Apr 10 2007

Glaciers in Iceland Melting “Faster than Ever”

See also: Alaska rattled by melting ice
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18324601.900.html

Melting ice cap triggering earthquakes http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/08/climatechange

Iceland Review
04/10/2007

Oddur Sigurdsson, an Icelandic geologist who has undertaken studies of Iceland’s glaciers, said the nation’s glaciers are melting at record speed and may disappear completely after 200 years due to global warming.

“It is obvious judging by the data that we have that it is first and foremost caused by the heat in summer, which has increased considerably, especially in the last ten years,” Sigurdsson told RÚV.

Sigurdsson said he believed global warming is the gravest problem the human race has ever faced.

French geologist Jean-Marc Bouvier, who has undertaken studies of the Greenland ice cap, explained to RÚV that once the Arctic glaciers have disappeared the ocean surface will be nine meters higher than today and flood an area which is currently inhabited by one billion people.

Bouvier described this situation as a “meteorological time bomb” and said “the wick has already been lit.”

Náttúruvaktin