Antarctic thaw rings alarm bells

[cal04]

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1551249

Alarm bells are ringing about risks of a quickening thaw of Antarctica that would drive up world sea levels, Norway's Prime Minister said after a visit to the icy continent.

Scientists say there are hard-to-quantify chances that newly detected lakes under Antarctica's ice sheets might lubricate a slide towards the oceans, or that climate change could warm southern seas and melt floating sea ice holding back glaciers.

"It is alarming. Alarm bells are ringing. It is irresponsible for decision-makers to ignore these signals," Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg told Reuters at the end of a two-day visit to Norway's Troll station in east Antarctica.

Norway set an ambitious goal last week of becoming "carbon neutral" by 2030 - cutting its net emissions from burning fossil fuels to zero.

[pscot]

1. If an alarm goes off at Troll Station

and nobody wants to hear it, does it make any noise? Apparently not.

[hogwyld]

2. It's already waaaaay too late to effect change

It took humanity 1000's of years to screw up this home, we aren't going to be able to fix it in 10. At this point, I believe we are just in it for the ride.