Glaciers Melting Rapidly
Sea Levels to Rise Sooner Than Expected
FUTURE PROOF – BLOG BY FUTURES PLATFORM
A large ice berg twice the size of Wales is expected to break off from the Antarctica. Ice Bergs calve off from glaciers occasionally. The concern is whether this one to break off from Larsen C Ice Shelf will mean that the glacier will start to retreat. Rising sea levels may be a reality sooner than predicted due to record warm years. Rapidly melting Greenland ice suggests a point of no return.
Footage by British Antarctic Survey shows a growing crack in the Antarctica ice shelf. The ice berg that will break off will be one of the 10 largest ever recorded in the Antarctica. Ice bergs have spilt off from the Antarctic glacier before. What is now worrying the scientists is the speed of change.
Sea level rise is caused by two factors resulting from Climate Change; the added water from melting ice and the expansion of sea water when it becomes warmer.
Greenland ice is melting fast producing 270 gigatons of water annually. John Abraham reports on The Guardian that Greenland ice sheet will melt still some time, but it is “nearly impossible to stop. Predicting how fast this melt will take is interesting from a scientific vantage point but there are also enormous social and economic consequences. Right now, 150 million people live within a meter (3 feet) of today’s sea level.“
Jakobshavn in Greenland has been receding over a long time. Having lost its more shallow parts, it is now melting a section which is about a kilometre thick. Majority of the glacier is under water, and only recently the magnitude of the glacier has been understood. The glacier that most likely gave the iceberg that sank Titanic is now contributing 3mm annually to the global rise of sea water.
If a family wants to plan with a few generations ahead, now one can buy a future island or a sea front piece of land by choosing an area that is approximately 3 meters high surrounded by 1-2m above current sea level land mass.
