The New York Times has a special report titled Miles of Ice Collapsing into the Sea. As snow falls on central Antarctica, its accumulating weight over thousands of years turns into rivers of ice that flow out into the sea. The special dispatch from the Times has fascinating graphics that show how these rivers of ice are flowing — and how they’re speeding up.
THE ACCELERATION is making some scientists fear that Antarctica’s ice sheet may have entered the early stages of an unstoppable disintegration.
Because the collapse of vulnerable parts of the ice sheet could raise the sea level dramatically, the continued existence of the world’s great coastal cities — Miami, New York, Shanghai and many more — is tied to Antarctica’s fate.
...Recent computer forecasts suggest that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at a high level, parts of Antarctica could break up rapidly, causing the ocean to rise six feet or more by the end of this century. That is double the maximum increase that an international climate panel projected only four years ago.
But those computer forecasts were described as crude even by the researchers who created them. “We could be decades too fast, or decades too slow,” said one of them, Robert M. DeConto of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “There are still some really big question marks about the trajectory of future climate around Antarctica.”
There’s more at the story, including some immersive video in part 1 taken from an LC-130 of the 109th Airlift Wing out of Scotia, NY. For decades now their aircraft have provided critical support to scientists working at both ends of the earth. They are the largest aircraft that routinely operate on skis. Much of what we have for polar climate research would not have been possible without them.
Part 2 has more video and depictions of the ice sheets on the continent — and speculation about stories of global sea level rise coming out of human prehistory when the end of the last ice age saw the seas rise 400 feet…
Part 3 has photos/maps and video that give you an idea of just how vast the ice sheets are.
The gist of the story is that there is much we don’t know about the dynamics of the ice sheets, but really need to know ASAP. How fast will they melt? How fast are they melting now? Will there be some kind of event that triggers a rapid rise in sea level, or will it be more gradual? Scientists have enough information to know they need more. It’s going to take millions of dollars to get the data to refine the computer models.
It’s a sobering story, and we don’t know the ending yet. Left unmentioned in the story is the campaign by Trump and the forces behind him to gut the funding for this kind of research, to deny the very existence of what is happening. In a worst case scenario, people being born today could Iive to see devastating effects around the globe as the seas rise. What will they be thinking of us, as that happens?
Antarctic Dispatches is a three-part series from the seventh continent. Written by Justin Gillis. Maps and graphics by Derek Watkins and Jeremy White. Photographs by Jonathan Corum. Video by Evan Grothjan and Graham Roberts. Additional production by Larry Buchanan and Rumsey Taylor.