Missing winter sea-ice signals changes in Antarctica that could be “absolute disaster for the world”, scientists say.
Dr Caroline Holmes at the British Antarctic Survey explains that the impacts of shrinking sea-ice may become evident as the season transitions to summer - when there’s potential for an unstoppable feedback loop of ice melting.
Even modest increases in sea levels can result in dangerously high storm surges that could wipe out coastal communities. If significant amounts of land ice were to start melting, the impacts would be catastrophic for millions of people around the world.
Buckle up kids, this ride’s about to get bumpier.
it never ceases to amaze me how stupid we all are as a civilization.
we’re opting out of it, but nature will continue. this will be a very curious and fairly hospitable world full of interesting xenoarcheological mysteries… in the distant future, to a visiting spacefaring civilization.
You have to wonder if we aren’t just confirming what the Great Filter is. There may not be any space faring civilizations.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, planet gonna planet. It give zero fucks about us and will happily continue spinning long after we are gone. If civilizations get purged along the way makes no difference. Kinda makes the “evil villain” from Kingsman: The Secret Service right that we are the virus.
You know what’s most depressing? Statistically people reading this comment (people who have access to computers/phones + the internet) will have little to mild effects of climate change, compared to the BILLIONS that will perish. Humans will survive all this, but at the cost of unimaginable suffering from the silent/silenced poor.
“Humans will survive this” - I am unconvinced, I think there are very real reasons to consider the coming climate variations as an existential threat.
My new nightmare is that we manage to kill off oceanic algae and the rainforests and most us oxygen-breathers just all slowly collectively suffocate to death. Probably at a rate that we know it’s coming for humans at a certain point. Scientists would probably be able to predict it down to the week. So us humans all see our fate and are just patiently waiting for our death as we watch all the smaller mammals perish before our eyes.
Difficult to predict the future, anything is likely. But my point was if humans do survive, it’ll only be the priveleged few. Even in the last days of humanity, those who have the means will survive longer
Well, sure, the super-rich might think they can buy their way out of the global warming apocalypse right now, but when the proverbial excrement meets the oscillating appliance, I doubt their stacks of cash will make a great umbrella. Imagine their surprise when they’re left high and dry, clutching their last bottle of water in a world that values survival skills over bank account balances. It’ll be a chilly reality check for them, and I can’t help but wonder who’ll be eager to assist former wealthy folks when their wallets no longer do the talking. 🌎💸😉
Humanity will survive this but everyone will suffer the effects. Even something relatively minor like COVID had great effects to the global economy, but with these we are talking about:
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Weather inestabilization, with greater storms and massive heat waves.
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General crop failures in many places of the world.
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Desertification in many areas.
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Massive migration waves.
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Very difficult and unstable economy.
We are starting to see some of this, but 2050 onwards is going to be a very difficult time for all humanity except the most wealthy.
Humans will not survive this. Looking at Thwaits. If this glacier melts, sea levels will rise 60 meters in a few hundred years. it is like a cork that holds back the melted water of Antarctica. The sad thing is that it has already started and can no longer be stopped. The question is no longer if it will happen but when it will happen. Like an ice cube you put on the table. It will melt but it will take time.
Thwaites melting would raise water levels by 0.6 meters, not 60 meters. You’re off by a factor of 100x
No, I don’t just mean Thwaites. If the ice also runs off onto the mainland behind it, the sea level will rise by 60 meters. Thwaits is currently holding it back like a cork.
It’s happening so fast now… I always thought we would have more time
I actually did think it would speed up like this.
…but not for science reasons, it’s just, I know from defrosting the freezer that it does not melt at a steady rate but gets faster and faster.
look this is going to sound horrible but – i was born in 1996, i’ve been hearing this shit all my life, climate catastrophe, uninhabitable planet…i’m just waiting for a spectacular collapse so i can stop having the background anxiety about it and we can live our lives like in our favorite post-apocalyptic films
Unfortunately, large-scale systems change slowly due to inertia and the distances involved. Unless you introduce extreme amounts of energy like the dinosaur killing meteor.
Even then it’s happening ridiculously fast considering changes of this scale typically happen over tens of thousands of years at least.
God yeah. This is like a tease that has been happening for decades. I cannot wait to normalize living in bunkers.
I always think of it like an exponential function. There seems like nothing until it starts skyrocketing… The ocean/ice/atmosphere has had enough of our added heat and greenhouse gases to the point of no return, and it is just getting started. I often think of it like a glass of water getting hot in the sun after all the ice melts… and now the warming is always “faster than expected”
