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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

#81

Post by igf »

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 too damn crowded on this planet.

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

#82

Post by igf »

enraged_camel wrote: post #61
dleslie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Why? They don't have anything to destroy anyway.

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

#83

Post by igf »

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...

I'd also like to see estimates from the 1990s of how much sea level rise we can expect by 2016.

I seem to remember reading a book back in the day that said New York City would be completely underwater by 2010.

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

#84

Post by phaemon »

igf wrote: post #83
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...

I'd also like to see estimates from the 1990s of how much sea level rise we can expect by 2016. I seem to remember reading a book back in the day that said New York City would be completely underwater by 2010.

The IPCC 2nd report came out in 1995. They mention "...a rise in sea level of 30 cm to 1 m by the year 2100."

Seems a bit conservative given current sea level rise, but I suppose they have to go with something that everyone will agree to.

Back in the day I read a book that told the story of how a boy discovered that the old vagabond who skulked about his farm was actually the mighty Belgarath the Sorcerer.

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

#86

Post by mikro2nd »

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...

Seems likely that the "Bathtub Model" we have in our heads is all wrong, and sea-level change is going to be highly variable in different parts of the planet. Go and watch one of Jerry Mitrovica's videos[1] to get a good idea... According to his models, some places will likely see sea-levels fall by as much as (iirc) 25m, to others where sea-levels will rise by 5 to 8m by the end of this century. Goodbye ports, goodbye containerised shipping, goodbye global trade.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhdY-ZezK7w

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

#87

Post by zamalek »

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?

If we can terraform Mars, maybe we can revert the terraforming that we have been doing on Earth (without risking the species on our first attempt at corrective terraforming).

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

#88

Post by zamalek »

intended wrote: post #72
milcron wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bringing ourselves to terraform another planet will be very easy -- the one who pushes the button will be one who hasn't looked at the planet long enough to be attached to it.

Isn't it already common knowledge that Mars cant be terraformed? No magnetosphere, cold core too iirc (and thats related to the moons being tidally locked.

Hear-say: although the magnetosphere is a problem, it's supposedly possible to out-pace it because the original atmosphere loss occurred over millions/billions of years.

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

#89

Post by bryanrasmussen »

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!

it's ok, we're doing agile terraforming!

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

#90

Post by arethuza »

aboodman wrote: post #9
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?

I really loved that plotline and the thought experiment around the ethics of changing a place, even a place without life.

Arguably the entire Mars trilogy is a romance between the original Green, Sax Russel, and the original Red, Ann Clayborne.
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