re: the south pole is melting.. and freezing as we
100 million barrels of oil a day sounds like a mere bagatelle in the overall scheme of things ..BJ.
RESERVOIRS OF CARBON AND CO2 FLUXES INTO THE ATMOSPHERE Human industrial and agricultural activity adds about 6 gigatons (Gt) of carbon per year to the total CO2 flux into the global at-mosphere of 169 Gt of carbon per year. This is similar to the amplitude of the annual fluctuatins of the total mass of atmospheric CO2 (5.4 megatons of carbon per year). The table shows current reservoirs of carbon at hte Earth´s surface, and annual fluxes of CO2 (expressed as carbon equivalents in gigatons = 1015 tons) into the atmosphere.
Current reservoirs of carbon (gigatons) Sediments 60,000,000 Marine dissolved organics 1,000
Marine dissolved inorganics 38,000
Fossil fuels (exploitable) 7,200
Atmosphere 727
Soil 1,300
Terrestrial biomass 834
Marine biomass 42
Natural Annual Fluxes into Atmosphere
Ocean 106
Land 63
TOTAL 169
Man-made Annual Fluxes into Atmosphere
Fossil fuels and land use 6
All pretty piddling in the scheme of things hey wot?
But as dear old Joh would say , bless his heart......"dont you worry about that" .........your polar ice will be around for a long long time.
"The Growing Glaciers
Satellite radar altimeter measurements carried out by NASA suggest that between 1978 and 1985, the polar ice caps were growing at a rate corresponding to a decrease of the ocean level of 0.20 to 0.45 mm per year, mainly as a result of the accumulation of ice in Greenland.73, 74 During these eight years, the thickness of the Greenland ice cap increased by about 1.5 meters, which corresponds to a rate of 0.23 cm per year. The precision of these measurements was questioned on the basis of secret military data.75 However, the original results of Zwally et al, were confirmed by later measurements during the Geosat Exact Repeat Mission, and by results of laser measurements.
The measurements in central Greenland carried out on the ground by the Expedition Glaciolo-gique Internationale au Groenland (ECIG) and by other groups in southern Greenland, show an average increase of ice of 3 cm to 9 cm per year.74 Since 1968, the fronts of six out of nine small glaciers studied in western Greenland have started to advance.66 FGIG measurements have shown that between 1959 and 1968, the surface of the central Greenland ice cap increa-sed in height by 1 meter. Around 1950, most of the ice cap rim in southern and western Green-land was retreating and decreasing in thickness. But since about 1985, numerous of the formerly retreating parts have started to advance. At the beginning of the 1990s, the area of progression widened from the highlands of Greenland, to the lowlands.78 Recent studies suggest, as one. paper states, that "There is no compelling indication of increasingly negative balance conditions which might, a priori, he expected from anthropogenically induced global warming."
Of the 18 glaciers studied in the Arctic, 15 (77 percent) now have a positive mass balance slo-pe coefficient. Some of the glaciers show a trend toward a less negative mass balance, and some others show a significant positive trend. Most of the Scandinavian glaciers reached their historical maximum in the 18th century, during the Little Ice Age. After intensive melting in the first part of the 20th century, 17 Scandinavian glaciers dramatically decreased the rate of re-treat and entered a new phase of increasing their mass. Similar changes were found later in Scandinavia and Spitsbergen.
In Antarctica, ice is now growing up so quickly that by about 2050, it will have lowered the sea level by 30 cm. Measurements of ice accumulation indicate that in a large part of Antarctica, the increase of the ice cap now corresponds to 5 to 25 percent of global atmospheric precipitation, and to a lowering of ocean level of 1.0 mm to 1.2 mm per year.84 Such behavior of the cryosphere does not support claims that the climate is warming, and that the catastrophic visions of a man-made sea level rise will be fulfilled".
