Post by KNOWTHIS on Mar 14, 2006 12:37:42 GMT -5
www.truthout.org/issues_06/031306EA.shtml
Press release on ice sheet survey follows internal changes.
Satellite data used in a new survey of ice sheets have led to maps like this one showing areas in Greenland where the ice has thickened in the center while thinning along the edges.
(Photo: NASA / GSFC)
Following two recent studies on changes to Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, NASA is touting a survey that it says confirms "climate warming is changing how much water remains locked in Earth's largest storehouses of ice and snow."
In a press release for the survey, NASA directly tied the changes to warming and described the survey as "the most comprehensive" ever in both regions.
That stand can in part be explained by lead author Jay Zwally's warning.
"If the trends we're seeing continue and climate warming continues as predicted, the polar ice sheets could change dramatically," he said in the press release last Wednesday. "The Greenland ice sheet could be facing an irreversible decline by the end of the century."
But Zwally, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told MSNBC.com that the press release also follows an internal NASA change that seems to be taking place to allow scientists greater freedom.
Satellite data used in a new survey of ice sheets have led to maps like this one showing areas in Greenland where the ice has thickened in the center while thinning along the edges.
(Photo: NASA / GSFC)
Following two recent studies on changes to Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, NASA is touting a survey that it says confirms "climate warming is changing how much water remains locked in Earth's largest storehouses of ice and snow."
In a press release for the survey, NASA directly tied the changes to warming and described the survey as "the most comprehensive" ever in both regions.
That stand can in part be explained by lead author Jay Zwally's warning.
"If the trends we're seeing continue and climate warming continues as predicted, the polar ice sheets could change dramatically," he said in the press release last Wednesday. "The Greenland ice sheet could be facing an irreversible decline by the end of the century."
But Zwally, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told MSNBC.com that the press release also follows an internal NASA change that seems to be taking place to allow scientists greater freedom.