Icebergs Sailing Past New Zealand 236
An anonymous reader writes "A fleet of icebergs is heading north from Antarctica and at least one has reached New Zealand, an event that has not occurred in decades. While not necessarily a consequence of global warming it is very cool!"
i for one... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:i for one... (Score:4, Funny)
Don't tell me, a Soviet Russia berg.
In Soviet Russia (Score:4, Funny)
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So, in Australian Pacific, icebergs ram YOU!
Re:i for one... (Score:5, Funny)
(Actually, it's probably just a rescue mission for the polar bears.)
Old story (Score:3, Funny)
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The polar bears [slashdot.org] heading south will soon sort them out.
Just smile and wave, boys! (Score:2)
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http://www.sanccob.co.za/african_penguin.htm [sanccob.co.za]
Interesting phraseology... (Score:3, Funny)
Was that juxtaposition intentional?
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Behold, a new sport: Iceberg Racing!
Re:Interesting phraseology... (Score:4, Funny)
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Anyway, don't put these stories on ice, Slashdot. I hope this is just the tip of the iceberg.
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These 'bergs are hardly going to be moving south, east or west away from the Antarctic are they?
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Horseshit. (Score:5, Informative)
The same thing happened last year.
Re:Horseshit. (Score:5, Informative)
I know no one read the article, so let me relate this to you from the article:
"Scientists had said earlier that it was not unusual to see icebergs so far from the Antarctic coastal region"
The whole point of the article is the danger this poses to ships in the area.
awesome! (Score:5, Funny)
Survivor: That Iceburg Floating Past New Zealand
They could vote each other off as it gets smaller and smaller in warmer water
Re:awesome! (Score:5, Insightful)
Swi
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An even better idea would be to use politicans though.
Re:awesome! (Score:4, Funny)
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$10 Million, $10 Million, $10 Million dollars (Score:3, Insightful)
I know, I'm completely off topic
Australian drought (Score:2)
sooo special (Score:3, Funny)
We get that all the time in Nunavut [wikipedia.org] (canada's newest territory), and you don't see me posting to slashdot about it.
Re:sooo special (Score:5, Funny)
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"Global warming does not exist!" (Score:5, Funny)
"Global warming does not exist!"
(Iceberg floats by in background)
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"Scientists had said earlier that it was not unusual to see icebergs so far from the Antarctic coastal region, where they had broken off the ice shelf - but that they were expected to melt as they drifted toward New Zealand."
NOT UNUSUAL! No where in the article does it say scientists theorize that this was caused by Global Warming.
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Global Warming (Score:3, Informative)
The article doesn't mention global warming at all! I'll agree with the "very cool" part, but mentioning global warming seems unnecessary.
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Not a buzzword, dude. Haven't heard a marketing team use it yet. I'll bet you don't even know what it means
Saved from blasphemy... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Saved from blasphemy... (Score:5, Funny)
Gad! The heat's got to him, poor blighter!
Not so sure (Score:2)
Offtopic - hyperlink grammar (Score:2, Interesting)
Did anyone else parse that as a grammatical error because of the placement of the hyperlink? I think something fun and insightful would come of a study on the different ways hyperlinks interact with their surrounding verbiage.
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Opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
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KFG
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Frosty reception (Score:3, Funny)
In Soviet Russia (Score:2, Funny)
Very Cool? DUH! (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah - approximately 0 degrees celsius, IIRC.
RS
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Icebergs *are* cool (Score:5, Funny)
In fact... (Score:5, Funny)
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MOD HIM UP!!!!!!!!!!!
Why would it? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why would it have anything to do with global warming? Are people really under the impression that icebergs don't naturally exist and are really a product of the evil Bush administration's plan to cause global warming so they can drown the entire West coast?
Its sort of sad when we have to clarify which stories might have to do with global warming and which don't...
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Ice has a nasty habit of melting and breaking up when heated up. Note the word 'warming' in the phrase 'global warming'.
Are people really under the impression that icebergs don't naturally exist [..]
I'm sure most of us are aware that icebergs exist. Who are you talking to? Who's making such claims?
a product of the evil Bush administration's plan to cause global warming so they can drown the entire West coast?
Yes, anyone who has experienced
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"Ice has a nasty habit of melting and breaking up when heated up. Note the word 'warming' in the phrase 'global warming'."
Are you under the impression that temperatures all around the world stay constant unless global warming causes them to go up?
"I'm sure most of us are aware that icebergs exist. Who are you talking to? Who's making such claims? "
Perhaps I should have made my sarcasm more clear.
"Yes, anyone who has experienced an alien anal probe believes in this. "
Perhaps you should have made y
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It's pretty clear that the author does not imply that this would have anything to do with global warming.
I know perfectly well that temperatures do not stay constant. It's fairly obvious that there are more factors than just global warming. My point is that it is possible global warming could have caused this and should not be ruled out. I for one am worried about global warming. I doubt that the air pollution caused by humans isn't
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"It's pretty clear that the author does not imply that this would have anything to do with global warming. "
Yes, I was mocking the need for that comment.
"My point is that it is possible global warming could have caused this and should not be ruled out"
So you are going to go through life assuming anything unusual having to do with weather was caused by global warming? Thats not a very scientific approach.
"I know you were sarcastic, but you used it to insult those who are worried about global warmin
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Because global warming has already significantly altered ice distribution around the poles, leaving thousands of what was once ice to be open water?
One could plausibly speculate that this iceberg's appearance is connected with climate change without being a ridiculous conspiracy theorist (and Bush doesn't even have to come into it).
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Re:Why would it? (Score:4, Informative)
Oh, for God's sake. It's a verifiable fact that significant amounts of Antarctic ice that have never been thawed in recorded human history are now gone. See for example this article [bbc.co.uk]:
Though if you seriously think every person complaining about global warming is too stupid to know when it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere, then I don't think it's worth expending much effort talking to you.
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"Oh, for God's sake. It's a verifiable fact that significant amounts of Antarctic ice that have never been thawed in recorded human history are now gone. See for example this article"
Thats a small part of the Antarctic ice sheet. The East Antarctic sheet is actually growing [physorg.com].
"Though if you seriously think every person complaining about global warming is too stupid to know when it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere, then I don't think it's worth expending much effort talking to you."
No, not every per
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You have not demonstrated any evidence that this part which is growing is substantially larger than the portions which have thawed. This is the general problem when comparing multiple qualitative reports of two counterbalancing phenonema, whether it be global weather patterns, or insurgents in Iraq.
Of course, the same argument applies to my position, since we can draw no quantitative conclusions at all without the n
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Icebergs are natural, icebergs so far up north aren't. The chief reason why this indicates global warming is to sail this far up north, the sea surrounding the iceberg must have been cooler than usual. This can only happen if more and more ice is melting from the iceberg, which reduces the temperature of the ocean current, enabling the iceberg to move further north without melting.
This may sound counterintuitive, global warming reducing ocean temperature, but it actually isn't. Global warming means incre
Re:Why would it? (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, if you read the TFA, or know anything about icebergs - you'll realize you are full of crap. Icebergs have been sited near NZ in the past - it's a rare occurence, but it does happen. A singular reccurence of something that has happened in the recent past and repeatedly across recorded history does not constitute proof (or disproof) of anything.
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Wow, you should publish a paper on that! Or sell some of this special ice that doesn't melt because it melts so fast! Or read
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Yep. Also, Bush made hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans because he found out that they had a large black population. (and he doesn't like black people, if you hadn't heard.)
Re:Why would it? (Score:4, Funny)
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For our mods: NZ is part of the *southern* hemisphere. Being far north means it's closer to the equator, and hence, *warmer*. Sheesh
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Sarcasm or stupidity? Going north from the SOUTH pole would mean it got warmer!
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"All it means is that the chunks of ice breaking off are bigger so survive longer, and that the ocean currents are in the right direction to bring them to New Zealand. If there were lots of them for a sustained period, it might cause local cooling in the area, but otherwise the local temperature isn't all that relevant."
Hmm, I guess the disclaimer didn't work, people do think this was caused by global warming (despite the fact that the phenomenon is common enough to have happened decades ago).
Yes, globa
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Coolest Floating Bar EVER! (Score:2)
Damn, 30 years late... (Score:2, Funny)
http://www.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?P
Drs. Tim Ball and David Suzuki.
Overlords (Score:2)
So let me get this straight, more ice = warming? (Score:2, Interesting)
These days you get any freaky weather event, and it gets blamed on global warming. Even when it doesn't make sense.
Surely, more ice making it further north would, if anything, be supporting evidence for datasets that show the oceans are getting cooler [agu.org]? You might also note that some data sets suggest that the global warming trend is not present [blogspot.com] in the Southern Hemisphere.
There is some evidence that the icecaps melting around the edges, but getting thicker in the middle [co2science.org]. Perhaps that's because the Sun' [agu.org]
Global cooling (Score:2)
"Scientists had said earlier that it was not unusual to see icebergs so far from the Antarctic coastal region, where they had broken off the ice shelf - but that they were expected to melt as they drifted toward New Zealand."
See, they're not melting as fast as expected. Fear the coming ice age!Re:Grammar Nazi. (Score:4, Informative)
Goodness, the Nazi's may have been evil, and they may have had terrible aim (as per the Stormtrooper Effect), but they weren't incompetent.
"Fleet" is singular, thus a fleet of icebergs IS heading north. You wouldn't say that the same fleet 'are' heading north, would you?
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This is another Slashdot effect!
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Those situations would actually be worse than global warming. With warming, we can just move towards the poles. Maybe things get real bad and Canada is the new Mexico. But with other theories the temperature just gets more extreme, with areas around the equator becoming unlivably hot, areas closer to the poles becoming unlivably cold, and the transition areas becoming m
Re:Crazy weather (Score:5, Funny)
Gaia hates him for some reason.
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That's just God giving him the cold shoulder.
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It's because he's throwing a monkey wrench into her attempts to return Earth to the dolphins, by getting rid of the annoying parasite that calls itself "humanity". Kinda like your body warms up to make it easier to kill the bad bacteria, ya know?
(Note: above post contains sarcasm. Don't quote it when I run for office, m'kay?)
Re:Crazy weather (Score:4, Insightful)
Three days of unseasonable weather in a single location is now proof for a theory that encompasses an entire planet's climate change that would last for (at least) centuries? Why is this modded insightful?
I'm not discounting the theory but people who think that a minor "burp" in the environment around them is proof of something massively sinister going on is insane. How is this different from the Christians who claim that the Revelation Prophecy is coming true because of odd weather patterns?
What the fuck has happened that real science being discarded for knee-jerk reactions is commonplace and winked at around here?
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Its called marketing. Of course iceburgs floating past past NZ doesn't mean much empirically, its just one point of data. But it means pictures in newspapers and a bunch of articles written.
Based on pure scientific data its hard to argue against global warming and its cause being increased CO2 in the atmosphere. That argument is won.
The truth is on the side of the environmentalists this time. But the Truthiness is on the side of the oil industry. If global warming is false people can continue driving
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Once again... I said I do not discount the theory. Sorry if this little factoid bothers you but the commonly accepted version of "global warming" is still just a theory. This is what science is all about; you take a series of observations, you try to predict the outcome of a model based on these observations and you retest and see what happens. That's the basics. So far there hasn't been a truly successful model that I
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Actually, no. If you take the time to go back and re-read the gp he's clearly trying to say that the recent small-term climate change in his neck of the woods is evidence that there is global warming.
Again, consider the scientific method model against what the gp says and it's laughable.
And yet again, I never did a single thing to discredit or dispute the global warming theory. Infact there i
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Sigh. We picked the wrong year to move to NZ and to Wellington to boot. Gale force wind again? Yup. I think that was just an iceberg flying past my 2nd floor window.
-Peter
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Yes, it definitely can. One theory significant for us at least is that the mexican gulf current may slow down due to general warming, and that would give us almost arctic climate over here.
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Occam's Razor wouldn't point you anywhere.
And I quote: "Thou Shalt Not Pluralize Needlessly."
It would tell you to find out if "Global Warming" is complicating itself too much, and rule it out if it was. Occam never intended people to simply discount things if it was a complicated explanation; people just bastardized and butchered his words.
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