What's happening to Greenland's most enigmatic glacier?

Scientists are concerned about the Petermann glacier in Greenland. Some bloggers are not. Looking at satellite photos, the bloggers seem to be right. Could this be a first?

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01:56 -- Stability of the Petermann ice shelf from 1874 to 2010 can be found in a number of sources, including "Calving Induced Speedup of Petermann Glacier” --
Martin Rückamp et al., Journal of Geophysical Research 2018

02:48 – Ibid.

03:04 – “The ice shelf of Petermann gletscher, North greenland, and its connection to the Arctic and Atlantic oceans” – Munchow et al, Oceanography
Also in:
“Interannual changes of the floating ice shelf of Petermann Gletscher, North Greenland, from 2000 to 2012” – Munchow et al., Journal of Glaciology 2014

03:16 – “Calving Induced Speedup of Petermann Glacier” --
Martin Rückamp et al., Journal of Geophysical Research 2018

4:16 -- “The ice shelf of Petermann gletscher, North greenland, and its connection to the Arctic and Atlantic oceans” – Munchow et al, Oceanography

4:24 – “The Holocene retreat dynamics and stability of Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland” – Jakobssen et al., Nature Communications 2018
4:34 -- “Calving Induced Speedup of Petermann Glacier” --
Martin Rückamp et al., Journal of Geophysical Research 2018

6:23 – For an explanation of the mechanism of the Petermann glacier, and the significance of the blockage, see:

8:02 -- “North Greenland Glacier Velocities and Calf Ice Production” -- Anthony K. Higgins, Polarforschung 1991

8:14 -- “Unprecedented Retreat in a 50-Year Observational Record for Petermann Glacier, North Greenland” – Johannessen et al., Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters 2013

8:44 – Ibid.

[FNPetersen]

Potholer, you are quite literally the definition of the phrase "a gentlemen and a scholar." You bring us real science reporting, and you don't get paid for it. When people ask to pay you, you instead refer them to a charity you support. Thanks for all that you do.

[TaranVH]

Hi, Peter!
I must say, I'm thrilled to see that you're still making videos after all this time.
10 years ago, your videos really helped me out, as I struggled to reconcile my own various conflicting beliefs. It was a turbulent time in my life, and your calm, rational, lighthearted, and (mostly) non-condensing voice was one of many that led me towards a more rational, stable worldview. (For context, I once believed that every word of the Bible was literally true.)
It's been about 5 years since I've thought about you or watched any of your videos, but yesterday I was pleased to discover that you're still at it. Channels like yours are the foundation that YouTube was built on - Just a person talking about interesting things that they know a lot about, with little to no thought of monetary compensation.
Your video editing is utilitarian. You don't have fancy graphics, animations, or music. Even this video is "only" 720p at a time when 4K is all the rage. Any you know what? You don't need any of that. You're focusing on what matters most: the information.
I'm just here to tell you - keep doing what you're doing. You're bringing a lot of value to the world, and I thank you for it.
Taran

[Leafsdude]

So, in short, the answer to Heller's question of "why are they claiming that the Petermann glacier has shrunk since the calving event in 2012? " is simply "because they're not"?

Huh. I wonder how Heller missed that. /s

[Revyloution]

My wife and I did quite well this year. We will be adding your charity to our list of donations.


Thanks again for a well produced video.

[scottie]

Tony Heller and his pals should go into agriculture, they would make excellent cherry pickers, and actually be doing something useful for a change.

[theosphilusthistler]

Oh the sweet drone of Tony Heller's relentless stream of wilful misinformation. His commitment to disregarding reality is so brazen it's almost a thing of bizarre beauty.

[budawang]

We need way more bloggers like Potholer. Keep fighting the good fight against the industry funded trolls and their useful idiots!

[dinsel]

So at 9:26.. Tony Heller tells us that "you would have to be a complete moron to believe Washington Post on Climate Change"..

And then at 10:09, he cites Washington Post on Climate Change...

YOU CANT MAKE THIS HILARIOUS SHIT UP!

[robertcartwright]

A while ago I took your advice to "check the source" and checked one of Tony Heller's claims, in this case that the DMI was reporting that Greenland was gaining ice, contrary to wide spread concern that it was losing ice. The DMI report said that Greenland was indeed gaining ice, but only in the centre, and that losses at the edges dwarfed this gain so that, as generally feared, Greenland was overall losing and not gaining ice. I pointed this out on Heller's blog, and he was happy to be corrected. No he wasn't. I had him dead to rights and still he tried to blow me off! So thank you Potty. I followed your advice to check the source, (which in this case was easy 'cause Heller had cited it), and exposed to my satisfaction that Tony Heller is a liar. It wasn't hard at all. Literally, anyone who can work a computer well enough to watch YouTube can catch these guys out.

[matthewvaughan]

This channel is making me realise that 99.9% of climate change ‘skepticism’ can be rebutted with: You made that up & That’s not what research actually shows.

[robertmoye]

Wow! Imagine a science denying blogger omitting information and deliberately lying! It boggles the mind. Well done as usual potholer54.

[ajmeyers]

I'm honestly a little shocked at how quickly Heller/Goddard's trash supporters can be mobilized.
Now imagine if all the neckbeard power he commands could be channeled into a useful project.

[christianpeterson]

I'm sure most of you are aware, but if you're going to participate in the comment section, you cannot mindlessly spam the comments with links. Whether you're posting a peer reviewed paper, an open access paper, a YouTube video or a blog, you need to explain what the link is saying or meant to argue. Spamming links is against the channel rules.

[zillypaul]

Could you imagine a world where all youtubers had such admirable high standards as Potholer ? Thank you for another outstanding video.

[easton]

A new potholer video is always a happy sight

[dar-wvpr]

Another example of why Potholer is the best channel on YT.

[generalsci]

I see that the anti-science types are being extra vocal in the comments section today. You must have struck a nerve, potholer. :) Keep it up.

[richardross]

I waited until the end of the video before commenting just to see where you went with this.
I've worked on glaciers for the last 12 years, including several trips to Antarctica to aid with studying glacial outflow and ice shelves there as well.

I though your summary of this Greenland glacial flow was good, you hit some key points and your conclusions seem to represent the data well.

The same thing is happening in the Antarctic. The massive floating ice shelves there are effectively slowing down the rate at which ice moves from the land to the sea. However warmer waters are causing increased melt rates from the base of the ice sheets, which could lead to destabilisation and therefore increased glacial speed and a subsequent rise is sea levels.

I've watched 2 of your videos and enjoyed them, thanks.
Subscribed.

[Ifoughtpiranhas]

Tony Heller = an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

[damdampapa]

you were one of my first subs many years ago, and you still continue a standard that few achieve. again, very well done Potholer.