warmer than today, much of the region's ice cap melted away.
AP/FILE
Christian Science Monitor: Little time to avoid big thaw, scientists warn
Arctic temperatures near a prehistoric level when seas were 16 to 20 feet higher, studies say.
Global warming appears to be pushing vast reservoirs of ice on Greenland and Antarctica toward a significant, long-term meltdown. The world may have as little as a decade to take the steps to avoid this scenario.
Those are the implications of new studies that looked to climate history for clues about how the planet's major ice sheets might respond to human-triggered climate change.
Already, temperatures in the Arctic are close to those that thawed much of Greenland's ice cap some 130,000 years ago, when the planet last enjoyed a balmy respite from continent-covering glaciers, say the studies' authors.
By 2100, spring and summer temperatures in the Arctic could reach levels that trigger an unstoppable repeat performance, they say. Over several centuries, the melt could raise sea levels by as much as 20 feet, submerging major cities worldwide as well as chains of islands, such as the present-day Bahamas.
The US would lose the lower quarter of Florida, southern Louisiana up to Baton Rouge, and North Carolina's Outer Banks. The ocean would even flood a significant patch of California's Central Valley, lapping at the front porches of Sacramento.
These estimates may understate the potential rise. []
Good article, though I do have to question the use of the phrase 'some 130,000 years ago, when the planet last enjoyed a balmy respite from continent-covering glaciers'. Is the author trying to be funny? Or is he trying to soft-pedal the ominous message? It's inappropriate, either way.
MAP BY JEREMY WEISS AND JONATHAN OVERPECK, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA; RICH CLABAUGH - STAFF
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment