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Warming Greenland ice sheet passes point of no return

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Even if the climate cools, study finds, glaciers will continue to shrink

Nearly 40 years of satellite data from Greenland shows that glaciers on the island have shrunk so much that even if global warming were to stop today, the ice sheet would continue shrinking.

The finding, published today, Aug. 13, in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment, means that Greenland’s glaciers have passed a tipping point of sorts, where the snowfall that replenishes the ice sheet each year cannot keep up with the ice that is flowing into the ocean from glaciers.

“We’ve been looking at these remote sensing observations to study how ice discharge and accumulation have varied,” said Michalea King, lead author of the study and a researcher at The Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. “And what we’ve found is that the ice that’s discharging into the ocean is far surpassing the snow that’s accumulating on the surface of the ice sheet.”

King and other researchers analyzed monthly satellite data from more than 200 large glaciers draining into the ocean around Greenland. Their observations show how much ice breaks off into icebergs or melts from the glaciers into the ocean. They also show the amount of snowfall each year — the way these glaciers get replenished.

The researchers found that, throughout the 1980s and 90s, snow gained through accumulation and ice melted or calved from glaciers were mostly in balance, keeping the ice sheet intact. Through those decades, the researchers found, the ice sheets generally lost about 450 gigatons (about 450 billion tons) of ice each year from flowing outlet glaciers, which was replaced with snowfall.

“We are measuring the pulse of the ice sheet — how much ice glaciers drain at the edges of the ice sheet — which increases in the summer. And what we see is that it was relatively steady until a big increase in ice discharging to the ocean during a short five- to six-year period,” King said.

The researchers’ analysis found that the baseline of that pulse — the amount of ice being lost each year — started increasing steadily around 2000, so that the glaciers were losing about 500 gigatons each year. Snowfall did not increase at the same time, and over the last decade, the rate of ice loss from glaciers has stayed about the same — meaning the ice sheet has been losing ice more rapidly than it’s being replenished.

“Glaciers have been sensitive to seasonal melt for as long as we’ve been able to observe it, with spikes in ice discharge in the summer,” she said. “But starting in 2000, you start superimposing that seasonal melt on a higher baseline — so you’re going to get even more losses.”

Before 2000, the ice sheet would have about the same chance to gain or lose mass each year. In the current climate, the ice sheet will gain mass in only one out of every 100 years.

King said that large glaciers across Greenland have retreated about 3 kilometers on average since 1985 — “that’s a lot of distance,” she said. The glaciers have shrunk back enough that many of them are sitting in deeper water, meaning more ice is in contact with water. Warm ocean water melts glacier ice, and also makes it difficult for the glaciers to grow back to their previous positions.

That means that even if humans were somehow miraculously able to stop climate change in its tracks, ice lost from glaciers draining ice to the ocean would likely still exceed ice gained from snow accumulation, and the ice sheet would continue to shrink for some time.

“Glacier retreat has knocked the dynamics of the whole ice sheet into a constant state of loss,” said Ian Howat, a co-author on the paper, professor of earth sciences and distinguished university scholar at Ohio State. “Even if the climate were to stay the same or even get a little colder, the ice sheet would still be losing mass.”

Shrinking glaciers in Greenland are a problem for the entire planet. The ice that melts or breaks off from Greenland’s ice sheets ends up in the Atlantic Ocean — and, eventually, all of the world’s oceans. Ice from Greenland is a leading contributor to sea level rise — last year, enough ice melted or broke off from the Greenland ice sheet to cause the oceans to rise by 2.2 millimeters in just two months.

The new findings are bleak, but King said there are silver linings.

“It’s always a positive thing to learn more about glacier environments, because we can only improve our predictions for how rapidly things will change in the future,” she said. “And that can only help us with adaptation and mitigation strategies. The more we know, the better we can prepare.”

This work was supported by grants from NASA. Other Ohio State researchers who worked on this study are Salvatore Candela, Myoung Noh and Adelaide Negrete.

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culture

Dussehra: Victory of Good over evil

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Dussehra: Victory of Good over evil, is celebrated on the 10th day of month Ashvina. Victory means Prabhu Rama over Ravana in famous hindu epic Ramayan. Also it means the end of Durga puja and Ramlila. In Ramayan, Ravana kidnaps god Rama’s wife Sita, as god Rama & Laxman cuted of the nose of ravna’s sister surpanakha. So to claim vengeance on them Ravana kidnapped sita. To get back maa sita Prabhu Rama and Laxman faught battle against Ravana with the help of hanuman, Subriv & other Vanar sena.

In this battle Ravana’s brother Bhibishan also helped god Ram against Ravana . At the end of Prabhu Ram wins the battle and rescues Maa Sita. Thereafter this victory is celebrated by burning the statue of Ravan, Kumbhakarn, his son Meghnath. Dusshersa is a climax of long day celebration of Navratri.

Navratri:

           The nine days of Navratri is the time to reflect on oneself, observe silence & practice fasting. Fasting cleanses the body of toxins and silence purifies speech & mind. What does Dasehra means Das means ten and hara means take away. Which came after Navratri means nine nights if darkness.  On each day of Navratri we pray to that form of goddess durga to take away that darkness of ignorance within us. After that on tenth day on the occasion of Dasehra we burn all the evil, bad things, thoughts, bad habits inside us in that fire in the form of Ravna as evil inside us.

Dusshera: Victory of Good over evil

Ravana is not the demon or evil, you yourself are one. In the battele of Ram and Ravana, god Ram had been invoked Durga May to help him win the battle against Ravana. We also should invoked Durga to help us in gaining back our Sita. Sita?  It is awareness inside is which has been traped in maya surround us. To make our soul clean and pure we have to burn the evil in the fire by fighting and winning battle against evil. many evils and negative aura lives within us, we should overcome this with good things. This is what Dasehra symbolise.

It is a supreme festival of Hindu culture with true meaning. Furthermore it also symbolize the feminism as the battle is to bring back maa Sita from the Ravana. Whenever person crosses his limit, go beyond it and try to hurt marayda of stree. She will transform into Durga and will punish that person to death. Rama won the battles and the light and happiness spreaded. its our choice, either we want to be Ravana & get entrapped in the worldly pleasure or want to Rama (A spiritual being).To symbolise and to aware Dashera is celebrated do its called, Dussehra: Victory of Good over evil!

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Interview

Priyadeep Kaur : Published author at 19!

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Priyadeep Kaur is a published author at age of 19. She is the transpiring novelist and her work has been sighted by Shri. Narendra Modi – Prime Minister of India. Priyadeep spent her antecedent days in Shiv Ki Nagari Kashi – Banaras. She is proficiently known as Kashi Ki beti in her hometown. She is awarded with Uttar Pradesh (U.P) Gaurav, Atal Samman 2018, and the title Shaan-e-Kashi. 

More about Priyadeep:

Priyadeep currently is staying in the ‘City beautiful’- Chandigarh. She furthermore worked with a national TV channel of Rapper Badshah. ‘Millions Of Faces in a Face’ is her first book, which received massive love from readers especially from youngsters.

Her second book named Oscar for loving, Grammy for Not! is listed as the best-selling book on the amazon and she grabbed the best-selling author title. Apart from studies she was also highly interested in extracurricular activities during her school days and now Priyadeep Kaur is a published author at age of 19.

Q. When did your journey into writing began? 

Priyadeep: “I am fond of writing back from school days. My grandmother passed away, I found dairy of dad- he had written a poem dedicated to his mom. The poem was very heart touching and emotional. So, I felt like I should also start writing, then I started writing small poems and about things happening around. Then I also started writing parodies on teachers just to express my thoughts. When I was in grade 10, then I started compiling my writings together. That time I use to read novels from ‘Chetan Bhagat’, ‘Nikita Singh’ and from many other novelists too. So, at that time I thought should try writing a book. That’s how the journey started.”

Q. When did you realised that you should be a writer and your writing should get published?

Priyadeep: “Actually, as soon I completed my first book writing, actually I started writing that book when I was in the 11th grade. So, I at that time it was bit hard for me to get things done in a commercial way to get my book published and it took lot of time for that. Then I started doing research how to get book published and I also mailed my work to many publishers. So, I got few replies and with one of the publishers I got my book published. And soon it was available for reading.”

Q. What was the most surprising thing you learned while writing novels?

Priyadeep: “I learnt my things from my novels and one thing I want to mentioned is – there is very slight difference between the things we imagine and things which really happen. I think people who are into writing are a kind of overthinkers, they think a lot. They think from different perspective and try to create an anonymous situation out from it. Being writer, I imagine many things but they are not into real life. So, its very important to keep imaginary world and real life separately and keep the things sorted.”

Q. A person can’t be a writer if he/she doesn’t have strong emotion, what are your views?

Priyadeep: “I would not agree on this personally, but a person can be a writer if they are not good grammar, even if they are not having a particular knowledge of language and to portrait things. Emotions are necessary for writing; we need to feel the situations in that particular way. Although very body has emotions it’s not necessary that to be a writer you should have strong emotions, with time and practise you can achieve it. I agree emotions play a vital role in writing and every one of us have emotions and everybody can write.”

Q. What was your childhood dream?

Priyadeep: “I wanted to be singer actually, that was my childhood dream. When I was 4 years old, my dad introduced me to pandit Anurag dixit. He uses to conduct my classical music classes and I was fond of performing in school and at many other places. So later I started to go in shows and started performing at very small age. I also used to sing local songs at that time. Since 12 grade I started performing- singing and also recorded few songs. At that time, I was also busy into writing and getting book published. So, writing made me feel somethings, like that’s what I want to be. So, I continued by writing.”

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CUVXka7BAPL8t8aO0QVrxEfSI52cUc5lfAPuq00/?utm_medium=copy_link

Q. What are the techniques and strategies you keep in your mind while you are writing?

Priyadeep: “Actually I try my best to justify the title, which I have given to the book. I think title should be always justifying. Then draft your story accordingly so you can keep the track of it. So, I make the points and draft and then start writing the book, so it’s easy for me if I need to add on few things in between. Mainly I focus on the words and vocabulary add it accordingly. I prefer to sketch the character and his nature, so its easy to maintain and build the story.”

Q. Generally how long does it take to complete a book?

Priyadeep: “My first book I completed in six months. And it took lot of time to complete my second book, because I have joined the office and started working at production house in Chandigarh. Now I am launching my next book, so it took me around 3 months to complete it, which I stared writing during lockdown. So, it’s in pipeline and will be out soon. Although it depends on the time and story to complete a book, it may differ from writer to writer.”

Q. How was your experience working with Badshah sir as a creative producer?

Priyadeep: “It was a very nice experience; I had a wonderful time with the team. We also shoot few songs and I learned lot of things about real life and reel life. I determined the people are so much different in real life, then we usually see in reel life. Specifically talking about BADSHAH sir, as we see his personification in songs, he is completely different in real life. He is very sweet, innocent and humble person. In real, he is not much interested into parties. He is very hardworking and fully dedicated to his work. The whole team was amazing, I got few friends too and the overall journey was awesome for me. I learnt many things from them.”

Q. Can you tell us about the moment when you meet Shri. Narendra Modi (Prime minister of India) and you and your work recognised by him?

Priyadeep: “It was an awesome moment for me, I am very grateful for that. Talking about my family they have framed the photographs and pinned to wall everywhere in my house. For them it was a very proud moment. For me it was a very happy and different kind of adventurous moment. I wrote a letter to PM office randomly and unexpectedly I got response to launch my book by him. I think that was one of the best moments as of now in my writing journey.”

Q. What are your future plans?

Priyadeep: “My next book is coming in November and I am also doing a freelance work in Chandigarh right now, it’s a project of 6 months. So, need to go to Ahmedabad for that work. I have completed two more books in lockdown so I will be planning about there editing and publishing. Due to covid I have many projects pending, so when things will settle need to complete the projects and shoots.”

To know more about Priyadeep Kaur published author at 19- journey and about her life. And some intresting facts- Watch full Instagram interview session with her on IGTV – Paradox India.

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