Above, the calving front of the Thwaites ice shelf in Antarctica is seen on October 16, 2012. The melting shelf is causing the glacier behind it to collapse, a new study suggests.



The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the keys to global sea level rise. Running up against the Amundsen Sea, it contains an estimated 527,808 cu. miles (2.2 million cu. km) of ice, about 10% of Antarctica’s total land ice volume. That’s enough ice to raise global sea level by more than 15 ft. (4.6 m) were it all to melt, collapse and flow into the ocean, which in turn would swamp coastal cities as far inland as Washington, D.C.

Source: http://time.com/96173/antarctic-glacier-loss-is-unstoppable-study-says/

I'm honestly not sure how we're going to deal with this.

My entire area would be fucked in terms of liveability.

I'd love to see the final collapse, though.

My area would be under water as well.

Dayum.

We should build walls or something to prevent the water from flooding our areas

>>4 Wouldn't work too well, it would just rise up out of the ground around us. Not to mention how much more money it would cost our already unsound countries.

I'm dead in the south of Florida, i'm screwed if this melts.

>>4 If walls couldn't keep the the titans out, how do you think they could keep water out?

>>6 Leave.

>>6 >>7

I'm really concerned about Venice and the Philippines.
We can talk all we want about how change should happen and how we should fight big business and diminish the amounts of greenhouse gases however we can, but in the end, talk doesn't really solve anything. I suppose someone would need to create a visual presentation of what would happen across the globe if that ice melts, and then get a number of people to make it viral. Shit's important yo, but so many people I know are either unaware of this or don't care because it doesn't affect where they live.

>>8 Al gore did a power point and got the Nobel peace prize for it lol.
The problem isn't raising awareness, it's people refuse to believe what's blatantly presented to their face. Just watched the CNN debate with Bill Nye over Climate issues and ecosystem deterioration. You'll understand the problem then.
Also, in today's world the concern is economy economy and global security. Even if enough people recognized the issue, it's not like they're just gonna up and give up their life style. Not without it costing them. So the only way to truely solve this problem is to invent new green technologies. Or make the ones we have more affordable than the power plants and fuel we burn. And there lies the other big problem, even if we can get people to buy these things, it's only gonna incite competition from the corporations who don't want to fade away from loss of capital. Money drives the sadistic side of our world, and it'll save us from the slums of reality by slowly choking us out of our misery.

>>9
It's getting them to understand what they do matters. They think when they throw one thing away or keep a light on for longer than need be it doesn't change anything. Everyone thinks that, and we waste hundreds of tons of material, thousands of watts of electricity, and thousands of gallons of water to make that electricity.

The solution has nothing to do with new technologies. We have the technologies right now. The solution is to get people to give a shit about what they do, and realize it really does affect the world. It doesn't matter how much technological improvement is done; if people continue to carelessly waste energy and pollute their environment without remorse, they will continue to fuck themselves and everyone around them.

That's what makes me the angriest. It's one thing if you waste your own energy and get fucked, but it's another to waste energy that someone else could have used properly and fuck everyone.

>>10 Well even then that's the problem i was saying, people don't wanna be bothered with those things. And even if we don't waste all the energy we're pulling, we're still pulling it from some rather unsafe sources. A lot of electricity comes from things like nuclear power plants, which we all know about the pollution from those babies. Though i agree that it would help a great deal to conserve and recycle as much as possible, the biggest help comes when all of our energy is sustainable, which it's not, hence why we still have to keep improving tech from where it stands today, since lets face it, we can make hydrogen fuel cells and solar panels all we want, but until the process is cheaper and easier to do it's not gonna get us anywhere.
though in short I do agree with what you have to say, conservation is key to this, just people are too lazy to conserve. Upsetting yes, but you can't battle ignorance with logic.

Ugh. Living in a low-lying area really does suck.
I don't think enough people realise that, when it eventually does, climate change is going to hit us hard. Can't tell if it's shitty risk assessment or blatant stupidity, but we really screwed up.

>>12 We can't comprehend the effect we have. We just can't imagine anything will change so drastically, despite all data/calculations/now clearly visible effects.

Mainly it's in most Human-nature to be unconcerned about anyone else, ne~? We're all pretty selfish, and few think of long term effects, like cigarettes... Bet they wish they HAD thought of long-term effects when in the hospital, though~!

>>14 except it isnt. it is a societal problem. A complete lack of fucks to give isnt something ingrained into everyones brains at birth, it is taught.

>>15 I wouldn't say that.

If it weren't natural to not give a fuck about anyone else, how do you explain looting/vandalism/widespread not giving a fuck during things like power outages? It brings out the human in humans.

The thing that is taught is caring about your future, which is why its harder to get people to care than it is to not.

>>16 The prospect behind nature is only giving a shit about ones own survival. Animals that live off of instinct only, tend not to about care what happens to anything so long as they can survive. This isn't conscious either. Humans however can feel apathetic and Uncaring in a crueler way. Only humans will kill and destroy for any other reason besides the sake of survival. Just as humans are willing to show compassion and care for the weak and defenseless whereas nature would just kill them off for evolution's sake.

can we do something about it

>>18 In short: no, not really. Most of the damage is already done.

Let's not forget that this process is expected to take around two hundred years. There's no telling what will happen by then.