"Calving" Ice Sheet Worries Top Climate Scientist
by Larry Powell - BRANDON, MB. MAR. 19-'09 A prominent climate scientist says an unforeseen phenomenon is quickly eroding the Greenland Ice Sheet. David Barber ( PinP photo - l.) is the Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science at the University of Manitoba and leader of the largest polar project in the world, studying climate change in the Arctic. Prof. Barber says many scientists have believed the sheet is simply melting as global warming takes its toll. What is actually happening is, torrents of melt-water on the surface are finding their way down, through fissures, to the bottom. Photo courtesy of UNEP There, they act as "lubricants," breaking the ice apart and causing it, as he puts it to "calve" many small icebergs into the ocean at a rapid rate. Barber believes the icebergs sliding into the sea in this way, could raise sea levels by as much as 6 meters. That's enough, he warns, to damage several large coastal cities! He further predict