Some glacier meltdown past point of no return
In the gospel this Sunday the risen Lord promises to return for his disciples and take them to new dwelling places prepared for them. We may need those dwelling places in the not-distant future, if global temperatures continue to rise unabated. As it stands, two studies released Monday signal . . .
In the gospel this Sunday the risen Lord promises to return for his disciples and take them to new dwelling places prepared for them. We may need those dwelling places in the not-distant future, if global temperatures continue to rise unabated. As it stands, two studies released Monday signal that five glaciers in West Antarctica are undergoing irreversible decline extending over the next several hundred years, signaling a rise in sea levels anywhere from 4-12 feet.
The glaciers that feed continental ice from Antarctica into the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean—glaciers long seen as the soft underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet—are undergoing irreversible melting, the new studies indicate. The glaciers flowing into these waters, Antarctica's Amundsen Sea, carry enough ice to raise sea levels by nearly 4 feet, with effects that cascade to other sections of the ice sheet.
"We have passed the point of no return," said Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California at Irvine and the lead author of the study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The glaciers' retreat "will also influence adjacent sectors of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which could triple this contribution to sea level," he said during a briefing Monday. This would amount to a global average of 10-12 feet of sea-level rise.
Estimates of the timing involved for the retreat of one of the two largest glaciers, the Thwaites Glacier, range from 200 to 900 years, according to another study, set to be published Friday in the journal Science. Through the rest of this century, the study anticipates relatively modest additions to sea level from Thwaites, after which the glacier's retreat accelerates. Regardless of the time span, however, the loss of the glaciers is virtually unstoppable, the researchers said.
Homily hint: In ages past miners would keep a canary in a mineshaft because if it passed out and stopped singing, they knew something was wrong with the air and they would head for the exits. When it comes to Mother Earth, there is no exit we know of. The polar icecap is our canary: Are we listening to its weakening song?
The glaciers that feed continental ice from Antarctica into the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean—glaciers long seen as the soft underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet—are undergoing irreversible melting, the new studies indicate. The glaciers flowing into these waters, Antarctica's Amundsen Sea, carry enough ice to raise sea levels by nearly 4 feet, with effects that cascade to other sections of the ice sheet.
"We have passed the point of no return," said Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California at Irvine and the lead author of the study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The glaciers' retreat "will also influence adjacent sectors of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which could triple this contribution to sea level," he said during a briefing Monday. This would amount to a global average of 10-12 feet of sea-level rise.
Estimates of the timing involved for the retreat of one of the two largest glaciers, the Thwaites Glacier, range from 200 to 900 years, according to another study, set to be published Friday in the journal Science. Through the rest of this century, the study anticipates relatively modest additions to sea level from Thwaites, after which the glacier's retreat accelerates. Regardless of the time span, however, the loss of the glaciers is virtually unstoppable, the researchers said.
Homily hint: In ages past miners would keep a canary in a mineshaft because if it passed out and stopped singing, they knew something was wrong with the air and they would head for the exits. When it comes to Mother Earth, there is no exit we know of. The polar icecap is our canary: Are we listening to its weakening song?
Source: An article by Pete Spotts for the Christian Science Monitor
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