Global Warming Shifts the Earth's Poles 482
ananyo writes "Global warming is changing the location of Earth's geographic poles, according to a study published this week. Researchers at the University of Texas, Austin, report that increased melting of the Greenland ice sheet — and to a lesser degree, ice loss in other parts of the globe — helped to shift the North Pole several centimeters east each year since 2005. From 1982 to 2005, the pole drifted southeast towards northern Labrador, Canada, at a rate of about 2 milliarcseconds — or roughly 6 centimetres — per year. But in 2005, the pole changed course and began galloping east towards Greenland at a rate of more than 7 milliarcseconds per year (abstract). The results suggest that tracking polar shifts can serve as a check on current estimates of ice loss. Scientists can locate the north and south poles to within 0.03 milliarcseconds by using Global Positioning System measurements to determine the angle of Earth's spin. When mass is lost in one part of a spinning sphere, its spin axis will tilt directly towards the position of the loss — exactly as the team observed for Greenland."
I dropped a bowl of cereal on the floor today (Score:0, Funny)
Why did it happen? Global Warming!
it all goes south from here... (Score:4, Funny)
My close personal friend (Score:2, Funny)
I traded email with my close personal friend at the University of Texas, Austin, Dr. Dyslexic.
He is aware of these finding and believes it is clear evidence of the hand of Dog at work.
Shifting Poles (Score:5, Funny)
There was this guy called Adolph that shifted the Poles too
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!! (Score:2, Funny)
This is going to cause earthquakes and locusts, people!!!!!! The end is nigh!!!!! Pray to Mother Earth for forgiveness!!!!!!
Re:it all goes south from here... (Score:4, Funny)
Well, you're facing south, so east is to your left.
Re:Three Gorges Dam (Score:5, Funny)
I welcome our new Asian Overlords and their Moment of Inertia.
How will it make it worse? (Score:2, Funny)
What if it makes everyone live forever? What if it makes money grow on trees? What if it makes us travel back in time to the age of the dinosaurs?
How will it make it worse.
Re:The opposite might also be true (Score:3, Funny)
And if it is, too goddamn bad, because I'm not giving up my Buick for some sissy electric car that doesn't even have exhaust pipes.
Plus, Jesus is gonna come back way before we have to worry about global warming. And when he gets back, he's not going to want to see a bunch of Priuses. He's going to want to see 400hp American Iron.
Re:Simple question (Score:3, Funny)
Re:it all goes south from here... (Score:5, Funny)
A quick bit of projection math tells me the value of east is the set of all angles when you're at the north pole.
Re:Simple question (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The opposite might also be true (Score:4, Funny)
"Do unto others as you would have them do nought to sixty."
Actually by that metric the electric vehicles are still ahead.
Yeah, but in America we don't USE metric.