For you guys (and gals) unwilling to accept the possibility that greenhouse gasses and things of the sort may be contributing to global worming, this will read as good news (in a bad sort of way) to you.

No one knows what's really causing it (if it's really happening- and it does "seem" to be), but I thought you might find this interesting reading:

Source: YaHoo! News Article

Text:

SAN FRANCISCO—Global warming may not be the only thing melting Greenland. Scientists have found at least one natural magma hotspot under the Arctic island that could be pitching in.

In recent years, Greenland’s ice has been melting more and flowing faster into the sea—a record amount of ice melted from the frozen mass this summer, according to recently released data—and Earth’s rising temperatures are suspected to be the main culprit.

But clues to a new natural contribution to the melt arose when scientists discovered a thin spot in the Earth’s crust under the northeast corner of the Greenland Ice Sheet where heat from Earth’s insides could seep through, scientists will report here this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

“The behavior of the great ice sheets is an important barometer of global climate change,” said lead scientist Ralph von Frese of Ohio State University. “However, to effectively separate and quantify human impacts on climate change, we must understand the natural impacts too.”

The corner of Greenland where the hotspot was found had no known ice streams, the rivers of ice that run through the main ice sheet and out to sea, until one was discovered in 1991. What exactly caused the stream to form was uncertain.

“Ice streams have to have some reason for being there,” von Frese said, “and it’s pretty surprising to suddenly see one in the middle of the ice sheet.”

The newly discovered hotspot, an area where Earth’s crust is thinner, allowing hot magma from Earth's mantle to come closer to the surface, is just below the ice sheet and could have caused it to form, von Frese and his team suggest.

“Where the crust is thicker, things are cooler, and where it’s thinner, things are warmer,” von Frese explained. “And under a big place like Greenland or Antarctica, natural variations in the crust will makes some parts of the ice sheet warmer than others.”

What caused the hotspot to suddenly form is another mystery.

“It could be that there’s a volcano down there,” he said, “but we think it’s probably just the way the heat is being distributed by the rock topography at the base of the ice.”

 

Makes sense. Magma is pretty hot stuff.

I've read that there are studies that have been done that have found that the polar ice in the arctic and the antartic ice shelf have almost built themselves back up just this year alone, and it's not even winter, yet. Way to go Algore! Global Warming is awesome!

 

Yeah, what a cash cow...

Artic cap is melting must be global warming, Rising sea levels must be global warming, Antartic cap is growing, must be global warming.
Harsh winters in the mid west must be global warming, Mild winters in the West? Let me guess it must be global warming.
A few years ago you people where saying the next ice age was well on it's way.

Gore really got ahold of a idea he can run with till the sky falls, It inables everything to be responsible for global warming.

So we are up a 10th of 1 degree since the industrial revolution started.
What's next chicken little?

 

If oil is the Republican's vice then Global Warming is the Democrat's vice. A cash cow indeed. What a complete farce. It's all an assumption that someone's getting rich over.

 

Amen brother

 

It also seems that the weather model they used to predict global warming may be wrong.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316566,00.html

 

Imagine that. Fuggers.

 

Oh for the love of Pete!!

It "may" have done this. It "could" have done that. It "might" be, it "could" be, it is!! Why don't one of these Einstein-less idiots go up there with a thermometer and ram it in the ground and sit there and wait for the temp? Geesh, and the prices of eggs in China just did what? Nothing.

Is someone's government(other than ours) paying these lame brains to sit around and just dream crap up?

"OMG, Greenland might turn green after all!! OMG!!

I got one question: If the oceans were to rise, if the ice shelves were to melt completely, if the average temperature around the world rose, by whatever amount, just who in the hell is going to do anything about it? I love nature like the next person but I dont like my taxes being raised to support a think tank that constantly tanks itself by revealing its stupidity in the news all the time.

"If you don't like what is happening in Greenland then do something about it." Otherwise ****!!

 

I loved this past spring in the Dallas Morning News they had a huge front page article about the return of the dust bowl. We were in the middle of a huge drought. They said we were going to see it continue for years like happened before, and that global warming was all the cause of it.

Not living in Dallas anymore I missed the article that must have come when they were being flooded this summer with torrential rains and they had to have blamed the flooding on global warming.

 

Did we use the same thermometers?
Where they calibrated by the same person using the same equipment to calibrate them?

.1º? Do we really have a thermometer consistently that accurate to with in .1º after that long? No, I didn't think so either.

 

Magma....is it liquid hot?????

 

Oh yeah-Man, it rained ALL SUMMER LONG. I was not upset a bit...

I'm talking, May, June, July, and half of August- nothing but rain. Summer didn't really come until August 15th, and stayed until the day before Thanksgiving- with occasional revisits (80 degrees) as recently as last week.

Some of our lakes that were 6, 7, 10, and 13 feet below normal levels, were flowing into spillways.

Man has little affect on nature. I'm not saying we have no affect, and I think we should look into it, and find out what our impact is, and reduce it- if possible. Nevertheless, compared to what Mother Nature can do when she gets the mind to, our best effort becomes trivial.

Case in point, a forest fire swept across Yellowstone national Park many years ago. Hundreds if not thousands of men spent spent months and millions battling that blaze. After 7 months, it was barely contained. Winter fell on YSNP, and with less than 1 inch of snow, the fire was out in a matter of 24 - 48 hours.

Men battled for months, and couldn't contain it. Mother Nature fixed it in a fraction of the time, and with minimal effort. (Imagine how fast a blizzard could have quenched it).

There are good arguments on both sides- no matter what, I think we should err on the side of caution...

Just because fragments (grenades, mines, artillery) kill more soldiers than bullets (direct fire), doesn't mean you don't wear your vest & helmet.

Error on the side of caution.

 

If you were in Chicago last week you wouldnt believe there is any type of global warming going on. It didnt get above 28 degrees! And its going to be in the 20's for the low here in Texas this weekend. Global warming is retarded!

 

I agree. However it's important to carefully consider the corse of action.

I don't think that it's necessary for us to "save the planet" with our dollars. If we all just employ a little common sense and do some simple things that will improve our quality of life, the result will be beneficial to the planet as well. Some of us already, and have been for some time now, do some simple things. Some common sense things. Some of us don't want to be forced by our government, or any government, to do short sighted, costly things in the name of curing the planets fever.

So, is it global warming that caused havoc in the mid protion of our country with all that ice? Was it global warming that caused me to be stuck in gridlock for hours with a bunch of people with their heads up they're a$$, to then have to come home and shovel natures fluffy, frozen goodness off my driveway?

You know what we call the snow storm we had here today in New England?

Typical.

Normal.

Magma? I can see that.

 

Geology in the news. Hmph.

This theory has actually been around for quite some time... not sure who first tossed it on the table but, this isn't a new theory (ie: we're not necessarily heating up from depleting o3 but rather from within due to cyclic (unpredictable) mantle movement and other general tectonic stuff that would bore you to tears).