Water, water everywhere

Pointed out by Peter Murray and dmmaus, respectively:

Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch.com published this article which, among other things, covers Mike Davis's discussion of climatic tipping points, which in turn comments on such events as Hurricane Catarina -- the first South Atlantic tropical hurricane in meteorological recorded history -- and the accelerating decline in Arctic sea ice that has already made the long-fabled Northwest Passage all but a reality.  He raises the disturbing possibility that we might be on course for a runaway warming event far worse than postulated under the current mainstream position:

( excerpt )

For some altogether colder water, NASA's Cassino mission has discovered strong evidence of liquid water on Saturn's moon Enceladus:

High-resolution Cassini images show icy jets and towering plumes ejecting large quantities of particles at high speed.  Scientists examined several models to explain the process.  They ruled out the idea that the particles are produced by or blown off the moon's surface by vapor created when warm water ice converts to a gas.  Instead, scientists have found evidence for a much more exciting possibility -- the jets might be erupting from near-surface pockets of liquid water above 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit), like cold versions of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone.

The new finding offers an explanation for large amounts of free oxygen detected by Cassini in the vicinity of Saturn.