“New research by a group of international scientists has found ice sheet loss in Antarctica is likely to be less extreme than previously thought.”
“New research by a group of international scientists has found ice sheet loss in Antarctica is likely to be less extreme than previously thought.”
“severe” – def.: a word used to increase contributions from the ‘useful idiots’
“Less Severe” = Jumbo Shrimp = Our Daily Oxymoron
Well said, MT Geoff!
“…Antarctic ice loss less severe than previous IPCC estimates…” The term “severe” is normative, meaning there is damage related to whatever is “severe”. (I am severely vexed by the stupidity of global warmists.) But changes in Antarctice and Arctic ice extent occur every year and are different every year. Even trends in the changes — toward greater maximum or minimum extents, lower maximum or minimum extents — are simply facts and are not “severe” in themselves.
If the changes in polar ice masses or ice extents were actually linked to harm in some form, then we could use the term “severe.”
On another thread, Gamecock accused me of surrendering the language, a claim I deny. Referring to changes in polar ice as “severe” could also be a form of surrendering the language, a bit like accepting the use of “extreme” weather without some kind of parameter for “extreme” or “normal variant.”
Well, the whole article is paywalled, but they probably just looked at GRACE satellite measurements of the Earth’s gravity field. ICESat measurements indicate that Antarctica is gaining mass.
Both approaches can be fooled by land movement, so it’s not really known whether Antarctica is gaining or losing ice mass. Either way, the rate is certainly small.
One other thing we know for sure is that the net effect of the various contributors to sea level rise has been no increase at all in the rate of sea level rise in response to the last ~3/4 century of rising GHGs. Plus, we know that two other anthropogenic factors, groundwater depletion and decreased reservoir impoundment, should have contributed to an acceleration in sea level rise over that time period, but no such acceleration occurred. So if the contribution to sea level rise from any one source, such as Greenland, is increasing, then we know that increase it is more than balanced by decreasing contributions to sea level rise from other sources.