Antarctica Is Melting Three Times As Fast As a Decade Ago (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Between 60 and 90 percent of the world's fresh water is frozen in the ice sheets of Antarctica, a continent roughly the size of the United States and Mexico combined. If all that ice melted, it would be enough to raise the world's sea levels by roughly 200 feet. While that won't happen overnight, Antarctica is indeed melting, and a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that the melting is speeding up. The rate at which Antarctica is losing ice has tripled since 2007, according to the latest available data. The continent is now melting so fast, scientists say, that it will contribute six inches (15 centimeters) to sea-level rise by 2100. That is at the upper end of what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated Antarctica alone could contribute to sea level rise this century.

"Around Brooklyn you get flooding once a year or so, but if you raise sea level by 15 centimeters then that's going to happen 20 times a year," said Andrew Shepherd, a professor of earth observation at the University of Leeds and the lead author of the study. Even under ordinary conditions, Antarctica's landscape is perpetually changing as icebergs calve, snow falls and ice melts on the surface, forming glacial sinkholes known as moulins. But what concerns scientists is the balance of how much snow and ice accumulates in a given year versus the amount that is lost.

Comments

Flyover country = Safe country.

[Seven Spirals]

I can't say I'm going to be all teary-eyed watching the coastal assholes paddle around in their own waste. The only downside is they are going to come RUNNING inland and make real estate in "flyover country" a lot more expensive. Couldn't they just stay there and drown or at the very least, stay there and paddle around like polar bears or Venetians?

Re:Yes, The World Is Returning To Normal

[cayenne8]

So what? From a human perspective (arguably the thing that matters most to you and me), normal is what we have now, and any deviations from that are going to cause us pain and suffering. It might be inevitable, but it's absolutely in our best interest to have it happen as slowly as possible. Cities, industries, and crops are where they are; moving them or hardening them is gonna be hella expensive and would be better done over long periods of time. Not to mention that really fast rates of change could destabilize the very fabric of our societies. That's nice that we're in an "ice age", but it means diddly squat to whether or not we should be trying to reduce our contribution to climate change.

Yes, but on the other hand, by the time all this happens, I'll be WELL into my "dirt nap"...and well, I don't really care that much, nor am I frightened of it.....

Now, if they figure how to prolong my life a few 100 years, well then....I might take more notice.

But the thought of cramping my current lifestyle for something that may happen well after I"m dead, doesn't really motivate me, you know?

Re:Yes, The World Is Returning To Normal

[DarkOx]

I'm also haunted by the thought that after I'm gone my grandchildren or great-grandchildren will be cursing me for being such a selfish prick.

Ah but will they? For example lets say I don't forgo all kinds of economic opportunities in the name of reducing my carbon foot print - Might my grandchildren be glad I did not squander the family wealth on feel good BS that was likely to have little impact and was able to leave them something as a result?

The idea for 'us' at least the climate change is really a problem assumes we are going to go down the path of other self destructive policy like allow immigration in unlimited numbers and continue to play super cops all around the world. We have the capability and opportunity to isolate ourselves and our children form most of the negative effects. I for one think its pretty scummy a lot our political class A) refuses to do it and B) tries the paint folks who want to look out for our own children rather than some else's as villains.