In his Oscar acclaimed work of fiction, An Inconvenient Truth, Gore includes a troubling scene which involves a graphical representation of the world's major cities drowning due to a rise in sea level from the melting of Antarctica and Greenland.
What Al Gore failed to mention was the IPCC section from which his West Antarctica and Greenland melting scenarios were lifted is entitled, How Likely are Major or Abrupt Climate Changes, such as Loss of Ice Sheets or Changes in Global Ocean Circulation? The section begins with this disclaimer:Abrupt climate changes, such as the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the rapid loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet or large scale changes of ocean circulation systems, are not considered likely to occur in the 21st century...[iv]
That means that over the next 90+ years, even the usually enthusiastic global warming editors at the U.N. are not anticipating the kind of predictions that Gore, or for that matter, the Pacific Institute, lay forth.
Also, some additional snapshots from the IPCC regarding Antarctica:
- "All studies for the 21st century project that Antarctic [ice] changes will contribute negatively to sea level..."[v] (italics mine). That means there is more snow and ice accumulating on Antarctica than is breaking off and melting into the surrounding waters.
- "...for the last two decades...Antarctica as a whole has not warmed."[vi]
- Regarding the potential collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, "...no quantitative information is available from the current generation of ice sheet models as to the likelihood of such an event."[vii]
- "...accelerated sea level rise caused by rapid dynamic response of the ice sheets to climate change is very unlikely during the 21st century."[viii]
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