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Sea level rise quickens as Greenland ice sheet sheds record amount:
Greenland's massive ice sheet saw a record net loss of 532 billion tonnes last year, raising red flags about accelerating sea level rise, according to new findings.
That is equivalent to an additional three million tonnes of water streaming into global oceans every day, or six Olympic pools every second.
Crumbling glaciers and torrents of melt-water slicing through Greenland's ice block—as thick as ten Eiffel Towers end-to-end—were the single biggest source of global sea level rise in 2019 and accounted for 40 percent of the total, researchers reported in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
[...] "2019 and the four other record-loss years have all occurred in the last decade," lead author Ingo Sasgen, a glaciologist at the Helmholtze Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, told AFP.
The ice sheet is now tracking the worst-case global warming scenario of the UN's climate science advisory panel, the IPCC, noted Andrew Shepherd, director of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds.
[...] Until 2000, Greenland's [runoff ...] was compensated by fresh snowfall.
[...] In 2019, the ice sheet lost a total of 1.13 trillion tonnes, about 45 percent from glaciers sliding into the sea, and 55 percent from melted ice, said Sasgen. It gained about 600 billion tonnes through precipitation.
A study in the same journal last week concluded that the Greenland's ice sheet has passed a "tipping point", and is now doomed to disintegrate, though on what time scale is unknown.
Journal References:
Ingo Sasgen, Bert Wouters, Alex S. Gardner, et al. Return to rapid ice loss in Greenland and record loss in 2019 detected by the GRACE-FO satellites [open], Communications Earth & Environment (DOI: 10.1038/s43247-020-0010-1)
Michalea D. King, Ian M. Howat, Salvatore G. Candela, et al. Dynamic ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet driven by sustained glacier retreat [open], Communications Earth & Environment (DOI: 10.1038/s43247-020-0001-2)
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday August 23 2020, @04:52AM
Very true.
I did mention in my OP that there was still some hope.
3 degrees for the dry drainage ditch, easy to survive and climb out of unhurt, other than the year or so taken off one's life by the experience.
10+ degrees for the 100ft cliff, not going to be much left of the car, and the passengers will be in REALLY bad shape.
But it won't really matter who is PotUS either way. To even keep it at the 3 degree mark is going to take a MASSIVE commitment by all the worlds nations to take action to stop the green house gas emisions. Trump would just stay his course for another four years, being challenged left and right in court by various groups. Even if Biden went 100% on reducing fossil fuel usage to zero during his tenure in the White House, which he won't, he would be fighting up a cliff face. The entrenched interests would oppose his every effort, forcing the issue to a near complete stand still for as long as possible. Exactly as if Trump was in office another four years.
At the very least we are going into the drainage ditch, and I don't think it's going to be empty to be honest. Nothing we do now can stop the current melting of the ice caps.
The rich don't give a fuck about rising sea levels, they can afford to buy land anywhere they want. Even in a Water World scenario they already own, or can have built, custom yachts large enough to comfortably live on for the rest of their lives. Supplies? One small cargo freighter could hold all the fuel, fuel, food and water they and their entourage could ever use.
I will be voting for Biden. As much as I dislike him for many other reasons I hate Trump. So, for the first time in my voting life I will not be voting for who I think will be the best President but for whoever has the best chance of beating the incumbent.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."