Greenland’s Shrinking Ice Sheet: Images, Measurements, and Implications
Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008
2325 Rayburn House Office Building
Introductory Remarks
Barclay Satterfield
Science Policy Fellow
ACS Office of Public Affairs
Summary
Many of the consequences of climate change, such as warmer winters and shifting rainfall patterns, are becoming increasingly apparent here in the United States, but it is in remote reaches of the planet that some of the most rapid and potentially catastrophic changes are occurring. Millions of cubic kilometers of water are locked up in Greenland’s ice sheet, and the data indicate that it is melting at an unexpectedly rapid rate. Substantial melting of Greenland’s glaciers would cause significant sea level rise, affecting the cities and populations that are concentrated near the coast. This briefing highlighted efforts
to study changes in the Greenland ice sheet, capture both its beauty and demise, and explored the consequences for U.S. citizens as well as people around the globe.
Act4Chemistry Blog Post – comment on this briefing | Contact Science & the Congress Briefing Series
Sponsors
American Chemical Society’s Science & the Congress Project, and the National Science Foundation
Featured Speakers
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Dr. Brendan Kelly Program Director for Arctic Biology Office of Polar Programs National Science Foundation Associate Vice President for Research University of Alaska, moderating |
Video of Remarks E-mail | Biography |
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James Balog Founder and Director Extreme Ice Survey |
Presentation Video E-mail | Biography |
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Dr. Robert Bindschadler Chief Scientist Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory NASA |
Presentation Video E-mail | Biography |
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Dr. Konrad Steffen Director Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) University of Colorado, Boulder |
Presentation Video E-mail | Biography Website |
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James Neumann Principal Industrial Economics, Incorporated |
Presentation Video E-mail | Biography |
Related Content
- Greenland’s Ice Alarm, NASA Earth Observatory
- Sea-Level Rise & Global Climate Change: A Review of Impacts to U.S. Coasts
Prepared for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, February 2000 - , Pew Center on Global Climate Change (2/07)
- Extreme Ice Survey Website |
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder (CIRES)
- Congressional Research Service:
, RL34266 (3/12/08)
, RL3451 (6/3/08) - Coastal Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region. U.S. Climate Change Science Program
- Nature, News Feature:
Climate change: Losing Greenland (4/16/08) - National Science Foundation: (9/08) | |