The Doomsday Glacier – Rolling Stone
Article Synopsis – As the world warms, determining exactly how quickly ice melts and seas rise may be one of the most important questions of our time. Thwaites, a large remote glacier in West Antarctica, is what scientists call “a threshold system.” That means instead of melting slowly like an ice cube on a summer day, it is more like a house of cards: It’s stable until it is pushed too far, then it collapses. It won’t happen overnight, but if we don’t slow the warming of the planet, it could happen within decades. And its loss will destabilize the rest of the West Antarctic ice, and that will go too. Seas will rise about 10 feet in many parts of the world; in other areas, like New York and Boston, the waters will rise even higher, as much as 13 feet. Although no one can say exactly how much longer the West Antarctica glaciers will remain stable, it is clear that thanks to our 200-year-long fossil-fuel binge, the collapse of West Antarctica is already underway.
My Comment – This piece is well researched, current, well written, and a substantive explanation about the very real possibility of sea levels this century rising somewhere between six and thirteen feet. And things will only get worse next century. It is a sobering reality that is difficult for all of us – that sea level and the shoreline are set to go substantially higher. Now is the time to plan and adapt. To read the actual article click here.