You can’t make this stuff up. It’s worse than we thought. Related: Why the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets are Not Collapsing
Climate change: melting ice will trigger wave of natural disasters
Scientists at a London conference next week will warn of earthquakes, avalanches and volcanic eruptions as the atmosphere heats up and geology is altered. Even Britain could face being struck by tsunamis
Robin McKie The Observer, Sunday 6 September 2009
Scientists are to outline dramatic evidence that global warming threatens the planet in a new and unexpected way – by triggering earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches and volcanic eruptions.
Reports by international groups of researchers – to be presented at a London conference next week – will show that climate change, caused by rising outputs of carbon dioxide from vehicles, factories and power stations, will not only affect the atmosphere and the sea but will alter the geology of the Earth.
Melting glaciers will set off avalanches, floods and mud flows in the Alps and other mountain ranges; torrential rainfall in the UK is likely to cause widespread erosion; while disappearing Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets threaten to let loose underwater landslides, triggering tsunamis that could even strike the seas around Britain.
At the same time the disappearance of ice caps will change the pressures acting on the Earth’s crust and set off volcanic eruptions across the globe. Life on Earth faces a warm future – and a fiery one.
“Not only are the oceans and atmosphere conspiring against us, bringing baking temperatures, more powerful storms and floods, but the crust beneath our feet seems likely to join in too,” said Professor Bill McGuire, director of the Benfield Hazard Research Centre, at University College London (UCL).
“Maybe the Earth is trying to tell us something,” added McGuire, who is one of the organisers of UCL’s Climate Forcing of Geological Hazards conference, which will open on 15 September. Some of the key evidence to be presented at the conference will come from studies of past volcanic activity. These indicate that when ice sheets disappear the number of eruptions increases, said Professor David Pyle, of Oxford University’s earth sciences department.
“The last ice age came to an end between 12,000 to 15,000 years ago and the ice sheets that once covered central Europe shrank dramatically,” added Pyle. “The impact on the continent’s geology can by measured by the jump in volcanic activity that occurred at this time.”
Read the rest here at the Guardian
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Can AGW cause the Earth to spin out of control and fly into the Sun? As soon as one of the AGW’ers think of it, it will!
Whoa! Skepticism is a good starting position for improbable proposals. I also was initially incredulous. But I want to hear their arguments.
Its the science that should lead. The scientists should be followers. Given volcanic activity at the end of the last ice age…someone should be looking for connections. Myself…I’ll wait before passing judgement..until the future articles are published that discuss earlier ice ages.
EXCLUSIONS: Items that we already regularly include in our discussions of above ground climate change.
Mountain glacier meltwaters have always increased any downstream flooding that occurred during the melt season.
Current warming releasing permafrost methane and underwater methane hydrates.
UK floods leading to erosion. Since wet areas will be getting wetter, and dry areas drier.
INCLUSIONS: What’s new.
Avalanches: “Rock walls resting against glaciers will become unstable as the ice disappears and so set off avalanches.”
Mud flows, from increasing meltwaters.
Methane hydrates: “As the ice around Greenland and Antarctica melted, sediments would pour off land masses and cliffs would crumble, triggering undersea landslides that would break open more hydrate reserves on the sea beds.”
Tsunamis: “…disappearing Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets threaten to let loose underwater landslides triggering tsunamis…” So these aren’t fault plane tsunamis.
Volcanos: “…the disappearance of ice caps will change the pressures acting on the Earth’s crust and set off volcanic eruptions across the globe.”
Earthquakes…would be “triggered” (???) Where are the geologists when we need them?
Sinkholes: Increasing AGW CO2 will increase the acidity (carbonic acid) of rainwater. So there will be more dissolution of limestone, leading to more cave-making…….Actually, this last is my own invention. AGW alarmism isn’t a gift. Its something acquired through regular practice.
Lake Bonneville lost much of it’s water in a prehistoric catastrophic flood when it rose enough to start draining through Red Rock Pass which was dirt not rock. It rapidly cut down to bedrock and drained, I think, into the Snake River in a megaflood. I wonder if the fault scarp in Cottonwood Canyon dates from the lake draining.
Where’s doctor Svalgaard when we need him…
so – when the inevitable ice age returns when this interglacial ends, where does the Guardian get published? What happens to their local readers?
It’s sad, since that will be a true problem to cope with requiring nations to go elseware. I find the location of the Guardian on this planet and this fact somehow comforting in an ironic karmic sort of way.
E.M.Smith (12:08:55) “As did one A. Einstein… kicked out of school…
Nice reality spread, E.M.; thank you.
I believe also that the scientists should be the leaders but who is going to believe these scientists when they make statements like “tsunamis in britain”…. how ridiculous. These “scholarly” women and men must think that they are addressing uneducated halfwits if they believe we believe all these years they have been predicting will be life changing..give us some believable data!!!!…..how much longer will they blame the weather events and slight changes in the climate to catastrophes in the near future when in reality it will occur in hundreds of years???
Gerry:
>Residuals are differences from a least-squares fit. These anomalies are usually just
>differences from a baseline value or from a linear trend.
Not just least squares fit. “Residuals” apply to any model that predicts data values. They are the difference between the predicted value and the actual value.
OK – I’ve calmed down, thanks for the sanity check people. I left the UK 10 years ago and sorry to say there’s no chance of me going back there. But that’s irrelevant.
I do remember my state education learning about evil imperialists, evil white men, evil americans, basic marxist theory, the wonders of the cuban medical system…….you see where i’m going i guess…..then i grew up and read some stuff myself, met some real people…….
I believe Trotsky proposed the capture & use of the education system to further political goals….and check the CVs of the Labour government.
“Roger Knights (13:04:49) :
“Since the NY Post never was a great newspaper, …”
It was founded by Alexander Hamilton, so it probably was OK back in the day.”
Yes, but did Aaron Burr contribute to the Op-Ed page?
Of the 3 NY-papers that can be bought elsewhere in the US it is the most entertaining (especially all the news from the Hamptons). I do not touch the Times, and one does not get the NY Press.
“While analysing seismic activity of the Earth it is not difficult to notice the connection with solar activity. The considered line has essential negative correlation with the line of solar activity. The maximal earthquakes are observed during the minimum of solar activity or during the periods close to a minimum, and, on the contrary, in maxima of solar activity seismicity of the Earth accepts the least values.”
http://www.planetary.brown.edu/m42/m42_67.pdf
Ice melting will change the pressure on the earth. OMG a pound of ice is a pound of water!
Perhaps they needs to spend more time doing something constructive.
mr.artday (21:38:18),
I had considered that, but my feeble memory was telling me that the large quake scar predated the megaflood. We need to consult a teenager who attended summer science this year.
Now, I am wondering if the most recent volcanic activity along the southern boundary of Lake Bonneville could be linked to the megaflood? Since the Great Basin is considered a divergent boundary, rapid changes in surface weight might more readily create earthquakes and vulcanism.
Graeme Rodaughan (19:59:04) :
“If any offense was given – I apologise. The name “Myron Interest” is meant to imply “My Interest” I.e. a Self Interested Politician…”
I didn’t take it that way. There just aren’t that many Myron’s around so I decided to chime in. Besides, growing up when one episode of The Brady Bunch had a white mouse named Myron and then Happy Days where the Fonz baby sat a brat kid named Myron I developed a thick skin over the years. Maybe that thick skin will keep me warm in the coming years.
“from studies of past volcanic activity. These indicate that when ice sheets disappear the number of eruptions increases, said Professor David Pyle, of Oxford University’s earth sciences department.”
Hmm, and all that happened without the help of fossil fuel burning humans. Explain that!
Myron Mesecke (19:00:24) :
No drama.
Cheers G
Oh alright. They’ve got a taker.
One question, though. Just exactly how many ppm CO2 does Congress (on IPCC recommendations) want circulating in the atmosphere in order to save us from “earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches and volcanic eruptions?” What is the magic number? Name it.
Is it 222?
“carbon dioxide from vehicles, factories and power stations”
Is that all they need? Will that do it for them? Because I also have a refrigerator, house, and kids.
At times like this I prefer to read my horoscope…
First, sit still. Then, breathe deeply. Next, try to think about something other than what you’re currently thinking about. Better still, stop thinking entirely. Switch off your brain. Leave other people to race around like headless chickens, creating a noise and nonsense whilst achieving next to nothing. When they have all run out of steam, you will see a clear way forward.
Phew! Sanity at last…
Okay, you smart asses. It’s almost a month since these scientists talked about it and in the last three days there’ve been major floods (Philippines), earthquakes (Indonesia and Fiji), and tsunamis (America Samoa). Suddenly, this theory isn’t looking so stupid now, is it?