Greenland Melts, Washington Mumbles

Ice sheets in Greenland are melting at record rates:

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The Greenland ice sheet melted at a record rate this year, the largest ever since satellite measurements began in 1979, a top climate scientist reported on Monday. "The amount of ice lost by Greenland over the last year is the equivalent of two times all the ice in the Alps, or a layer of water more than one-half mile (800 meters) deep covering Washington DC," said Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Using data from military and weather satellites to see where the ice is melting, Steffen and his colleagues were able to monitor the rapid thinning and acceleration of ice as it moved into the ocean at the edge of the big arctic island. The extent of the melt area was 10 percent greater than the last record year, 2005, the scientists found. . . .

Meanwhile across the globe in Bali:

NUSA DUA, INDONESIA -- As delegates from nearly 200 countries began their final week of meetings here in Bali on global warming, U.S. representatives Monday insisted on removing firm targets for reducing carbon dioxide from draft guidelines for negotiating a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, set to expire in 2012. . . .