I honestly believe the US isn't going to have enough political capital or will to do anything about climate change in next 15-20 years.<p>What we will have to do regardless is deal with rising storm surges and sea levels. Pretty much every major city will need a significant storm barriers. We should consider land buy back on easily flooded harbor barriers, and perhaps even abandonment of smaller coastal communities.<p>Unfortunately, the everglades are sunk, and Florida will become increasingly unlivable, as salt water infiltrates almost all groundwater supplies.
By the way, Scientists studying the rift don't attribute this event to climate change:<p>> "This is probably not directly attributable to any warming in the region, although of course the warming won't have helped," says Luckman. "It's probably just simply a natural event that's just been waiting around to happen." [0]<p>[0]: <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/16/509565462/an-ice-shelf-is-cracking-in-antarctica-but-not-for-the-reason-you-think" rel="nofollow">http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/16/509565462/...</a>
If the cracking speed continues, it'll brake apart in few weeks.<p>I'm curious if there are projections on where it'll float after it looses connection, given that certainly there are currents in the region, but I don't think that such huge mass wasn't used in drift calculations earlier.
The title of this article is missing a crucial "in 2 weeks" that actually gives meaning to 6 miles. I can't believe how poorly articles are titled. Qualifying information takes a few words.
I believe this is the same crack that we discussed a couple weeks back: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13365211" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13365211</a>
That's 9.6 kilometers for you metric folk. Someone has suggested a March breakup for the Ice block. That is the time of the Minimum Ice Extent. I would love to know what the projections are for how long it will take for this iceberg to melt. Imagine what adventures it will have traveling around the world with albatross, turtles and whales for company.
For thousands of years, soothsayers and prophets have predicted the end of the world.<p>Kind of neat that we get to actually watch it happen and understand they whys and hows.
I believe in climate change, however, I'm not sure what the big deal is. It is a natural byproduct of increasing prosperity. Humanity can cope with the effects, and do so with relative ease. As a whole, the world gets better every day. Furthermore, the hyperbole (can extreme hyperbole exist or is that redundant?) that has developed around climate change is <i>deeply</i> troubling to me. The fear mongering and impending doom predictions remind me of religious extremists and worry me greatly. Look no further than comments right here which extrapolate a crack in an ice shelf to literally witnessing the end of the world as we know it. That so many people accept this detached extremism concerns me far more than weird weather patterns or a bunch of beach homes being exposed to storm damage.