‘Point Of No Return’: NASA Says The Ice Sheet Collapse In West Antarctica Is ‘Unstoppable’/RawStory

[WillyT]

‘Point of no return’: NASA says the ice sheet collapse in West Antarctica is ‘unstoppable’
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, May 12, 2014 16:16 EDT



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Ice is melting in the western Antarctic at an “unstoppable” pace, scientists said Monday, warning that the discovery holds major consequences for global sea level rise in the coming decades.

The speedy melting means that prior calculations of sea level rise worldwide made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will have to be adjusted upwards, scientists told reporters.

“A large sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet has gone into a state of irreversible retreat. It has passed the point of no return,” said Eric Rignot, professor of Earth system science at the University of California Irvine.

“The retreat of ice is unstoppable,” he said, noting that surveys have shown there is no large hill at the back of these glaciers that could hold back the melting ice.

Scientists have been warning about this so-called weak underbelly of western Antarctic for decades, but only since the 1990s have scientists been able to gather detailed information on this remote area.

The results are included in pair of published studies that document observational changes in the Antarctic in recent years, and predict the future behavior of the melting ice through computer models.

“This retreat will have major consequences for sea level rise worldwide,” Rignot added, anticipating the melting will take place largely in the next two centuries.

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More: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/12/point-of-no-return-nasa-says-the-ice-sheet-collapse-in-west-antarctica-is-unstoppable/

[yeoman6987]

1. anticipating the melting will take place largely in the next two centuries.

I know everyone of us, our kids and most likely our grandchildren are going to be dead, but are we just going to let it happen? NASA is saying NOTHING can be done? I mean we sent somebody to the moon. We can't do anything???? I am sorry but I just don't believe that. I am not trying to be rude, but that is just stunning. I guess we all just go back to our lives and not worry about 200 years from now. I am a little sad to be honest.

[kestrel91316]

3. People are too self-centered and sellfish to make a few personal sacrifices to

help fight climate change.

Don't blame me: I still don't have a car, and I'm still mostly vegan.

[yewberry]

2. See also

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024943354

It ain't good.

[WillyT]

4. Thank You...

[WillyT]

5. Florida... The New Venice...