From EurekAlert
International Greenland ice coring effort sets new drilling record in 2009
Ancient ice cores expected to help scientists assess risks of abrupt climate change in future
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  IMAGE: Atmospheric gases trapped in ancient ice recovered during the international North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling, or NEEM, project are expected to help scientists better assess the risks of abrupt climate…
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A new international research effort on the Greenland ice sheet with the University of Colorado at Boulder as the lead U.S. institution set a record for single-season deep ice-core drilling this summer, recovering more than a mile of ice core that is expected to help scientists better assess the risks of abrupt climate change in the future.
The project, known as the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling, or NEEM, is being undertaken by 14 nations and is led by the University of Copenhagen. The goal is to retrieve ice from the last interglacial episode known as the Eemian Period that ended about 120,000 years ago. The period was warmer than today, with less ice in Greenland and 15-foot higher sea levels than present — conditions similar to those Earth faces as it warms in the coming century and beyond, said CU-Boulder Professor Jim White, who is leading the U.S. research contingent.
While three previous Greenland ice cores drilled in the past 20 years covered the last ice age and the period of warming to the present, the deeper ice layers representing the warm Eemian and the period of transition to the ice age were compressed and folded, making them difficult to interpret, said White. Radar measurements taken through the ice sheet from above the NEEM site indicate the Eemian ice layers below are thicker, more intact and likely contain more accurate, specific information, he said.
“Every time we drill a new ice core, we learn a lot more about how Earth’s climate functions,” said White, “The Eemian period is the best analog we have for future warming on Earth.”
Annual ice layers formed over millennia in Greenland by compressed snow reveal information on past temperatures and precipitation levels and the contents of ancient atmospheres, said White, who directs CU-Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Ice cores exhumed during previous drilling efforts revealed abrupt temperature spikes of more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit in just 50 years in the Northern Hemisphere.
The NEEM team reached a depth of 5,767 feet in early August, where ice layers date to 38,500 years ago during a cold glacial period preceding the present interglacial, or warm period. The team hopes to hit bedrock at 8,350 feet at the end of next summer, reaching ice deposited during the warm Eemian period that lasted from roughly 130,000 to 120,000 years ago before the planet began to cool and ice up once again.
The NEEM project began in 2008 with the construction of a state-of-the-art facility, including a large dome, the drilling rig for extracting 3-inch-diameter ice cores, drilling trenches, laboratories and living quarters. The official drilling started in June of this year. The United States is leading the laboratory analysis of atmospheric gases trapped in bubbles within the NEEM ice cores, including greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane, said White.
The NEEM project is led by the University of Copenhagen’s Centre of Ice and Climate directed by Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen. The United States and Denmark are the two leading partners in the project. The U.S. effort is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs.
“Evidence from ancient ice cores tell us that when greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere, the climate warms,” said White. “And when the climate warms, ice sheets melt and sea levels rise. If we see comparable rises in sea level in the future like we have seen in the ice-core record, we can pretty much say good-bye to American coastal cities like Miami, Houston, Norfolk, New Orleans and Oakland.”
Increased warming on Earth also has a host of other potentially deleterious effects, including changes in ecosystems, wildlife extinctions, the growing spread of disease, potentially catastrophic heat waves and increases in severe weather events, according to scientists.
While ice cores pinpoint abrupt climate change events as Earth has passed in and out of glacial periods, the warming trend during the present interglacial period is caused primarily by human activities like fossil fuel burning, White said. “What makes this warming trend fundamentally different from past warming events is that this one is driven by human activity and involves human responsibility, morals and ethics.”
Other nations involved in the project include the United States, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Other CU-Boulder participants in the NEEM effort include INSTAAR postdoctoral researcher Vasilii Petrenko and Environmental Studies Program doctoral student Tyler Jones. Other U.S. institutions collaborating in the international NEEM effort include Oregon State University, Penn State, the University of California, San Diego and Dartmouth College.
For more information on the NEEM project, including images and video, visit http://www.neem.ku.dk.
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“Evidence from ancient ice cores tell us that when greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere, the climate warms,” said White.
I thought previous work indicated that warming preceded CO2 by ~ 800 yrs. Why are they bothering to drill?
I saw this earlier on Greeniewatch. As the commentator over there pointed out, the last sentence says it all:- ” What makes this warming trend fundamentally different from past warming events is that this one is driven by human activity and involves human responsibility, morals and ethics.”
Shades of Catlin methinks………
OT – sun speck spotted….will it last or fetch a number….
Back on topic, it appears they have already completed the study, before they even looked at the data. They already concluded that it the GHG are responsible….
CU-Boulder Professor Jim White: “Evidence from ancient ice cores tell us that when greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere, the climate warms,”
I guess this new drilling will show that CO2 leads temperature and not vice versa?
Opened my latest edition of Quaternary Today yesterday an noticed a couple of papers I haven’t had time to read yet. One of them indicates that we have been in a general cooling trend over the past 2000 years and is based on research of glaciers in the European Alps. Another article indicates the climate during the Holocene has been more unstable than in other interglacial periods. This is based on research in South America.
I find this comment disturbing because there is no basis in fact for it:
There has been to date nothing to indicate that there has been any period of warming in the present interglacial that is caused by humans. The most recent warming was not interesting in either its rate or extent. Temperatures have been warmer than today at several times in the past during this interglacial. To posit that any current warming is due to human influence is based on a leap of faith and is not based on any data.
Don’t want to cast any aspersions but this research is under the auspices of the University of Copenhagen. No chance that they might be gearing up for a meeting in the near future is there?
Why is this Professor White doing all this expensive research when he knows all the answers before his work is completed? I have always read that CO2 rise lagged temperature increase, not vice versa as he clearly states.
It seems to me that all of the main stream research starts with the premise of
continued global warming whether or not it is occurring or likely to happen.
In my home town last Fall, a conference was held sponsored by a well known academic institution with participation by one of the largest cities, but……no discussion was allowed on whether or not global warming was actually happening.
Coincidentally as this new thread popped up I was doing more research work on Arrhenius and Ernst Beck. Having already carried out considerable background work on co2 readings back to 1830, I am inclined to agree with Beck that co2 levels then were similar to todays.
However, this is directly contradicted by the ice cores that state that co2 levels have been constant at around 280ppm until they started gently rising in the industrial age and were at 315ppm at the start of the 20th century.
Having delved into the highly complex world of ice cores and fractionation I tend to believe the tens of thousands of historic co2 readings made by many competent scientists in the period 1830-1957 over the very new science that ice cores represent.
No doubt Ferdinand will pop up to say otherwise.
tonyb
I think they have their answer and they are looking for data to back it up.
Professor Jim White is quoted in this article as saying, “If we see comparable rises in sea level in the future like we have seen in the ice-core record, we can pretty much say good-bye to American coastal cities … .”
Such a scary scenario is something mankind has surely never faced before. Too bad no one has ever come up with an idea of putting some kind of embankment of dirt and rocks and other materials along the coastline to keep out the sea. I know it is a far-fetched idea, but I propose making such an embankment and calling it a “Dirt Is Keeping Everything-dry” or “DIKE” for short.
Then again, maybe it would just be cheaper to let all those coastal cities be flooded. (I propose calling that strategy something like “Inundate Populated Coastal Cities” or “IPCC” for short.)
I am just drilling holes to prove what we all know. – Prof. White
He is not trying to understand NOW he is just looking for a doomsday event from warming… except that he is looking for it in the ice, which is all supposed to melt away… and if it had melted in the past then the proof would not be in the ice, but the ice is millions of years old and so has not all melted, but the climate catastrophe line is that the ice all melts…. fraazaaapp…my brain just popped a chip.
“OT – sun speck spotted”
From its position, it would seem to be an old cycle 23 spot.
I see the obligatory “We’re all going to burn up and die” statement was included:
“The period was warmer than today, with less ice in Greenland and 15-foot higher sea levels than present — conditions similar to those Earth faces as it warms in the coming century and beyond, said CU-Boulder Professor Jim White, who is leading the U.S. research contingent.”
I think the above is code for, “I’d like to get this tripe published and my funding continued.”
Even a cursory look at the reconstituted global temperature record should convince most anyone that the odds heavily favor the position that we are now on the downhill side of the fifth cyclical temperature peak.
CH
What amazes me is that there is any ice to drill from 120,000 years ago since there were periods warmer than today.
Todays Goreians tell us all of the ice in Greenland will slip into the sea and drown most of us or at least cause us to move. Apparantly it didn’t happen in the past’s warmer times. What’s the justification for it today?
Happily on the coast of NH, 17 feet above sea level, and not planning to move.
Norm
So, what are the chances that they’ll hit a 120K year old coal-fired electrical generation plant? Must have been quite a few of them back then, since it was so warm.
Two points:
20 degrees in 50 years? With no man made influence? Why do we think the rate over the last century is anything special?
20 degrees in 50 years? Yet, the world survived? Including the polar bear? How did that happen?
If the Holocene warming commenced about (give or take) 11,700 years ago, how are humans responsible for all of the warming? -thought it was only last 150 years?
‘White said. “What makes this warming trend fundamentally different from past warming events is that this one is driven by human activity and involves human responsibility, morals and ethics.” ‘
Yeah Copenhagen coming up, the Ipswichian (Eemian) was a lot warmer then the present warming (holocene), an interesting ice core drilling project nevertheless.
How well do you think they are following the scientific method considering that they have already writen the conclusion to the study before doing the testing.
White said. “What makes this warming trend fundamentally different from past warming events is that this one is driven by human activity and involves human responsibility, morals and ethics.”
I’m dumbfounded – “fundamentally different”; fine, then what’s the point? Just drill a core into my head.
While ice cores pinpoint abrupt climate change events as Earth has passed in and out of glacial periods, the warming trend during the present interglacial period is caused primarily by human activities like fossil fuel burning, White said. “What makes this warming trend fundamentally different from past warming events is that this one is driven by human activity and involves human responsibility, morals and ethics.”
This study already involves doubtful “human responsibility, morals and ethics”….
Chad Woodburn (12:46:23)
…calling it a “Dirt Is Keeping Everything-dry” or “DIKE” for short….
You are a funny guy!!! I have often considered a radical idea like this myself.
Ice cores, united, will never be defeated!
Others are noting similar thoughts. It is clear that the project has a pre-determined result. Now all they have to do is massage the data they collect to conform to that determination.
…..conditions similar to those Earth faces as it warms in the coming century and beyond, said CU-Boulder Professor Jim White, who is leading the U.S. research contingent.
It is too bad the funding was not directed toward doing some actual scientific work.
“The period was warmer than today, with less ice in Greenland and 15-foot higher sea levels than present —”
How was this possible when there were few humans around to produce all the necessary greenhouse gases needed to raise temps this high?
When I read such items as, ” … the warming trend during the present interglacial period is caused primarily by human activities like fossil fuel burning, ..” it is easy to realise that scientific objectivity has been thrown out the window. Pray tell me Professor White, what then caused warming trends in previous interglacials ?. I could go on but I fear for my blood pressure.