The Antarctic Ice Sheet Has Started to Collapse and Nothing Can Stop It

[Kazimiera]

The Antarctic Ice Sheet Has Started to Collapse and Nothing Can Stop It

For years, scientists have feared the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet—a vast swath of ice that could unleash a slow but unstoppable 10-foot rise in sea levels if it melted. So here is today's terrible news: we now know the ice sheet is melting. And there's pretty much nothing we can do to about it.

The accelerating collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is reported by two different teams of scientists, in the journals Science and Geophysical Research Letters. Its collapse has been predicted for decades, most prominently by glaciologist John Mercer, but this is the first tangible evidence that it's actually now happening. Warmer waters are most likely responsible for the melting.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uZ3mxy8G978

When the members of the US Women’s Ski Jumping Team saw this video, they were so moved that they invited Zia to the Olympic Park in Park City to meet them in person.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3mIlDRA3Gew/U3HmKHeTCuI/AAAAAAAAIsI/lGbWJtx9uG0/s1600/The+Antarctic+Ice+Sheet+Has+Started+to+Collapse+an d+Nothing+Can+Stop+It.jpg
The Thwaites Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

The New York Times explains why the position of the ice sheet makes it especially vulnerable to runway melting:

The basic problem is that much of the West Antarctic ice sheet sits below sea level in a kind of bowl-shaped depression [in] the earth. As Dr. Mercer outlined in 1978, once the part of the ice sheet sitting on the rim of the bowl melts and the ice retreats into deeper water, it becomes unstable and highly vulnerable to further melting
This is no longer just speculation or the plot of a blockbuster film. "This is really happening," NASA's Thomas P. Wagner emphasized to the New York Times. "There's nothing to stop it now."

The relative good news is that the melting will take place over a few hundred years—so take a breath—but it means an inevitable 10-foot rise in sea level. That's enough to engulf large tracts of coast all over the world. Plan accordingly, humans.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eL_xMXJKqrI/U3HoAdM9ORI/AAAAAAAAIsU/eAQj1xy_Cf4/s1600/The+Antarctic+Ice+Sheet+Has+Started+to+Collapse+an d+Nothing+Can+Stop+It!.png


Source: http://www.snowaddiction.org/2014/05/the-antarctic-ice-sheet-has-started-to-collapse-and-nothing-can-stop-it.html

[Tooting Carmen]

Beware climate change sceptics...

[Smaug]

Hundred years? I wont live to see it :(

[Tooting Carmen]

Hundred years? I wont live to see it :(

But your descendants will.

[Icel]

The way we've constructed our modern economies is just, simply, not sustainable.

[Scandalf]

Beware climate change sceptics...

They're called "Climate Change Deniers". In the mean time Russia is claiming portions of the Arctic that are "not melting". Go figure that one out...

[Äijä]

Beware climate change sceptics...

Climate changes all the time, sometimes we have ice ages, sometimes meteors hit and kill almost all life, the human input in all this is irrelevant.

[Damião de Góis]

The Arctic is in much worse shape and will likely colapse first.

[Scandalf]

Climate changes all the time, sometimes we have ice ages, sometimes meteors hit and kill almost all life, the human input in all this is irrelevant.

Yes it is, and will be ever more. Industrialization and development are exponential and more than just proportional to the World's population increase.

[Äijä]

Yes it is, and will be ever more. Industrialization and development are exponential and more than just proportional to the World's population increase.

Well that is a problem for those that overpopulate, I hope we close the borders and enjoy our warming weather.

[Smaug]

But your descendants will.

Lucky bastards!

[Vasconcelos]

Well that is a problem for those that overconsume

Fixed

[Melina]

O well... What can we do? If it happens, it happens. I don't care. Maybe it is how life is. We have no control on some things. We are insignificant in this universe. If we die the universe will keep going without a care in the world.

[Äijä]

Fixed

We can actually be self-sufficient and dont really need anyone, Finns could live well even if rest of the world would die out, most of our population can turn in to farmers and hunter gatherers in a week.

[LightHouse89]

oh well.....maybe this time Washington dc will get flushed out to sea and no more phony wars. half the worlds population dies and then we arrive to an equilibrium..... I do not understand all of this fuss....nature corrects itself and large amounts of species will disappear and hopefully we learn our lesson....we are not invincible....and no god is looking out for us... that's how I se it. If people wanted to change they would have done something about it awhile ago....what are people doing now? well all the major powers are rushing to the North Pole for the oil deposits....so I mean things are okay I wouldn't worry too much....the polar bears will become extinct but so what. One thing is for sure....I saw a projection that India and Africa are going to be screwed, Africa more so because of massive droughts. I thin the middle east will suffer heavily too.

[LightHouse89]

We can actually be self-sufficient and dont really need anyone, Finns could live well even if rest of the world would die out, most of our population can turn in to farmers and hunter gatherers in a week.

same here the whether where I live in America is okay except winters can be tough but not impossible to survive....the land is excellent for farming. rich soil. It literally is like central Europe here and we have four seasons...so we would be fine....I cannot say for the cowboys out west and their big herds will be okay.

[arcticwolf]

same here the whether where I live in America is okay except winters can be tough but not impossible to survive....the land is excellent for farming. rich soil. It literally is like central Europe here and we have four seasons...so we would be fine....I cannot say for the cowboys out west and their big herds will be okay.

LOL

Dude you don't know what cold is! Visit the Northern Mid-West, especially East Montana, North Dakota for a taste of it! You live in the Tropics, you just don't know it yet! :laugh:

[LightHouse89]

LOL

Dude you don't know what cold is! Visit the Northern Mid-West, especially East Montana, North Dakota for a taste of it! You live in the Tropics, you just don't know it yet! :laugh:

Not really. It gets into the minuses and we get alot of snow. About an hour north of us is even colder....Maine forget it your in Canada where it is really cold in the winter. If you notice most middle class people driving 4 wheel driver areas you know right then and there the winters are harsh :p Our summers are hot too.

[arcticwolf]

Not really. It gets into the minuses and we get alot of snow. About an hour north of us is even colder....Maine forget it your in Canada where it is really cold in the winter. If you notice most middle class people driving 4 wheel driver areas you know right then and there the winters are harsh :p Our summers are hot too.

Dude, when it gets to be -10 I get hot lol

Trust me on this, when it is 40 below zero and -50 with the wind chill, no trees or mountains to break the wind it is cold. No matter how bad you think you have it's pleasant and balmy compared to Northern Mid-West. If your car breaks down a mile from your house during blizzard, you'll not make it alive to your house on foot, if you leave your car, it is that cold.
You have to expeience it to understand it.

When it is -10 I get hot, and sweat! :laugh:

[SkyBurn]

It's simple really. Climate change deniers are climate change deniers simply because it suits them.

As long as they refuse to even look at the evidence, they can continue to live their lives with no alterations and make big bucks doing so.


O well... What can we do? If it happens, it happens. I don't care. Maybe it is how life is. We have no control on some things. We are insignificant in this universe. If we die the universe will keep going without a care in the world.

That's a terrible attitude, seeing as this will kill an unmeasurable number of species, purely because some people want to keep shitting where they eat. Just because Earth is a nothing in comparison to the universe, doesn't mean it has no importance. By that logic, why have any laws at all, if they're all meaningless in the grand scheme of things?

It's that future generations that will pay, not you. Which makes comment read as a very selfish remark.

[Äijä]

It's simple really. Climate change deniers are climate change deniers simply because it suits them.

As long as they refuse to even look at the evidence, they can continue to live their lives with no alterations and make big bucks doing so.



That's a terrible attitude, seeing as this will kill an unmeasurable number of species, purely because some people want to keep shitting where they eat. Just because Earth is a nothing in comparison to the universe, doesn't mean it has no importance. By that logic, why have any laws at all, if they're all meaningless in the grand scheme of things?

It's that future generations that will pay, not you. Which makes comment read as a very selfish remark.

Finland and Europe is paying of this climate change BS with jobs and higher energy pricess, the jobs are going to China and India that build coal powerplants, lol
It is a fucking joke, the problems are the masses of people fucking and spreading like parasites in Africa and Asia.
And if the enviromental footprint in the developed world is so much worse why the fuck are we importing those people in the developed world, more lunacy.

Global warming agenda is part of the white genocide plan.

[SkyBurn]

Global warming agenda is part of the white genocide plan.

How to lose credibility on the internet 101

[Äijä]

How to lose credibility on the internet 101

The plan to redistribute wealth and power from the developed world, opening up borders to mass migrations, ending in a massive population change with effects comparable to genocide.

[LightHouse89]

The plan to redistribute wealth and power from the developed world, opening up borders to mass migrations, ending in a massive population change with effects comparable to genocide.

well that or house the starving to death millions of Africans...........which to me would be suicide. my theory is let nature take its course the world wouldn't take us in either if we were dying off. So why bother with them?

[LightHouse89]

Dude, when it gets to be -10 I get hot lol

Trust me on this, when it is 40 below zero and -50 with the wind chill, no trees or mountains to break the wind it is cold. No matter how bad you think you have it's pleasant and balmy compared to Northern Mid-West. If your car breaks down a mile from your house during blizzard, you'll not make it alive to your house on foot, if you leave your car, it is that cold.
You have to expeience it to understand it.

When it is -10 I get hot, and sweat! :laugh:

have you ever heard how deep the snow gets in Maine? we live near the ocean so it depends..... certain days it does get freezing but not all of the time. Sometimes it even rains and no freezing or snow.

[arcticwolf]

have you ever heard how deep the snow gets in Maine? we live near the ocean so it depends..... certain days it does get freezing but not all of the time. Sometimes it even rains and no freezing or snow.

This coming winter just out of curiosity check out the temperature in the Mid-West and compare to where you live, you'll see the difference.

[LightHouse89]

This coming winter just out of curiosity check out the temperature in the Mid-West and compare to where you live, you'll see the difference.

ah so you dont live in Poland :thumb001: My neighbors are from Minnesota by the way.

[♥ Lily ♥]

It's a shame that everything changes and dies and nothing lasts forever in nature. The planet will die one day, like the sun-star...maybe humans find another planet to move to in the future? The surface of the moon named Titan orbiting the planet Saturn is evolving to be similar to our own planets earlier stages of evolution.

Geologists have predicted that the continents will look very different in the future, different types of living species, and the antarctic continent in the south pole will be a rainforest 100 million years from now. Old things die so new things can emerge in nature. It's a pity about the ice-sheet along with the melting ice-caps in the arctic region in the north pole for the very ancient arctic wolves and the polar bears and seals.

The melting ice-caps are causing the sea-levels to rise more, whilst the lands are sinking down. Floods are becoming an increasing problem and the coastline is being eroded and falling off into the seas.

Without the massive Thames Flood Barrier protecting the City of London, (which is 3 metres above sea level) we'd be underwater by now according to scientists. The River Thames is a big river running through the entire low-laying city which connects to canals running through the city too.

A big tidal force pressure from the north comes down from the North Sea into the Thames Estuary and along the River Thames which runs through the entire city. The North Sea pressure affects the Netherlands too, but they have the worlds largest flood protection in place to protect them.

New York has suffered serious floods in recent years and they didn't invest in any flood barriers. I think more cities where millions of people live will need to invest in protecting themselves against the increasing water levels and flood risks which are resulting from the melting ice-caps. Venice is also at risk of flooding, and Miami too.

Maybe a solution to the rising ocean and sea levels threatening to engulf the lands would be to suck ocean and sea water into large vacuum type tubes and place it in containers, put it in a rocket and dispose of it in space where it can evaporate maybe?:confused:

So much money is spent building weapons of mass destruction each year instead of building more flood defences. It's ironic that our government urges the British public to save energy when they're dropping uranium bombs in Libya, which not only causes birth defects in the surrounding region, but it can't be beneficial for the environment either. This planet is being trashed and it's our only home.

[Svipdag]

The problem here arises from thinking from a short-term human viewpoint. Geological, glaciological, and climatological phenomena operate on a long time scale. Centuries are insignificant as indicators of long-term trends in which major changes take place in tens to hundreds of thousands of years. In these changes events taking a few centuries are mere glitches in the overall pattern.

Glacial retreat started around 13,000 years ago. Like past episodes of glacial retreat, this one has been interrupted by reversals and accelerations. That is the way it works. What happens over ten years or over a century is irrelevant. If this deglaciation is the beginning of an Interglacial Age, we can expect the whole Age to last at least 100,000 years, if it is like those of the past. With occasional halts, reversal, and lurches forward, global temperatures , averaged over tens of thousands of years will unsteadily increase for at least another 40,000 years, even though, for a few centuries, the temperature may DEcrease, from time to time.

If this warming trend is only a pause in the Wisconsinan or Wuerm Ice age, it could end at any time with a return to glacial conditions, possibly with a return of the 3-km. thick Laurentide continental ice sheet in eastern Canada, and extensive glaciation in eastern and northern Europe. WE DO NOT KNOW the significance of the average warming over the past 13,000 years.

If we are entering an Interglacial Age, we must be prepared for rising sea levels, shift of climatic belts, desertification of some agricultural areas and, inevitably, major demographic shifts. If this is but an Interstadial glitch, God help us ! We are not capable of coping with a return to Ice Age conditions. We must expect major geographical changes and HUGE population shifts, which will not be peaceful or orderly !

We cannot control these processes. We did not start them and we can't stop them. If we never burn another atom of carbon,if we are
heading into an Interglacial Age, temperatures, on the long-term average WILL rise, no matter WHAT we do. If we are facing a return of the Ice Age, all of the global warming we are capable of producing won't keep us from freezing.

[Melina]

It's simple really. Climate change deniers are climate change deniers simply because it suits them.

As long as they refuse to even look at the evidence, they can continue to live their lives with no alterations and make big bucks doing so.



That's a terrible attitude, seeing as this will kill an unmeasurable number of species, purely because some people want to keep shitting where they eat. Just because Earth is a nothing in comparison to the universe, doesn't mean it has no importance. By that logic, why have any laws at all, if they're all meaningless in the grand scheme of things?

It's that future generations that will pay, not you. Which makes comment read as a very selfish remark.

Earth is of no importance. That is the point I am trying to make. We have a infinite universe with infinite possibilities. What is the point of human evolution and advancement of knowledge when people say it is against the planet. If it is against the earth then why do we have all this knowledge?

The truth is we live and then we die. Then someone else takes our place. That is all. What do I care of future generations? We won't be live anyways. Selfish? maybe. Do you really think people are going to stop doing what they are doing to indulge the superstitious belief of global warming? People work to survive everyday and they don't have time to think of what might happen in hundreds of years from now. All they can think about is the now. That is reality.

[SardiniaAtlantis]

I constantly worry about this, and the future of my home.

[SardiniaAtlantis]

O well... What can we do? If it happens, it happens. I don't care. Maybe it is how life is. We have no control on some things. We are insignificant in this universe. If we die the universe will keep going without a care in the world.

Your family comes from two Islands how could you not care? Perhaps because your origins lie outside the Islands, but wouldnt you want those Islands to be safe?

[Melina]

Your family comes from two Islands how could you not care? Perhaps because your origins lie outside the Islands, but wouldnt you want those Islands to be safe?

Things will happen regardless. If a meteorite strikes DR tomorrow then how was there saving it? If there is a tsunami tomorrow it was out of our hands. That is what you don't get. There is evidence that the world is expanding therefor tectonic plates "move". Sure I would want them to be safe bt you can't change things that are out of our hands. So should we go back to the stone age? What is it that you suggest?

[SardiniaAtlantis]

Things will happen regardless. If a meteorite strikes DR tomorrow then how was there saving it? If there is a tsunami tomorrow it was out of our hands. That is what you don't get. There is evidence that the world is expanding therefor tectonic plates "move". Sure I would want them to be safe bt you can't change things that are out of our hands. So should we go back to the stone age? What is it that you suggest?

Going back to the stone age won't shift things now, like the article said this is irreversible. It is simply the nonchalant attitude of not giving a damn that I don't get. You did grow up in a huge land mass the US and the attitude with which you responded reflects the American influence that a large land mass can have on your mentality in such an issue. Islands are the ones that will suffer the most.

[Melina]

Going back to the stone age won't shift things now, like the article said this is irreversible. It is simply the nonchalant attitude of not giving a damn that I don't get. You did grow up in a huge land mass the US and the attitude with which you responded reflects the American influence that a large land mass can have on your mentality in such an issue. Islands are the ones that will suffer the most.

What do want me to do? Pretend I care what is going to happen hundreds of years from now? I don't care. Since it is irreversible there is no point in going nuts over it anyway. Why not concentrate all the energy towards things that really matter like4 knowing why the hell do we exist. Where do we come from. What happens after we die. There is no real purpose in this earth when we don't even know why we are here. That is why people have religion and some kind of faith.

[SardiniaAtlantis]

What do want me to do? Pretend I care what is going to happen hundreds of years from now? I don't care. Since it is irreversible there is no point in going nuts over it anyway. Why not concentrate all the energy towards things that really matter like4 knowing why the hell do we exist. Where do we come from. What happens after we die. There is no real purpose in this earth when we don't even know why we are here. That is why people have religion and some kind of faith.

I guess your attachment to your families islands is clearly not that strong. I certainly care. Mass migrations loss of homeland, loss of culture... I shudder to think of it. As far as why we are here the answer is very simple. This Earth produced the most intelligent and well equipped morphologically creatures that it could in order to aid the balance upon the Earth and we fucked it all up instead.

[Breedingvariety]

First of all, it's all bs. Second of all, global warming would be a good thing. The warmer the world gets the more it is conducive to life. Equator is full of life, poles are lifeless.

We exhale carbon dioxide. War against carbon dioxide is war against breathing and all life.

To reiterate- it's all bs.

[Krampus]

About time someone showed those penguin bastards

[SardiniaAtlantis]

What do want me to do? Pretend I care what is going to happen hundreds of years from now? I don't care. Since it is irreversible there is no point in going nuts over it anyway. Why not concentrate all the energy towards things that really matter like4 knowing why the hell do we exist. Where do we come from. What happens after we die. There is no real purpose in this earth when we don't even know why we are here. That is why people have religion and some kind of faith.

Btw its exactly that kind of non-caring that got us here in the first place.

[SkyBurn]

The truth is we live and then we die. Then someone else takes our place. That is all. What do I care of future generations? We won't be live anyways. Selfish? maybe. Do you really think people are going to stop doing what they are doing to indulge the superstitious belief of global warming? People work to survive everyday and they don't have time to think of what might happen in hundreds of years from now. All they can think about is the now. That is reality.

For somebody who find race mixing disgusting, this seems remarkably contradictory.

[Han Cholo]

The Arctic is in much worse shape and will likely colapse first.

Especially considering there's no background landmass to sustain it.

[Äijä]

The problem here arises from thinking from a short-term human viewpoint. Geological, glaciological, and climatological phenomena operate on a long time scale. Centuries are insignificant as indicators of long-term trends in which major changes take place in tens to hundreds of thousands of years. In these changes events taking a few centuries are mere glitches in the overall pattern.

Glacial retreat started around 13,000 years ago. Like past episodes of glacial retreat, this one has been interrupted by reversals and accelerations. That is the way it works. What happens over ten years or over a century is irrelevant. If this deglaciation is the beginning of an Interglacial Age, we can expect the whole Age to last at least 100,000 years, if it is like those of the past. with occasional halts, reversal, and lurches forward, global temperatures , averaged over tens of thousands of years will unsteadily increase for at least another 40,000 years, even though, for a few centuries, the temperature may DEcrease, from time to time.

If this warming trend is only a pause in the Wisconsinan or Wuerm Ice age, it could end at any time with a return to glacial conditions, possibly with a return of the 3-km. thick Laurentide continental ice sheet in eastern Canada, and extensive glaciation in eastern and northern Europe. WE DO NOT KNOW the significance of the average warming over the past 13,000 years.

If we are entering an Interglacial Age, we must be prepared for rising sea levels, shift of climatic belts, desertification of some agricultural areas and, inevitably, major demographic shifts. If this is but an Interstadial glitch, God help us ! We are not capable of coping with a return to Ice Age conditions. We must expect major geographical changes and HUGE population shifts, which will not be peaceful or orderly !

We cannot control these processes. We did not start them and we can't stop them. If we never burn another atom of carbon,if we are
heading into an Interglacial Age, temperatures, on the long-term average WILL rise, no matter WHAT we do. If we are facing a return of the Ice Age, all of the global warming we are capable of producing won't keep us from freezing.

+1

[Smaug]

Global Warming is a myth. We are just going through a natural heating, which has already happened during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages, and is very well documented. Some Roman sources talk about olive trees being planted in Britannia.

[Styrian Mujo]

But your descendants will.
Climate changes all the time with or without humans.

[Styrian Mujo]

I think climate changes are essential to human evolution. Human populations from colder climates seem to have evolved traits like high intellignce and creativity and if we enter a new ice age than this modern society/system will collapse and most won't be able to cope with the new conditions therefore only the best,the healthiest most intelligent will survive and reproduce and so the cycle continues...

[LightHouse89]

I think global warming will mean......long summers....lots of hot babes all year round dressing half naked.....so what is to not like about it? LOL

[Melina]

For somebody who find race mixing disgusting, this seems remarkably contradictory.

Racemixing can be controlled. In this day and age there are many ways to not get pregnant and have a mongrel child. Everyone knows children are a product of sex these days. On the other hand if there is a tsunami or if the water levels go up there is little we could do.

[Svipdag]

Global Warming is a myth. We are just going through a natural heating, which has already happened during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages, and is very well documented. Some Roman sources talk about olive trees being planted in Britannia.

That is exactly what global warming is: natural heating. Global warming induced by human activity is a myth. But, there certainly is and has been global warming. Between 13,000 BP and 8,500 BP some 20,000,000 CUBIC KILOMETERS (approximately 20 trillion metric tons) of ice in the Laurentide Ice Sheet melted in 4500 years. THAT required global warming which boggles the imagination. Definitely no myth.

[Smaug]

That is exactly what global warming is. Global warming induced by human activity is a myth. But, there certainly is and has been global warming. Between 13,000 BP and 8,500 BP some 20,000,000 CUBIC KILOMETERS (approximately 20 trillion metric tons) of ice in the Laurentide Ice Sheet melted in 4500 years. THAT required global warming which boggles the imagination. Definitely no myth.

True, I chose the wrong words to express myself. What I meant is that global warning as it is spread in media today, as a consequence of Human activities, is a myth.

[Svipdag]

True, I chose the wrong words to express myself. What I meant is that global warning as it is spread in media today, as a consequence of Human activities, is a myth.

Right. You'll get no argument from me on that. Every major volcanic eruption releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than has all of the combustion of fossil fuels in human history.