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A comment on Antarctica losing six times more ice mass annually now than 40 years ago. Parent comment

Re:Antarctica losing six times more ice mass annually now th... by credit_guy on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @04:28AM (#18909885)
Why are you talking about Earth's mass? We are talking about Antarctica here. If I weight myself on a scale that has 0.2 pound precision (like the one I have), and then somehow I tell people I lost 0.002 pounds, some people will be quite skeptical of my claims. In the case of Antarctica, how is one supposed to quantify the accuracy of its net ice loss? By comparing it with the mass of an elephant of a blue whale [1] ?

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...

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Re:Antarctica losing six times more ice mass annually now th... by dTal on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @07:53AM (#18910788)
It's a red herring because the total quantity of ice in the Antarctic is irrelevant, both to how the loss rate is measured and the climate significance.

It's like looking at someone who's hair is falling out and saying "look, they're barely losing any weight at all!"

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