Will We Be in the Drink?

By the early 1960s, physicist Edward “Father of the Atomic Bomb” Teller was the driving force behind what we now call climate science. Somehow, he has gone so far as to assess the sensitivity of Antarctic ice to temperatures raised by greenhouse gases, predicting (literal) ocean changes within decades rather than centuries.

Sure enough, in 1973 Terrence Hughes of the University of Maine discovered that Florida-sized Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica was shrinking along a distorted line that portended its eventual collapse.

There was even more tragedy offshore. On the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, sweatshirts are arranged (north-south) in the form of sleeveless flowing dresses. The upper part (where it flows into the Amundsen Sea) is narrow, and near the center of WAIS he spreads out to nearly 350 miles.

“Florida” scaling can be extended to a point where the size of the entire WAIS is compared to the Deep South (including the Sunshine State). Imagine a sheet without ice preventing seawater from entering the heart. (Needless to say, we can speculate that the whole shebang debacle might not be far away.)

According to Carolyn Beeler (PRI The World, 1 July 2019), its demise will raise sea levels by at least a few feet. It may not sound like much, but even her 3-foot rise predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (to 2100) would wreak no small amount of havoc.

But here’s the problem. John Englander of the Rising Seas Institute, quoted in A Siegel of the Daily Kos Community, says he effectively reprimands the IPCC for omitting consideration of sea-level rise that may originate from Antarctica (computer-friendly (because it cannot be modeled as ).

Logically speaking, compare that omission to going without an overcoat, because (hypothetically) weather models can’t tell if the temperature will hit -10F or -50F while outside .

According to recent observations cited in Science News, Smithsonian and others, Thwaites could be gone (at best) within a few years. So let me emphasize. With WAIS without Thwaites open to a relatively warm influx, the entire sheet could soon follow. Ted Scambos of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences sees glaciers effectively ‘dragging’.[ging] So is most of the ice in West Antarctica. ”

Perhaps a little reading between the lines would indicate that a sea level rise of at least 6 feet would rise fairly rapidly within a generation, if not a decade. (If I remember correctly, it fits nicely with what Dr. Teller predicted.)

In “The Seas Will Rise” (Daily Kos 1/8/23) A Siegel provides a map (credit to PLOS One) showing exactly what happened to the 48 contiguous states given that much extra water. shows what happens. Sleeping with fish becomes most Florida. new jersey. Rhode Island. Louisiana. Delaware. Densely populated areas of New York and California.

Plus, most of Maryland – not to mention land donated to the grounds of the nation’s capital. (This could make it harder to get federal funding to curb climate change.)

May it be resolved: We have been plagued by a flood of pernicious research for a long time. Couldn’t the trillions of dollars blown up be used to disrupt Mesopotamia? Ronald ‘Trees cause pollution’ If Reagan had left the White House’s exemplary and visionary solar panels intact , was that great?

In 2009, Donald Trump signed the acknowledgment that the prospect of catastrophic climate change was “scientifically irrefutable.” If he hadn’t opted for flip-flops (no reason given), wouldn’t we all be sleeping better? (Not to mention that White House hopeful Mike Pompeo , licking his chops at the prospect of drilling the Drill Baby Drill in a “newly discovered” oil field that was ice flat before the ubiquitous fossil fuels were used.)

You could call it a vicious circle. feedback loop. Or, like the poet’s albatross (killed everywhere near the South Pole), the noose that rings our necks.