Greenland ice has shrunk beyond return, study finds

Even if the world is warm enough to melt the sheet completely, that would take centuries, if not millennia; Greenland&#x27;s ice is thousands of meters thick. In a bad scenario, the IPCC forecasts 21st century sea level rise to be a bit under a meter (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.climatecentral.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;zeroing-in-on-ipccs-sea-level-rise-warming-hiatus-16532" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.climatecentral.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;zeroing-in-on-ipccs-sea-...</a>). This will certainly cause problems, but is nothing like the complete and rapid destruction some pundits describe.<p>Major action on carbon emissions is long overdue, and it&#x27;s great that people are taking it more seriously now. But an overly-pessimistic scenario has the same problems as an overly-rosy scenario; if we&#x27;re all doomed anyway, why do anything? Michael Mann, the climate scientist who famously brought global warming to public attention, now also spends time fighting doom scenarios which also discourage action:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;alumni.berkeley.edu&#x2F;california-magazine&#x2F;summer-2020&#x2F;michael-mann-on-climate-denial-and-doom" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;alumni.berkeley.edu&#x2F;california-magazine&#x2F;summer-2020&#x2F;...</a>

Covid-19 has exposed how almost all world leaders are useless when faced with big challenges - any action taken will be far too late; too little and often times plain wrong.<p>So as I read about Greenland’s ice sheets I can only conclude that we are all doomed. Raising awareness won’t really help; the leaders who could do something about it simply won’t.<p>It’s sad and it’s depressing and I’ve no idea what any of us can do to actually prevent this next global catastrophe.

What I find most interesting is that we, the Human species, do not know what this means. We estimate heavy losses, maybe near extinction, but we do not have a reference. We are imaginative but we collectively can not imagine the worst and act accordingly. This is perhaps why the worst will actually happen.<p>I am typing this on a keyboard, when I should be getting out there, convincing others to stop our immediate actions and brace for impact. But I will not do that because <i>some unclear calamity is 30 years away</i>. And I know most people around me will not change anything either.

&gt; The Arctic has been warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the world for the last 30 years, an observation referred to as Arctic amplification.<p>I didn&#x27;t realize this (or at least, am surprised it&#x27;s _twice_ as fast). Apparently the key factor is loss of sea ice. Can anyone ELI5?

There is already a pile of canary bodies on the mine floor. Just toss this one on top of it.<p>Oil and gas is a multi-trillion dollar industry. It’s not just an industry that a few companies rely on, or a few cities, or a few states: the economies of more than a few wealthy <i>countries</i> rely fully or partly on oil and gas revenue.<p>Consequently, there has been a massively-funded multi-decade disinformation campaign w.r.t. climate change, calling itself “climate skepticism.”<p>But: the brilliant part of this disinformation campaign was to politicize it.<p>If it were just: “we have questions about the science”, well, once those questions are resolved, then climate skeptics have nothing left to stand on.<p>But once you politicize it: now it’s more than the science. It’s about your tribe and your team.

Original paper <i>Dynamic ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet driven by sustained glacier retreat</i> [1]<p>&gt; We show that widespread retreat between 2000 and 2005 resulted in a step-increase in discharge and a switch to a new dynamic state of sustained mass loss that would persist even under a decline in surface melt.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s43247-020-0001-2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s43247-020-0001-2</a>

HEADLINE: &quot;Greenland ice has shrunk beyond return...&quot;<p>FIRST LINE OF ARTICLE: &quot;Greenland’s ice sheet MAY have shrunk past the point of return...&quot;<p>[my emphasis]<p>So f--king sick of clickbait headlines!

What does &quot;point of no return&quot; mean in this title?

The way I see it climate change could be awful but it&#x27;s never going to be catastrophic as long as we&#x27;re alive. All we have to do is send up hella reflectors to block the sun and we can be cool again.<p>The real risk IMO is making the oceans acidic with all this co2. That has the potential to be really really catastrophic.

Given the record early and massive snowfall this year [1] the alarm can be reset - 5,5 gigaton fell on the 12th of august, 2,5 gigaton on the 11th and 4 gigaton on the 10th. Greenland is accumulating ice mass about a month earlier than normal.<p>Of course this is just as sensationalist as the Reuters article so take it with as much salt as you did when you read Reuters.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;polarportal.dk&#x2F;en&#x2F;greenland&#x2F;surface-conditions&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;polarportal.dk&#x2F;en&#x2F;greenland&#x2F;surface-conditions&#x2F;</a>

Greenland just had several days of record gains in ice in the middle of the melt season. 3 of the last 4 years were net gains in ice mass for Greenland. This is sensationalism. Climate shifts can absolutely occur in both directions.<p>To see latest Greenland ice charts:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;polarportal.dk&#x2F;en&#x2F;greenland&#x2F;surface-conditions&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;polarportal.dk&#x2F;en&#x2F;greenland&#x2F;surface-conditions&#x2F;</a>

I feel like people saying &#x27;who cares&#x27; haven&#x27;t been looking. And also like affected places aren&#x27;t crying loud enough. I was driving through Daytona earlier this year, and stopped just to see their coast. It was gone. The wooden steps leading down to the non-existent beach were half covered. That is, you couldn&#x27;t even get to the bottom of the stairs. This is a beach people used to park on.

The irony that maybe our ancestors escaped Mars eons ago after similarly destroying the planet to seed earth and start afresh. Untrue but plausible based on how we&#x27;ve handled things this far. Self-interest and the tragedy of the commons.

So, what is there left to do?

...Until it freezes again

So it’s over, the planet will likely be rendered uninhabitable probably within the next century. Is there any point in even having a new child now?