Antarctic ice loss has tripled in a decade. If that continues we are in serious trouble.
Source: The Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
June 13 at 1:00 PM
Antarcticas ice sheet is melting at rapidly increasing rate, now pouring more than 200 billion tons of ice into the ocean annually and raising sea levels a half millimeter every year, a team of 80 scientists reported Wednesday.
The melt rate has tripled in the past decade, the study concluded. If the acceleration continues, some of scientists worst fears about rising oceans could be realized, leaving low-lying cities and communities with less time to prepare than theyd hoped.
The result also reinforces that nations have a short window perhaps no more than a decade to cut greenhouse gas emissions if they hope to avert some of the worst consequences of climate change.
Antarctica, the planets largest ice sheet, lost 219 billion tons of ice annually from 2012 through 2017 approximately triple the 73 billion ton melt rate of a decade ago, the scientists concluded. From 1992 through 1997, Antarctica lost 49 billion tons of ice annually.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/06/13/antarctic-ice-loss-has-tripled-in-a-decade-if-that-continues-we-are-in-serious-trouble/
Moostache
(9,895 posts)Doomsday is nigh and we are re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic the longer we pretend the coastal cities will remain livable, the arable land won't become the most valuable commodity in the world and society goes on belching out more and more CO2 annually.
I am telling everyone RIGHT NOW, this NOT the time to start picking fights with Canada...the land area that is cultivatable now is not going to look the same in 20 years and will be massively different in 50 years. If we do not strengthen our bonds with Canada, we are going to either have bloody wars with them or find ourselves on the starvation lines with 70+% of humanity...
I join Bobby DeNiro....FUCK TRUMP!
NickB79
(19,233 posts)And thinking how valuable the food I grow on my permacultured mini-farm will be to my daughter and her family 30 years from now. She might be replacing the apples and plums with oranges and bananas by the time I'm dead though
procon
(15,805 posts)Where are the studies to identify all the coastal cities and communities at risk from rising waters, the damage assessments, the solutions and the fiscal impact to local, state and federal budgets? The inaction will cost us far more than trying to implement measures to address the problems that are coming.
jalan48
(13,852 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)...and the world. They need to shut up with their evil lies.
LiberalArkie
(15,705 posts)calimary
(81,179 posts)Cold War Spook
(1,279 posts)The planet will survive although new species or changes in plants and animals will probably happen. The best thing that could happen for humanity is a virus that kills at least 7 billion people.
aeromanKC
(3,322 posts)It's all good, right??