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Satellites monitoring the state of the White Continent indicate some 200 billion tonnes a year are now being lost to the ocean as a result of melting.
This is pushing up global sea levels by 0.6mm annually - a three-fold increase since 2012 when the last such assessment was undertaken.
Scientists report the new numbers in the journal Nature.
Governments will need to take account of the information and its accelerating trend as they plan future defences to protect low-lying coastal communities.
The researchers say the losses are occurring predominantly in the West of the continent, where warm waters are getting under and melting the fronts of glaciers that terminate in the ocean.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44470208
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0179-y
See also: Ars Technica, Phys Org and University of Leeds.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday June 14 2018, @06:25PM (3 children)
but is his question whether or not it's happening, or whether or not humans are responsible?
Well today is Thursday so going by my wackjob calendar I see it is "not happening" day. Friday is "not our fault" day.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snow on Thursday June 14 2018, @08:41PM (2 children)
Climate is complex. Are humans causing climate change? The scientists and experts in the field seem to think so.
I look at it this way: If we are not the cause but we clean up emissions, what is the cost? A decade of reduced productivity? Lost revenue from oil sales? It's a short term pain, and it probably woudn't be that bad if everyone got on board and proper investments were made. Additionally, at the end we have sustainable energy
Alternatively, if we are the cause, and we do nothing to change and cause sea level rise, food shortages and other issues, that's a big problem.
If you don't think we should do anything about climate change, and then turn out to be wrong, that's a pretty fucking big mistake. And there is one orange skinned ass-hat who is basically refusing to not piss in the pool...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by arslan on Thursday June 14 2018, @11:26PM
You're right but a lot of time the real debate is about the allocation of funds - but it never even get to that point this topic is so toxic it typically devolves into a religious shout and insult fest.
Within a nation, the problem becomes a budget allocation issue which is typically a death defying act and in countries where lobbying is legal/common, the stuff that typically loses out are your health, education, social programs, etc. - so it becomes a trade off between near, medium and long term mortality - guess what folks that are struggling to live or sustain a sensible living condition will choose.
On the international side, every nation have different economic/development strategies and are at very different levels of nation building maturity, so getting a somewhat fair agreement is near impossible. Also, unless you get enough coverage, the abusers will just arbitrage their sin against other countries that have not sign up to it.
I'm not saying we can't solve these problem, just pointing out that it is not trivial and as pointed out above, everyone has a different agenda depending on where they're coming from.
To be clear, I can't really tell "weather" climate change is man-made or not, there's too much noise. However I do support climate change control policies and isn't really bothered how it is implemented as I have enough financial freedom to not be impacted - at least of all the ideas/proposals I've seen so far, so I typically do tend to support politicos with these sort of initiatives. It is as you say a "safe bet". However I'm not particularly fussed about folks with an opposite inclination only because I can see that if my situation in life is on the flip side I'd probably do the same.
And don't forget the vultures man. Always the vultures on _both_ sides that only care about making a penny out of it. The bigger the prize, the more vultures that flock around it. Some make a living just by flaming the zealotry and the ensuing shout-fest.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fritsd on Friday June 15 2018, @04:01PM
What if it's a big hoax, and we create a better world for nothing?
http://execleadercoach.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Climate-change-300x198.gif [execleadercoach.com]
;-)