The big melt: Antarctica's retreating ice may re-shape Earth

[Judi Lynn]

The big melt: Antarctica's retreating ice may re-shape Earth
By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press |
February 26, 2015 | Updated: February 27, 2015 3:38pm

CAPE LEGOUPIL, Antarctica (AP) — From the ground in this extreme northern part of Antarctica, spectacularly white and blinding ice seems to extend forever. What can't be seen is the battle raging thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) below to re-shape Earth.

Water is eating away at the Antarctic ice, melting it where it hits the oceans. As the ice sheets slowly thaw, water pours into the sea — 130 billion tons of ice (118 billion metric tons) per year for the past decade, according to NASA satellite calculations. That's the weight of more than 356,000 Empire State Buildings, enough ice melt to fill more than 1.3 million Olympic swimming pools. And the melting is accelerating.

In the worst case scenario, Antarctica's melt could push sea levels up 10 feet (3 meters) worldwide in a century or two, recurving heavily populated coastlines.

Parts of Antarctica are melting so rapidly it has become "ground zero of global climate change without a doubt," said Harvard geophysicist Jerry Mitrovica.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/The-big-melt-Antarctica-s-retreating-ice-may-6104806.php

[marym625]

1. besides the obvious

What is scary about this for me, is everything is happening faster than scientists previously thought. The winters in most of the country are horrible the last couple of years because of global warming. I suspect we have already hit a point of no return.

I have not read enough of the science to even pretend to know all the ramifications, or if there is any possibility of stopping this, never mind reversing this. But it becomes more and more frightening with every report, written for a layperson, that comes.

Thanks for the post, Judi Lynn.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. My two strongest pieces of advice for you are...

...to:

1) Follow the posts here in Environment/Energy like a hawk. It's amazing how much you can learn from some of the most prolific authors in this one single forum, and I personally feel I owe them a serious debt of gratitude.

2) Don't believe much -- or frankly, any -- of this "100 or 200 years down the line" cock and bull. Every time they lower the predictions, they end up having to lower them yet again in a matter of just a few years (or sometimes even months)! If the methane clathrate gun goes off, we could be in absolute hell in a matter of a decade.

[marym625]

3. I do

And I don't.

Good advice. Thank you