Antarctica loses 3 trillion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2017

[Judi Lynn]

BY STEVE RINTOUL AND STEVEN CHOWN |JUNE 14, 2018

IN VULNURABLE WEST Antarctica, the annual rate of ice loss has tripled during that period, reaching 159 billion tonnes a year. Overall, enough ice has been lost from Antarctica over the past quarter-century to raise global seas by 8 millimetres.

What will Antarctica look like in the year 2070, and how will changes in Antarctica impact the rest of the globe? The answer to these questions depends on choices we make in the next decade, as outlined in our accompanying paper, also published today in Nature.

Our research contrasts two potential narratives for Antarctica over the coming half-century – a story that will play out within the lifetimes of today’s children and young adults.

While the two scenarios are necessarily speculative, two things are certain. The first is that once significant changes occur in Antarctica, we are committed to centuries of further, irreversible change on global scales. The second is that we don’t have much time – the narrative that eventually plays out will depend on choices made in the coming decade.

More:
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2018/06/antarctic-loses-3-trillion-tonnes-of-ice

[democratisphere]

1. Sixth Mass Extinction looms because humans can never get

their sh't together nor can they work together.

[Boomer]

3. It's a tall order

Humans are not wired to work well in a group larger than about 100 individuals, so expecting us to coordinate 7 billion people at a global level is just not reasonable.

We're a victim of our own short-term success as a very clever species when it comes to manipulating our environment. But the consequences have badly outstripped our organizational abilities. We can't share world views and develop a consensus for action on the massive scale that would be required to avoid climate change (assuming there was enough time left to do this, which there's not). The greatest frustration is that we're just at that Cassandra boundary where some individuals can extrapolate enough to see the cliff that we're about to dive off of, but we don't have the emotional/psychological and logistical systems to turn that awareness into coordinated action among all individuals.

When it comes down to it, we're not that much more evolved than other species that destroy their own ecological niche through overpopulation and resource plundering. We're driven by the same needs and urges, only slightly moderated by a tinge of self-awareness.

I've given up on self-flaggelation for humanity's shortfalls.

[Boomer]

2. Who stopped the clock?

I've been hearing the mantra "We only have about ten years in which to make changes" for at least the last 15 or 20 years. I'm guessing we've run out of time, but no one wants to admit it. The changes are irreversible, the feedback loops will soon overmatch any changes that we make (which we're not even close to making yet anyway), and we're screwed.

[Mickju]

4. We are doomed

Only a minuscule fraction of humanity has realized it yet.