciers, to tell us that we have to clean up the place because he can’t. If you want some inspiration for the coming high holy days, I suggest you convert to Judaism.
If that is enough to help out Israels water shortage, and it’s not needed somewhere else, then why not get it sent across to Israel?
Problem solved! worry later, if more ice islands melt.
To #2 :
You write, “hashem clearly chose this time of year to provide a siman . . .” – strange, I always thought that ice melts when it gets warm, like in the middle and toward the end of the summer. Also I wonder where Al Gore was in 1962. Why didn’t he raise a holler then? Actually I’ll answer that question. At that time the environmentalists (especially Paul Ehrlich) were qvetching about an “ice age” that was coming on. Melting icebergs didn’t fit in so they kept quite quiet.
Reply to #18
Not bad. Here is another idea. Have the Israelis tow it to the Kineret.
Can anyone explain how a melting iceberg that is already in the ocean cause more volume in the ocean. If ice cubes melt in a cup is there more water? If anything less volume due to air pockets in ice. I don’t get it…
#21 great observation
God promised not to create another mabul. He didn’t say that he would prevent us from creating one ourselves.
I find it interesting how nasty people get over this issue.
Are there unscrupulous scientists on both sides making things up? Yes.
Are there hones scientists on both sides providing real, scientific evidence? Yes.
Those who claim with 100% certainty that global warming is man-made are nutcases. However, those who claim with 100% certainty that it is NOT man-made are equally as nuts. Neither side has enough evidence to prove one way or the other.
Therefore, those who argue passionately (and often nastily) on this topic only show that their ignorance is a whole lot stronger than their evidence.
It makes you wonder what the REAL agenda is for both sides.
1. All this “Global Warming” business is designed to do is remove capital from massive petroleum companies and place it squarely in the pockets of brand new massive “Green Energy” companies instead. Redistribution of wealth.
2. Does anyone know where the energy to power electric cars comes from? Coal burning power plants.
3. Anyone know how many acres of pristine Canadian forest is destroyed to get a single toxic battery for an electric car? Anyone care to list the ingredients?
4. The fact is that the greater the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, the more prolific the plant growth, any botanist will confirm this. Plants produce more O2, making healthier, taller people and animals.
5. Why have the scientists conveniently ignored a global cooling trend for the last decade?
Please, don’t be a tool of the Left or the Right.
To poster #14 :
Global warming is here, whether you want to believe it or not. You can question whether it’s man-made or part of a natural climate cycle, debate that all you want. Nevertheless, it is serious and not something to ignore.
To poster #15 :
Yes, of course, let’s by all means nuke the iceberg. Nothing to worry about, after all there’s no danger from nuclear fallout, at least not in your twisted mind.
To poster #16 :
You actually believe the PR the government is dishing out? So tell me, where did all those millions of gallons of oil go? Disappear into thin air? Poof?
When we start believing the pr crap that governments and corporations throw our way we really have to wonder how it’s possible to be so gullible.
To poster #17 :
You should be spending a lot of your time asking mechila from a lot of yidden. You just said that modern orthodox jews aren’t jews. With all the davening and shukling you plan to do in shul I wonder if Hashem can forgive you since I doubt you’ll have even a moment of regret and repentence. You can’t be much of a yid yourself to think and say such things about others.
To # 31,
Thank G-D we have you. What a brilliant guy.
But you know what, you are so wrong !!
There wont be more water, mass will remain exactly the same since there are the same amount of atoms present in both phases. Its only that Ice is less dense than liquid water, and that’s why it floats in water.
The mass always stays the same, water just expands when it freezes. so it is less dense thats why ice floats
So! I guess, we will still have to find the next Nobel Prize Winner
Cause It aint Gonna Be You
To poster #32
I went back and reread poster #17 ’s comments and couldn’t find anything resembling a joke. The fact that you read something funny in his words says that maybe you laugh at inappropriate comments, not that they are funny. The fact that you attacked me for not liking his comment that Modern Orthodox Jews are Jewish makes one wonder about you as well. One also wonders whether you understand what the words ‘hypocrite’ & ‘loshon hora’ mean since you use them to denigrate others but don’t see the irony of using them altogether in this manner.
For those who are using the analogy of a cup filled with ice maintaining the volume when the ice melts—-here’s the flaw in your logic:
The oceans in the polar regions are not filled with large cups enclosing the glaciers. The glaciers are ABOVE sea level. Therefore, when the 3-dimensional ice melts, it has to go somewhere. If you have enough ice melting, it would have an effect on coastal communities. Compound that with the fact that much of the ice at the polar regions is on land.
Think about it—if you are in an aquarium and the large tank would break, wouldn’t the water seek its own level?
A better analogy would be someone adding more and more ice to a glass; eventually it would overflow.
To No. 34:
You refer to “Pondering” (#32) as a mental defective. If that is true then Archimedes was also a mental defective. The statement of #31 , “Water takes up more volume than ice”, is simply silly. When I put an ice cube into my drink it floats; Archimedes and Pondering understood the implications.
The last twenty years have had eighteen of the warmest years ever recorded. 2010 is on track to continue the trend.
Russia and sixteen other countries are experiencing the hottest temperatures ever recorded. The heatwave in Pakistan includes the hottest temperatures on record for the whole of Asia. Last year it was fifteen countries.
For two years running we’ve had something never seen before – clear water without ice from Europe to the North Pole.
The Antarctic ice sheet is also thinning and shrinking at an unprecedented rate no matter how much Rush Limbaugh lies and says it’s not.
Glaciers all over the world are smaller than they’ve ever been and getting smaller from the Himalayas to Glacier National Park.
This is just more of the same.
reply to #43 :
want to know? Read comment #33 . I was just responding to the (factually inaccurate) attack on me in that comment, but thanks for your positive comment about your hope for me. It was very nice of you, and a very nice sentiment especially for Chodesh Elul.
It is Sinas Chinom like yours, telling a total stranger that you hope he doesn’t have any children, that is bringing Moshiach here so quickly. And I hope you remember what you wrote when you are klapping Al Chait on Yom Kippur. Please know that I am very specifically NOT moichel you for it.