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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 14 2018, @07:58PM (2 children)
But Florida is only 11mm above sea level. That's less than 20 years before it's completely submerged.
(Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Thursday June 14 2018, @08:35PM
You make that sound like it's a bad thing ...
(Score: 3, Touché) by realDonaldTrump on Friday June 15 2018, @12:10AM
Then we BUILD A WALL, it's called a seawall. Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, we wanted to build a seawall. To protect my property from the sea. People don't know, in Ireland the sea is rising very quickly. Bad news for folks like me that own coastal real estate. But they have the Green Party there. And believe me, it's not like "kiss me, I'm wearing green." They're obstructionists. They gave us a HUGE HASSLE over it. Like the Dems are giving us a hassle over our Border Wall. But we put our wall in in Doonbeg. Although, not as big a wall as what we wanted. I don't want any hassles at Mar-A-Lago. I've got a great guy, Scott Pruitt, running my DEP. My Department of Environmental. And I told him simplify, simplify. And make everything MUCH FASTER. We built the Empire State Building in just one year. Isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take ten years just to get a minor permit approved for the building of a simple road?
The quantum cyber is a million times faster with 10 billion times less mistakes. And that's what we're doing with our government. Trump government is like quantum government. Much faster and much less mistakes. And we're making America great again!