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Just be glad you won't be alive 200 years from now.
Climate scientists have agreed that sea levels across the Earth could rise by four feet within 200 years as an irreversible collapse of a massive cluster of glaciers in Antarctica has begun.
Two just released scientific studies previously estimated that the cluster of glaciers in the Amundsen Sea region of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would last for thousands of years despite global climate change.
New studies, however, discovered that the loss is melting is now ongoing with warming ocean water melting away the base of the ice shelf. This meltdown is also occurring far more rapidly than scientists expected.
Scientists said the warming water is due to several environmental phenomena. Among these factors are a warming of the Earth driven by emissions from human activity and a depleted ozone layer that is changing wind patterns in the area.
The six glaciers have passed "the point of no return," said Eric Rignot, a UC Irvine professor of Earth system science and the lead author of one of the studies, conducted with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
This means that total collapse cannot be prevented. Rignot said there is nothing to stop this.
"The only question is how fast it's going to go," he pointed out.
Antarctica is the largest mass of ice on the Earth. It surrounds the South Pole and contains about 80% of the world's fresh water. Scientists fear that the loss of even a portion of that ice would have consequences across the globe. Their fears have been confirmed by the new studies.
The second study was conducted by researchers at the University of Washington. It mostly focused on one of the six glaciers, the Thwaites Glacier. Scientists attempted to determine how quickly the massive Thwaites Glacier might disappear altogether. This meltdown could cause global sea levels to rise by 2 feet.
Using satellite measurements and computer models, the University of Washington study estimated that the Thwaites could melt in as little as 200 years. Or, it could take as long as 1,000 years. The most likely scenario is at the lower end of that range, said the study.
