The ice is melting.

According to the BBC (bbc= global warming paranoia group), the Greenland glacier is getting smaller, it seems the ICESAT a satellite for monitoring the ice (bet you worked that one out already) has been measuring the ice from space with a laser
This raises two questions with me, one wouldn't it be easier and a damm site cheaper to monitor it from the ground where you can measure it properly. Secondly I saw Goldfinger and what that laser did to the gold table Bond was fastened too, whats the laser doing to the ice? did nobody tell them that lasers can melt things? Yes ok I know it probably doesn't really melt it, but these things are dangerous, a bloke was jailed recently for shining a laser pen (those crap toy ones) at an aircraft. Ok it was a monumentally stupid thing to do, but you can't help but wonder whats being beamed at us from space, and what harm they do, you can bet they are more powerfull than the toy ones you get out of a Christmas cracker.