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A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

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Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#61

Post by enraged_camel »

dleslie wrote: post #24
zaken wrote: post #19

From the article, regarding sea level rise: 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…

The faster that levels rise the sooner we are to get off our collective asses and make a difference.

You realize poor nations will get fucked over disproportionately, right?

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#62

Post by flukus »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #7
jkubicek wrote: post #3

If we took a fleet of tug-boats and towed this ice to the Middle East, I wonder how long the fresh water would last?

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/the-ma...

Missed this one:

http://hoaxes.org/af_database/permalink/the_sydney_iceberg/

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#64

Post by andrei_says_ »

dleslie wrote: post #24
zaken wrote: post #19

From the article, regarding sea level rise: 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…

The faster that levels rise the sooner we are to get off our collective asses and make a difference.

... Make a difference for the generation after the next. Maybe.

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#65

Post by jedbrown »

omosubi wrote: post #45
darawk wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but the longer we have to sit on our asses, the more likely we are to succeed in our effort to make a difference when we finally get around to it (due to technological progression).

I wouldn't count on this - markets don't seem to care about sea level rise at the moment

Reinsurance is definitely concerned about sea level rise. Here is an example presentation from SwissRe showing their estimates of the increasing damages due to climate change (e.g., slide 7).

http://www.miamidade.gov/planning/library/presentations/2014...

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#66

Post by snowwrestler »

foota wrote: post #42
jfoutz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's see how terraforming this one works out before we go off terraforming another.

Might be better to terraform an already messed up planet before our own. (which is arguably somewhat messed up, but not Mars-level. Yet)

I think the parent's point is that we are already currently terraforming our planet, whether or not we would like to admit it.

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#67

Post by snowwrestler »

novaleaf wrote: post #63

Does anyone know where I can find estimations of sea level rise over the next 10 to 200 years? I always hear horror stories of 20 meter rises but don't know what the ranges of "consensus" are...

The Wikipedia page is not a bad place to start. It links to a quite a few external resources in the Projections section.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#68

Post by whyenot »

tominous wrote: post #2

> "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." 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?

Why is it so important that we terraform other planets? Is it really a desirable thing to spread across the solar system and beyond like mold on stale bread?

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#69

Post by antisthenes »

BurningFrog wrote: post #51
jfoutz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's see how terraforming this one works out before we go off terraforming another.

You don't experiment on your production planet. Mars could be a decent staging planet!

In software, the testing environment usually isn't more expensive by several orders of magnitude.

Re: A huge crack is spreading across one of Antarctica’s biggest ice shelves

#70

Post by evincarofautumn »

whyenot wrote: post #68
tominous wrote: post #2

> "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." 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?

Why is it so important that we terraform other planets? Is it really a desirable thing to spread across the solar system and beyond like mold on stale bread?

Well, it’s important to the mold.
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