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Below are resources for discovering the leading science on global warming, its affect on the polar regions, and the resulting impact on sea levels. We’ve cited actual peer-reviewed studies, but these often appear in subscription-only journals like Science or Nature – so we’ve also offered a selection of articles from reliable sources that make the peer-reviewed science available to the general public.
The Earth's climate is warming and changing in ways that are not natural and are best explained by increases in greenhouse gases and aerosols in the atmosphere generated by human activity during the 20th century. 1
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“Human Impacts on Climate.” American Geophysical Union. Internet (2007).
From the AGU website: “The Earth's climate is now clearly out of balance and is warming. Many components of the climate system—including the temperatures of the atmosphere, land and ocean, the extent of sea ice and mountain glaciers, the sea level, the distribution of precipitation, and the length of seasons—are now changing at rates and in patterns that are not natural and are best explained by the increased atmospheric abundances of greenhouse gases and aerosols generated by human activity during the 20th century. Global average surface temperatures increased on average by about 0.6°C over the period 1956–2006. As of 2006, eleven of the previous twelve years were warmer than any others since 1850.”
American Meteorological Society Statement on Climate Change Adopted by AMS Council on 1 February 2007. |
NOAA and NASA analyses of global surface temperature shows that January 2000 to December 2009 was the warmest decade and 2009 was tied for the second warmest year on record. 2, 3
NASA satellites show polar ice sheets are shrinking and losing mass at increasing rates. 4 Scientists have observed firsthand Greenland's outlet glaciers shedding ice into the oceans twice as fast as a decade ago. 5
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Velicogna, I. (2009) Increasing rates of ice mass loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets revealed by GRACE. Geophysical Research Letters 36: L19503, doi:10.1029/2009/GL040222.
GRACE stands for Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment. GRACE is a joint partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States and Deutsches Zentrum Für Luft und Raumfahrt (DLR) in Germany.
van den Broeke, M., J. Bamber, J. Ettema, E. Rignot, E. Schrama, W. J. van de Berg, E. van Meijgaard, I. Velicogna, B. Wouters (2009) Partitioning recent Greenland mass loss, Science, 326, 984-986.
Read the ScienceDaily article entitled: Greenland Ice Cap Melting Faster Than Ever
Khan et al. Spread of ice mass loss into northwest Greenland observed by GRACE and GPS. Geophysical Research Letters, 2010; 37 (6): L06501 DOI: 10.1029/2010GL042460
Read the ScienceDaily article about this article entitled: Greenland Ice Sheet Losing Mass on Northwest Coast (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100323161819.htm)
Read the ScienceDaily article entitled: Greenland Ice Sheet Losing Mass on Northwest Coast
Read the ScienceDaily article entitled: NASA Satellites Detect Unexpected Ice Loss in East Antarctica
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Rignot, E. and Kanagaratnam, P. 2006: Changes in the velocity structure of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Science, 311.
Stearns, L. A., and G. S. Hamilton (2007), Rapid volume loss from two East Greenland outlet glaciers quantified using repeat stereo satellite imagery, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L05503, doi:10.1029/2006GL028982.
More Information on ice loss and submarine melting
Scientists are just now beginning to understand the effects of warm ocean currents reaching the coast of Greenland and melting the glacier from below. The scientists who wrote the studies below think that this submarine melting is destabilizing outlet glaciers, causing them to flow into the ocean at a faster rate.
Read the ScienceDaily article about this scientific study entitled: Team Finds Subtropical Waters Flushing Through Greenland Fjord
Fiammetta Straneo, Gordon S. Hamilton, David A. Sutherland, Leigh A. Stearns, Fraser Davidson, Mike O. Hammill, Garry B. Stenson & Aqqalu Rosing-Asvid. Nature Geoscience, 2010; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo764
E. Rignot et al. 14 FEBRUARY 2010 Nature Geoscience. Rapid submarine melting of the calving faces of West Greenland glaciers.
Hamish D. Pritchard, et al. ‘Extensive dynamic thinning on the margins of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.’ Nature, September 2009.
Read the ScienceDaily article entitled: Lasers From Space Show Thinning Of Greenland And Antarctic Ice Sheets
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The accelerated rate at which the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing ice to the oceans poses the risk of inundation of the US coastline by as much as a meter by 2100, with sea level continuing to rise thereafter. 6
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Melting snow and ice: a call for action. Koç N, Njåstad B, Armstrong R, Corell RW, Jensen DD, Leslie KR, Rivera A, Tandong Y & Winther J-G (eds) 2009. Centre for Ice, Climate and Ecosystems, Norwegian Polar Institute. See section on Sea Level Rise, page 60.
AMAP, 2009. Summary – The Greenland Ice Sheet in a Changing Climate: Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA) 2009. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo. Page 11.
The Copenhagen Diagnosis. Internet. (2009). From the Copenhagen Diagnosis website: The Copenhagen Diagnosis was written by 26 climate scientists, all active researchers, from 8 countries. The group of authors is independent and unaffiliated with any organization. They speak only for themselves, not for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or anyone else. A core of lead authors established the broader group, drawing in experts across the range of topics covered in the report. About half are IPCC authors, with first hand experience in preparing such an assessment and an understanding of the scientific standards it should meet. The report is firmly based on the more than 200 cited peer-reviewed papers.
Additional scientific studies and articles on sea level rise and polar ice sheets
Science Daily: Melting Greenland Ice Sheets May Threaten Northeast United States, Canada
Based on this scientific study: Hu, A., G. A. Meehl, W. Han, and J. Yin (2009), Transient response of the MOC and climate to potential melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet in the 21st century, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L10707, doi:10.1029/2009GL037998.
Science Daily: Greenland Ice Sheet Melting Faster Than Expected; Larger Contributor To Sea-Level Rise Than Thought
Abdalati, W. and Steffen, K.: 2001, ‘Greenland ice sheet melt extent: 1979–1999’, J. Geophys. Res. 106(D24), 33,983–33,989.
Stefan Rahmstorf, et al.
A Semi-Empirical Approach to Projecting Future Sea-Level Rise
Science 315, 368 (2007)
I. ALLISON et al. Ice sheet mass balance and sea level
Antarctic Science (2009), 21 : 413-426 Cambridge University Press
W. T. Pfeffer, et al.
Kinematic Constraints on Glacier Contributions to 21st-Century Sea-Level Rise
Science 321, 1340 (2008)
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