Glacier Melting not from Climate Change?
Nicolas Loris /
New evidence on the melting Pine Island Glacier (PIG), one of the melting Antarctic glaciers that some scientists feel may pose a threat to sea level increases, suggests that it is not climate change that is causing the glacier to melt. From the UK’s Register:
“Many scientists have theorised that the PIG’s accelerating flow is due to global warming. However, recent research – including surveys beneath the bottom of the floating, projecting ice sheet by Blighty’s Autosub robot probe – indicate that this may not be the case.
“The discovery of the ridge has raised new questions about whether the current loss of ice from Pine Island Glacier is caused by recent climate change or is a continuation of a longer-term process that began when the glacier disconnected from the ridge,” says Dr Adrian Jenkins of the British Antarctic Survey.”
The climate experts even suggest that melting ice has beneficial impacts on the freshness of the ocean. While the new findings do not suggest melting glaciers pose no threat to sea level increases, it does show how little we really know about the causes behind melting glaciers.