I thought icebergs would be more likely during warming. Your article states that they've been seen further North before. One swallow doesn't make a summer.
I also thought your glaciers were retreating. This from Wilkopaedia:
These glaciers in New Zealand have continued to retreat rapidly in recent years. Notice the larger terminal lakes, the retreat of the white ice (ice free of moraine cover), and the higher moraine walls due to ice thinning. Photo.
In New Zealand the mountain glaciers have been in general retreat since 1890, with an acceleration of this retreat since 1920. Most of the glaciers have thinned measurably and have reduced in size, and the snow accumulation zones have risen in elevation as the 20th century progressed. During the period 197175, Ivory Glacier receded 30m (98ft) at the glacial terminus, and about 26% of the surface area of the glacier was lost over the same period. Since 1980 numerous small glacial lakes were created behind the new terminal moraines of several of these glaciers. Glaciers such as Classen, Godley and Douglas now all have new glacial lakes below their terminal locations due to the glacial retreat over the past 20 years. Satellite imagery indicates that these lakes are continuing to expand.
Several glaciers, notably the much visited Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers in New Zealand, have periodically advanced, especially during the 1990s, but the scale of these advances is small when compared to 20th-century retreat. These large, rapidly flowing glaciers situated on steep slopes have been very reactive to small mass-balance changes. A few years of conditions favorable to glacier advance, such as increased snowfall and cooler temperatures, are rapidly echoed in a corresponding advance, followed by equally rapid retreat when those favorable conditions end.(USGS3) The glaciers that have been advancing in a few locations in New Zealand have been doing so due to a temporary weather change associated with El Nio, which has brought more precipitation and cloudier, cooler summers since 2002.(Goodenough)
With respect to CO2, oceans, biological pump, and balance, it's not simple. That much I do understand.
After 100 years, I'd say the levels in the ocean and atmosphere have reached a steady state with increases as we increase production further. If production leveled off now, I dare say the levels in the atmosphere and ocean would level off in a year or three too.
No measurements, assessments of masses involved, rate constants. Just a gut feeling? Just google some of those terms.
With respect to plants dealing with the excess Co2, you and I have gone over that many times. Plants are largely limited by nitrates and phosphates, not C02.
Ashley |
