Reference: Worrisome cracks in ice, Bangkok Post, October 1, 2008

A scientist in Ohio looking through satellite pictures found a crack in the Petermann glacier in Greenland. He said that it could speed up sea level rise because huge chunks of ice the size of Manhattan were hemorrhaging off. He raised a global warming alarm based on these observations (Worrisome cracks in ice, Bangkok Post, October 1, 2008). The concerned, worrisome, and alarming nature of the article is completely undone, however, by the last paragraph. It quotes a scientist who has been travelling to Greenland for years to study glaciers. He said that the crack in the glacier is not different from other cracks he had seen in the 1990s, that such cracks are normal, and that the new crack observed is not alarming. As a footnote, earlier this summer it was predicted that the Arctic basin would become ice free this summer from a record summer melt due to the effects of global warming. This prediction has proven to be false. The data show that the annual sea ice melt in the Arctic Basin has bottomed out. Arctic ice is now increasing in area. At its lowest point there was more sea ice this year than last and the Arctic Basin did not become ice free. 

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand