Cigar
05-13-2014, 12:21 PM
According to two new studies, the collapse of much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may now be irreversible. That could ultimately mean 10 feet of sea level rise.
—By Chris Mooney
| Mon May 12, 2014 5:07 PM EDT
If you truly understand global warming, then you know it's all about the ice. That's what matters. Planet Earth has not always had great ice sheets at the poles, of the sort that currently exist atop Greenland and Antarctica. In other periods, much of that water has instead been in liquid form, in the oceans—and the oceans have been much higher.
How much? According to the National Academy of Sciences, the globe's great ice sheets contain enough frozen water to raise sea levels worldwide by more than 60 meters. That's about 200 feet. And it makes all the sea level rise that we've seen so far due to global warming appear piddly and insignificant.
That's why scientists have long feared a day like this would come. Two new scientific papers, in the journals Science and Geophysical Research Letters, report that major glaciers that are part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appear to have become irrevocably destabilized. The whole process may still play out on the scale of centuries, but due to the particular dynamics of this ice sheet, the collapse of these major glaciers now "appears unstoppable," according to NASA (whose researchers are behind one of the two studies).
This Antarctic glacier may be history, says new research. It contains almost two feet of sea level rise, and that's just the beginning. NASA.
http://www.motherjones.com/files/imagecache/top-of-content-main/thwaites_glacier_630px.jpg
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/05/west-antarctic-ice-sheet-collapse?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+motherjones%2Fmain+%28MotherJ ones.com+Main+Article+Feed%29&utm_content=FaceBook
—By Chris Mooney
| Mon May 12, 2014 5:07 PM EDT
If you truly understand global warming, then you know it's all about the ice. That's what matters. Planet Earth has not always had great ice sheets at the poles, of the sort that currently exist atop Greenland and Antarctica. In other periods, much of that water has instead been in liquid form, in the oceans—and the oceans have been much higher.
How much? According to the National Academy of Sciences, the globe's great ice sheets contain enough frozen water to raise sea levels worldwide by more than 60 meters. That's about 200 feet. And it makes all the sea level rise that we've seen so far due to global warming appear piddly and insignificant.
That's why scientists have long feared a day like this would come. Two new scientific papers, in the journals Science and Geophysical Research Letters, report that major glaciers that are part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appear to have become irrevocably destabilized. The whole process may still play out on the scale of centuries, but due to the particular dynamics of this ice sheet, the collapse of these major glaciers now "appears unstoppable," according to NASA (whose researchers are behind one of the two studies).
This Antarctic glacier may be history, says new research. It contains almost two feet of sea level rise, and that's just the beginning. NASA.
http://www.motherjones.com/files/imagecache/top-of-content-main/thwaites_glacier_630px.jpg
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/05/west-antarctic-ice-sheet-collapse?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+motherjones%2Fmain+%28MotherJ ones.com+Main+Article+Feed%29&utm_content=FaceBook