New Studies Suggest Many Coastal Cities Eventually to Be Abandoned with Antarctic Ice Collapse - by Joe Romm

New studies in Science and Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) find that glaciers in the Amundsen Sea region of the great Antarctic ice sheet have begun the process of irreversible collapse.  That by itself would raise sea levels 4 feet in the coming centuries.

But more importantly, these glaciers act “as a linchpin on the rest of the [West Antarctic] ice sheet, which contains enough ice to cause” a total of 12 to 15 feet of global sea level rise, as the University of Washington news release for the Science study explains.

What most of the media has failed to emphasize is that 1) this is not a worst-case scenario and 2) failure to curb carbon pollution ASAP will result in vastly higher levels of sea level rise that devastate the world’s coastlines.

I’ll end with the comments sent to me by sea-level-rise expert Stefan Rahmstorf, Co-Chair of Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research:

What climate scientists have feared for decades is now beginning to come true:  We are pushing the climate system across dangerous tipping points. Beyond such points things like ice sheet collapse become self-sustaining and unstoppable, committing our children and children’s children to massive problems.  The new studies strongly suggest the first of these tipping points has already been crossed.  More tipping points lie ahead of us.  I think we should try hard to avoid crossing them.

New Studies Suggest Many Coastal Cities Eventually to Be Abandoned with Antarctic Ice Collapse - by Joe Romm