This Melting Glacier in Antarctica Could Raise Sea Levels By 11 Feet

The Earth’s climate, it seems, isn’t listening to the politicians that are insisting it’s not warming. The temperature continues to rise incrementally, and the globe’s large glaciers—giant vaults of stored water—continue to melt, releasing into the oceans. The global sea level, due to thermal expansion and glacial melting, continues to rise, building up a head of steam like a train …

Tim Radford -Antarctic glacier melt could raise sea level by 3m

LONDON, 21 May, 2016 – One of Antarctica’s great glaciers could become unstable if global warming continues at the present pace. As warm seas wash the ice shelf, the land-based mass of ice could begin to retreat, cross a critical threshold in the present century and then withdraw 300 kilometres inland. In the course of doing so it would spill …

Bill McKibben – The Time Has Come to Turn Up the Heat on Those Who are Wrecking Planet Earth

An interesting question is, what are you waiting for? Global warming is the biggest problem we’ve ever faced as a civilisation — certainly you want to act to slow it down, but perhaps you’ve been waiting for just the right moment. The moment when, oh, marine biologists across the Pacific begin weeping in their scuba masks as they dive on reefs …

New Study Shows Antarctic Melting Approaching ‘Unstoppable’ Tipping Point

‘What we call the eternal ice of Antarctica unfortunately turns out not to be eternal at all,’ says lead author of new study A new study published Monday warns that “unstoppable” melting in West Antarctica could make a three-meter increase in sea level “unavoidable.” According to researchers at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the vulnerable Amundsen Sea sector …

The Fingerprints of Sea Level Rise

When you fill a sink, the water rises at the same rate to the same height in every corner. That’s not the way it works with our rising seas. According to the 23-year record of satellite data from NASA and its partners, the sea level is rising a few millimeters a year – a fraction of an inch. If you …

Strong geothermal heating measured beneath West Antarctic Ice Sheet – SPACE DAILY

A surprisingly high amount of geothermal heating has been measured underneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Using a lengthy probe, researchers measured the flow of heat in the sediments below the ice sheet. A significant flow of heat is traveling upward form the geothermal sources toward the base of the ice. …

“Ground Zero” Moves to Antarctica

Peru’s Quelccaya Ice Cap (alt. 17,950 ft.), the world’s largest tropical ice cap, will likely lose another 400-600 feet of ice before the final presidential nominating debates in March/April 2016. All of which brings to mind, wouldn’t it be interesting to ask the prospective presidential nominees this question: What are the implications of Antarctica suddenly becoming “ground zero” for global …

As Antarctica Melts Away, Seas Could Rise Ten Feet Within 100 Years

Rapid melting of Antarctic ice could push sea levels up 10 feet worldwide within two centuries, “recurving” heavily populated coastlines and essentially reshaping the world, the Associated Press reported Friday. Parts of Antarctica are thawing so quickly, the continent has become “ground zero of global climate change without a doubt,” Harvard geophysicist Jerry Mitrovica told AP. The Antarctic Peninsula, including the vulnerable West Antarctic ice sheet, …