How High Will the Oceans Rise

 

Working my way through the book, Ends of the Earth, I have gained some understanding of the worry scientists are experiencing about global warming. When I first started writing here I wrote a little about Antarctica though I could not at the time get my arms around how its geography and ice shelf. This book gives us non scientists a bit of perspective. 

When I first wrote about Antarctica climate change deniers all repeated what they had read on denier sites. It was that the ice shelf was growing and climate change was a liberal hoax. Snow and rain still happen on Antarctica but it is melting rapidly. The amount of melt water entering the ocean from there is 170 times as much and the flow of all the rivers in the world.

There are caverns under Antarctica that go deep below the level of the adjacent ocean. This melts the ice from the bottom. It has been observed in real time by underwater cameras. 

The ice accumulation there is so large it starts at sea level and goes over a mile in the air. The foot print of Greenland, another large ice shelf at the North Pole, is the size of Texas. The size Antarctica is that of the entire United States. 

Both Greenland and Antarctica have melted in the past and returned to become cold climates. Professors from North Dakota State University, including my friend Prof. Alan Ashworth, have studied the fossilized insects and other life that thrived there during these periods when all the water went elsewhere. Ocean water left its mark during the same period when the ice at the poles was gone. Oceans rose about 18 feet higher than they are today.  

While the melt will continue for about two generations, it is clear many millions of people will have to move away from the coasts all over the world. The coming changes are almost incomprehensible. The first step in preparing for the coming catastrophe is recognition of reality.