> "I have spent so much time now looking at the satellite images, and I really love this ice shelf, it would be such a tragic thing to see this thing go."<p>Reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. We humans can fall in love with large chunks of ice just by looking at them long enough. How will we ever bring ourselves to terraform another planet?
There hasn't been very good news from the Antartic lately.<p>After seeing the reception Brian Cox received lately by Australian senator Malcom Roberts on an episode of QanA it's pretty clear we have no hope in world leaders doing anything significant about it. There is way too much self-interest and sociopathic behaviour going on by the majority within these circles of governance and "power".<p>Too many of us are waiting for the UN to just fix this issue; however, we've relied on the UN and it's narratives of change for too long and the truth is, we the masses need to change our own behaviour, it's our responsibility, somewhere we lost our way. I know there are good people working in these organisations and others like it, doing really good things, there just isn't enough of them or they're not having a big enough impact.<p>It seems pretty clear that democratic governance has severely failed us on this issue and many others in recent years, and as a society I think we need to try to understand why and correct it. Democracy is obviously not a bad idea, but in most western countries, the current configuration seems to be problematic and corrupt. It's not sustainable.<p>I have a strong feeling it's now too little to late and the only hope now is to take matters into our own hands by ignoring what democratically elected "leaders" are telling us they're doing and start doing it, get our own hands dirty. Divest, install solar panels (decentralisation of power production is important), consume, travel, eat thoughtfully, don't have so many kids etc.<p>By the look of it, the only way to make it through the madness ahead will be kindness and compassion for the earth, all living things and each other . If not, mother nature will each us a very harsh lesson, I think she is already starting to balance the books.<p>Unfortunately this storm is not just going to blow over, it would be nice if it would, but it's not going to.
From the article, regarding sea level rise:<p><pre><code> When ice shelves lose large chunks, it does not raise sea level because these
bodies are already afloat. However, the loss of an ice shelf can speed up the
seaward flow of the nonfloating glacial ice behind it, and this ice can in turn
contribute to sea-level rise. Researchers have estimated that the loss of all
the ice that the Larsen C ice shelf currently holds back would raise global
sea levels by 10 centimetres.</code></pre>
Does anyone know where I can find estimations of sea level rise over the next 10 to 200 years?<p>I always hear horror stories of 20 meter rises but don't know what the ranges of "consensus" are...
It's worth noting that the title of the article is somewhat misleading. The ice shelf entirely is slightly smaller than Scotland, but the part breaking off is (upper estimate) 12% of that, so, according to the article, slightly larger than Prince Edward Island.<p>Not that this is reason to celebrate or think that this is any more than a continuation of the ongoing and forthcoming climate excursion.
Another scary recent article: "A business-as-usual approach by humanity makes 2035 a plausible moment for the permafrost to melt and methane to escape."<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/21/farewell-to-ice-peter-wadhams-review-climate-change" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/21/farewell-to-ic...</a>
If you're ready to do something about this, consider volunteering for <a href="http://brandnewcongress.org" rel="nofollow">http://brandnewcongress.org</a>
<p><pre><code> The crack in Larsen C grew around 30 kilometres in length
between 2011 and 2015. And as it grew, also became wider — by
2015, yawning some 200 meters in length.
</code></pre>
It feels pedantic, but honestly something so fundamental as confusing length and width makes this much more difficult to read at first glance than it should be.