
It's the final act for the Larsen B ice shelf - anigbrowl
http://climate.nasa.gov/news/2285/
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ChuckMcM
_" These are warning signs that the remnant is disintegrating," Khazendar
said. "Although it’s fascinating scientifically to have a front-row seat to
watch the ice shelf becoming unstable and breaking up, it’s bad news for our
planet. This ice shelf has existed for at least 10,000 years, and soon it will
be gone."_

One could argue that when the glaciers retreated off the northern hemisphere
and allowed thrive in the temperate zones, _that_ was bad for the planet. :-)

~~~
cam_l
The key word there is _our_ \- bad news for _our_ planet. anthropogenic
climate change is not bad for _the_ planet, but it is potentiality very bad
for humans.

~~~
iolaknfd89
How come you chose to subset "climate change" into "anthropogenic climate
change"? Regardless of the origin, it seems though climate change will be bad
news for humans.

~~~
cam_l
Because anthropogenic climate change (in particular) is happening quickly and
happening now; perhaps more quickly than a lot of us—or at least the things or
places we depend on for life—will be able to adapt.

~~~
iolaknfd89
Ah, gotcha. I must have misinterpreted your tone. It seemed to me that you
(unnecessarily but intentionally) introduced a politically loaded term to your
(quite correct) idea.

I've been spending too much time reading about the Earth before humans, when
massive changes were commonplace. Only discussing human-triggered change
strikes me as massively more limited and less interesting. Apologies if I
caused any confusion.

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shostack
What potential implications are there for the Bay Area? Anything dire and
urgent (like, SF under water)?

Not trying to downplay the magnitude of what this implies about our planet,
but curious to know whether I should perhaps make sure I am high above sea
level a few years from now...

~~~
anigbrowl
You could look here: [http://coast.noaa.gov/slr/](http://coast.noaa.gov/slr/)
or [http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/san-
francisco.shtml](http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/san-francisco.shtml) for a
less fine-grained version.

One thing to remember is that while mean sea level rises may seem quite small,
one also has to factor in tidal forces, which have both daily and lunar (near
monthly) cycles. Tidal flooding looks set to be a major problem in the coming
years; this report only discusses cities on the east coast of the US but I'm
sure it will generate its share of similar problems here:
[http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/impacts/effects-of-
tida...](http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/impacts/effects-of-tidal-
flooding-and-sea-level-rise-east-coast-gulf-of-mexico#.VVaYcvlVhBc)

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meatysnapper
If the sea level rises, does that mean the oxygen content at a previously high
altitude increases?

For example, I could build a nice beachside villa in La Paz, formerly at
14,000 ft, and now live there without the aid of Bolivian marching powder and
various other herbal remedies?

~~~
eCa
Various projections[1] estimates a sea level rise of up to two metres until
the end of this century, so that would put La Paz at 13,994 ft. I don't think
oxygen changes would be significant.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise#Projections](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise#Projections)

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beloch
I wonder what it would take to hold those glaciers where they are compared to
the coastal dikes and population moves that will be made necessary by rising
sea levels.

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ams6110
_This ice shelf has existed for at least 10,000 years, and soon it will be
gone._

Pretty much a blink of the eye in the history of the planet.

~~~
function_seven
Just like human civilization itself.

~~~
contingencies
Precisely. On that note, allow me to offer a fun set of mental tangents.

Lambda (uppercase Λ, lowercase λ) and the Chinese character for human (人) are
not visually dissimilar. Lambda is asserted to have derived from early semitic
forms, which influenced Pstalter and Soghdian, each of which allegedly reached
the western limits of Chinese empire and existed circa 400BCE.[1] Written
Chinese has been around for about 2500 years. It also has another similar
character - 入 - which in classical or ancient Chinese can mean 'to join' or
'to become a member of'. They say humans are social creatures, and social
structures are built on identification. However, _lambda_ in the programming
sense means an 'anonymous' function. Unlike Indo-European languages, ancient
Chinese in particular defaults to anonymity (operating on a higher level of
abstraction by default - ie. less specific, more poetic, more applicable) due
to an absence of enforced conjugation. OK, back to your regularly scheduled
HN.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abjad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abjad)

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morbius
Findings like this, I think, are the most convincing arguments for retaining
NASA's highly productive climate science division. There is a breadth of
talent there squandered by horrible management both intra-agency and inter-
agency. The fact that it's run by Congress and has little, if any autonomy is
also a very sad, sad thing. I'd much rather see it spin off into its own thing
that receives a set amount of funding but lets Dr. Bolden and the board have a
degree of autonomy on where to spend it, much like USPS or Amtrak. Having
anthropologists and attorneys decide critical science for the future just
seems archaic, myopic, and horribly miscalculated.

~~~
mturmon
I'm puzzled by this comment. Are you talking about GISS, the small Columbia-U.
adjacent NASA institute that specializes in climate? Because there is no
"climate science division" at NASA -- that activity is spread out over several
centers, besides GISS, most prominently at GSFC (Maryland) and, to some
extent, JPL (California). The post here, for instance, was released by JPL.
Additional climate work goes on at NOAA, NCAR, etc.

I'm also puzzled by the "run by Congress"/"little autonomy" comment, which is
not true.

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basicplus2
The ice shelf did not exist just over ten thousand years ago..........

