Aside from the fact that ice-shelf breakups are natural and inevitable occurances, this particular ice shelf seems to be about 500 miles north of the probably-still-active underwater volanoes that were recently discovered.

Antarctic volcano may still be active: study

location of volcano

location of ice shelf

upstream though

the big picture

Global warming hucksters neglect to mention Earthquake

The volcano is about 650 miles away from the disintegration zone, and it was three days after it was discovered that the earthquake happened.

Vast iceberg breaks off Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctic (The Times, 27/3)

Satellite images have revealed that about 160 square miles of the Wilkins Shelf have been lost since the end of February, suggesting that climate change could be causing it to disintegrate much more quickly than scientists had predicted. “The ice shelf is hanging by a thread,” said David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey(BAS). “We’ll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be.”

Professor Vaughan was a member of a BAS team that predicted in 1993 that the Wilkins Shelf could collapse within 30 years, if the pace of global warming continued…“Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened,” he said. “I didn’t expect to see things happen this quickly. We predicted it would happen, but it’s happened twice as fast as we predicted.”

...The Antarctic Peninsula, which stretches north from the frozen continent towards South America, has experienced unprecedented warming over the past 50 years, leading to the retreat and collapse of several ice shelves. Six have been lost entirely — the Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen B, Wordie, Muller and Jones shelves.

The Wilkins Shelf is farther south than other ice that has retreated, and should thus be protected by colder temperatures. But Professor Vaughan said: “Climate warming in the Antarctic Peninsula has pushed the limit of viability for ice shelves further south, setting some of them that used to be stable on a course of retreat and eventual loss...The importance of it is that it’s farther south than any ice shelf we’ve seen retreating before, it’s bigger than any ice shelf we’ve seen retreating before, and in the long term it could be a taste of other things to come. It is another indication of the impact that climate change is having on the region.”

The Times also has a somewhat extraordinary editorial on the subject: Cold comfort on climate change: Antarctica is a thermometer that cannot be ignored.

This is the eighth Antarctic ice shelf collapse in the past 30 years. All have occurred on the Antarctic Peninsula, which reaches 1,000 miles into the Southern Ocean towards Cape Horn and is far more exposed to warming ocean and air temperatures than is Antarctica’s continental interior. The peninsula’s mean temperature has, in fact, been rising faster than anywhere on Earth over the past half-century, at half a degree celsius per decade, while there is evidence that mean temperature at the South Pole is actually falling. But the Wilkins shelf is the most southerly to succumb to climate change so far. The damage that it has sustained in the past month will slow during the Antarctic winter but can only accelerate next year. As it shrinks, so will its effectiveness as a buffer between the ocean and the interior. Most troubling of all, the suddenness of the loss of an area the size of the Isle of Man has caused scientists to revise their estimate of the remaining lifespan of the shelf as a whole, from thirty years to ten.

The peninsula’s mean temperature has, in fact, been rising faster than anywhere on Earth over the past half-century, at half a degree Celsius per decade, while there is evidence that mean temperature at the South Pole is actually falling.

Further evidence of hydrological cycle change, not CO2 emissions or atmospheric CO2 levels, being the culprit behind anthropogenic climate change.

Peace,

Media Hype on ‘Melting’ Antarctic Ignores Record Ice Growth
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=f1f2f75f-802a-23ad-4701-a92b4ebbccbf

Further evidence of hydrological cycle change, not CO2 emissions or atmospheric CO2 levels, being the culprit behind anthropogenic climate change.

how so? cite.
you guys gotta remember here that since im a scientist i really don’t care about the environment, im just using this whole CO2 linked global warming thing to keep my independent research (read boozing and running around in the jungle) funded. since global culture has accepted this whole kooky upset of the carbon cycle thing as the cause for warming i can’t get money trying to convince people CO2 isnt a problem. if i can’t get money i cant buy booze. then its all over. besides, the backpacker chicks here dig dudes who are trying to reduce GHG emissions. im not gonna get any ass trying to convince em that hydrological cycles are the problem and we can all drive big SUVs.

I’m not an SUV advocate nor an advocate of unlimited utilization of fossil fuels.

The CO2 centric understanding commonly promoted as the critical component of anthropogenic climate change is totally inadequate to explain the degree of climate change we are experiencing.

If fossil fueled CO2 emissions ended tomorrow, the problem of anthropogenic climate influence would continue to warm the planet regardless, as the problem is fundamental to human alterations of the hydrological cycle, not increased levels of atmospheric CO2.

For more on that.

Peace,