From the BBC: ‘Iceberg the size of Luxembourg threat‘ – click image for video and watch the collision of two giant ice masses. Of course 50 years ago, such things would likely go unnoticed without satellite imagery.
They write:
A vast iceberg that broke off eastern Antarctic earlier this month could disrupt marine life in the region, scientists have warned.
They say the iceberg, which is 78km long and up to 39km wide, could make it harder for the area’s colonies of Emperor Penguins to find food.
But British and Australian scientists disagree on whether it could also cause major problems to our own weather patterns.
Well so far, nobody at the BCC is blaming the collision on Global Warming:
BBC tells the truth – shock horror! – iceberg not caused by global warming
But I don’t think Joe Romm has weighed in on it yet. There’s still time. At least it’s not a bridge in Minnesota.
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Interesting but this doesn’t prove anything about climate change, mad-made or not. Are they now suggesting we put engines on the iceberg and drive it back to the Antarctic coast?
I’m starting to realize the BBC isn’t pro or anti anything. It just will print the most sensational headline available.
“…..it’s a once in 50-100 year event”
Forgot to add the balloon deflater: But Which has occurred 120 million times since the earth’s formation 13 Billion years ago and is perfectly normal.
Since anything can be held out as proof AGW, this iceberg’s creation will be. I bet AGW promoters will claim it as a proof by 1March, 2010.
… or could make it easier for the penquins to find food … or could make no difference at all …
yawn
Did you catch this one: whaling causes global warming?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8538033.stm
Sounds more like a big chunk of ice the size of Rhode Island will make quite a dent in the ocean temps if it continues on it’s merry way northward.
But if you block ocean currents in one place, why won’t they just pick up somewhere else?
A fight between the immovable object and the irresistable force.
Shame the BBC link to this article from January 09 on Steig et al:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7843186.stm
instead of the correction to the paper from August 09:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v460/n7256/full/nature08286.html
What is the depth beneath the iceberg? If the berg disturbs the bottom sediment, wouldn’t that throw up a lot of plankton and other marine life? Certain processes in the life cycle thrive on massive disturbances.
“They say the iceberg, which is 78km long and up to 39km wide, could make it harder for the area’s colonies of Emperor Penguins to find food.”
Why, Daddy, why?
On the other hand, if it zips northward far enough and fast enough, it could serve as a lifesaving mid-oceanic rest area for exhausted polar bears.
Or not.
Nobody has blamed global warming yet, but heaven’s the penguins and the seals will starve, and it could affect the climate patterns! The nonsensical alarmism by “scientists” and the MSM is absurd to say the least. Every natural event that occurs on mother earth is now viewed as potentially threatening, highly unusual, and eventually, the fault of humans.
It’s definitely a form of hysteria that is easily fed by our increased ability to detect these events, and to disseminate the information so rapidly. Is it any wonder that some clever but devious people keep exploiting this for their own benefit?
This thing is floating, right? So why are they afraid that it will block cold water circulation – surely, if anything, it will add to cold water as the ice begins to melt.
Luxembourg?
How many people know how big that is?
I though Wales was the UK unit of area comparison?
In case no one has posted this yet, the BBC News ‘One World’ report on post Copenhagen politics in Australia, “The Rise of the Sceptics” is now on the i-player:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r9pxf
30 minutes and worth watching as it is the most balanced broadcast from the BBC on climate since Stephen Sackur’s Hard Talk interview with the retiring Greenpeace CEO.
From BBC Ceefax 11.49h 28 February.
Vast iceberg ‘a threat to oceans’
A vast iceberg which broke off the Antarctic continent this month could disrupt the world’s ocean currents and weather patterns, scientists warn.
Australian researchers say the iceberg – the size of Luxembourg- could block an area that produces a quarter of the world’s dense and very cold seawater.
They say a slowdown in the production of this water could result in colder winters in the north Atlantic.
The iceberg is currently floating south of Australia.
So now we know what is causing the freeze up in the Northern hemisphere- thank goodness for Australian researchers.
It is measure of the lack of proportion and indeed common sense to suggest that an iceberg of some 1250 sq. miles is going to have any significant effect on Antarctic regions of the Great Southern Ocean. It may be big as icebergs go but the ocean is very, very much bigger than that. As is the sea ice extent around Antarctica.
I really do not know where these people get their ideas from.
Although to be fair the British Antarctic Survey’s expert, as reported in the London Times today Sat 27 Feb, does not seem particularly excited saying any effect would be local and that such events were just par for the course in Antarctica. Although he did put in the obligatory AGW caveat: what else?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7042428.ece
Kindest Regards
Fortunately, we now have an increased ability to detect the hysteria, and to disseminate the information equally rapidly.
Just wait, this collision would be blamed as the cause of the Chilean earthquake. It was so massive it created some low level waves that are undetectable to human technology but it caused the weak part of the fault to shift.
Maybe if they get lucky it will drift to Australia and be used for irrigation.
From the BBC:
The words “killer” and “whale” spring to mind.
————-
You can’t make this sh** up!
Luxembourg is 2500km^2 The iceberg is 3042km^2 so it’s even bigger.
Andorra is 500km^2. So the iceberg = Luxembourg + Andorra.
It will be blamed, sooner or later, it will.
“tjexcite (11:50:07) :
Just wait, this collision would be blamed as the cause of the Chilean earthquake. It was so massive it created some low level waves that are undetectable to human technology but it caused the weak part of the fault to shift.”
I don’t know if english is subtle enough, in German we distinguish between “Grund” and “Anlass”, “cause” and “inducement” maybe, so the cause for the earthquake was the build-up of tension, and the inducement might have been a low-frequency impulse from the collision. This might even be true, who knows…
A quick glance at the opening photograph shown in Auntie Beeb’s coverage shows that at the landward end of the water-borne section of the Mertz galcier it was almost completely severed already. A ‘gentle’ nudge from the much bigger B9B, which has been banging around in the Antarctic Ocean for “a number of years” completed a process which was going to happen anyway. This snapping off of the Mertz glacial excrescence into the ocean has, according to one of those interviewed, been an event repeated every 50-100 years. It’s just that now, with satellite imagery, we can see the event happening.
This really is a case of “Move along, nothing to see here.”