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Antarctic ice 7 times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed

Iqbal Latif - 3/31/2008

A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk and an ice shelf about the size of Connecticut is "hanging by a thread," scientists told March 25, 2008. In my humble opinion, this is a grand marketing exercise and an extreme example of ' Voodoo Science of global warming.'

Sensationalism works wonders and scientists have learned this art well. The piece of news that a chunk as big as 7 times Manhattan or, in 2005 as big as California, has broken off Antarctica creates far more interest than a mere mention of 150 square miles out of 5.7 million sq miles of Antarctica.

Please note that most of the continent's icy mass has so far proven largely impervious to climate change, being situated on solid rock; its deep interior is actually growing in volume.

Some time ago NASA reported that the most significant Antarctic melting in the past 30 years occurred in 2005, when a mass of ice comparable in size to California briefly melted and refroze; this may have resulted from temperatures rising to as high as 5°C (41 °F).

Let's analyze Antarctica beyond the hype of scientists...

Area (Overall) Area - 14,000,000 km² (5,405,430.2 sq mi)
Ice-free - 280,000 km² (108,108.6 sq mi)
Ice covered -13,720,000 km² (5,297,321.6 sq mi)

Manhattan is an island borough of New York City, New York, USA, coterminous with New York County a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.47 km²), it is the most densely populated county in the United States at 66,940 residents per square mile (25,846/km²).

If out of 5.29 million sq miles of area 150 square miles breaks away, what is the big deal? In 2005, a chunk as big as California broke away and refroze! Nature has her own mechanism, so let’s stop playing God and stop micro managing. Perhaps Antarctica's periphery has been noticeably affected by global warming, particularly on the Antarctic Peninsula and in Pine Island Bay which together are contributing to a rise in sea levels. In terms of size the break is minuscule; icebergs have been part of seas for quite sometime. The one that brought the Titanic down was quite a big one under the waters. Nature's course is dictated by 13.7 billion years old evolutionary course, not 5000 years of human civilization which is just a footnote. Exaggerating our impact on Universe and on earth is a folly that great pharaohs and tyrants have always liked. Some of us have become environmental tyrants by playing up inflated impact of our meekly presence here.

In 2003 the Larsen-B ice shelf collapsed owing to global warming. If sea levels are rising, why have we not seen the inundation of some of the hundreds of years old fishing islands? Micro-Asian islands flourish the way they have been for centuries. The Thousand Islands Bridge that connects New York State and Ontario by traversing Wellesley Island at the northernmost point of U.S. Interstate 81 in Jefferson County and meets Highway 137, which leads to Highway 401. The Thousand Islands Parkway provides a scenic view of many of the islands. During the half century (1874-1912) of the resort's greatest prominence, most wealthy vacationers came from New York City, joined by prominent families from Chicago, Pittsburgh and other cities of the United States and Canada. The region retains a historically important collection of vacation homes from this time. The Thousand Islands have long been a center for recreational boating. These luxury houses and vacation homes on these Islands still do not witness the so called rising level of seas. These should have been inundated or part of them or some effect over centuries should have been noticeable. Why are such dire predictions limited to complex computer projections?

We demand evidence beyond computer projections. After all this hype, something in terms of quality of life, life span or inundations of islands should become far more observable phenomena; natural disaster history indicates that they are as few and far between as has been the case for 5000 years known history of man. Humans are living a far better existence than any period of past and contemporary history. All these good things are happening amongst all these dire predictions?

If glaciers are melting, the largest glaciers outside the North Pole and South Pole are in Himalyan-Hindukush- Karakorum range of mountains, so why are these high glaciers not melting? If these glaciers melted, the amount of fresh water trapped would release a constant flow in Ganges, Indus and Mekong - far greater than the flows we are witnessing now. Indus is one example - it does not have a perennial flow, it runs dry from Sept- May; if global warming is such a threat why has the Indus not been inundated? Famine still rules and water flows remain stubbornly in summer related to glacial melts. What has been the history of thousands of years of summer melt but no considerable flows have been observed in the lower reaches of Indus that may indicate glacial melt as a result of global warming? Is global warming only going to impact Antarctica? That is something strange.

I have replied to a dull inflated fact of "7 times Manhattan size" break-off with equally banal evidence of not noticing any changes in the way we are seeing the flow of rivers and life on fishing islands very precariously situated in low lying areas of Pacific and luxury homes located on Thousand Islands. If there was a mass rise in sea levels, some empirical evidence should exist to see higher levels of inundation. We need to see that evidence over and above manipulated simulations of weather forecasts on super computers. Living in fear is an unbridled problem for mankind; to free us from this guilt we need reason and logic to take the forefront.

Today's self-righteous journalists advance their "political rights agenda" on issues ranging from financial crisis to war on terror to environment, however, those of us who challenge the 'Gore currency' or established conventional wisdom rarely get much attention. But truth shall always prevail. My environmental guru Bjørn Lomborg makes as much sense as my 'Deficit' Guru Steve. I follow both, I live with less fear and lot of love. Is that not what life is all about? Death is the only certainty but do we live with that fear all the time? Live with hope, zest for life and no fear, we are all mortals anyway, ashes-to-ashes-dust-to-dust is our ultimate destination; but until we are alive let's give it our best shot. Much as I respect Malthus and the Club of Rome, most of these dismal pronouncements challenging the innovation of man have always fallen down; mankind instead has grown from strength to strength and that's what matters.