
The large crack in the Antarctic ice shelf has grown 6 miles - grahamel
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/01/19/enormous-antarctic-ice-shelf-rift-grows-by-another-6-miles/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_ee-antarctic-840pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.b72cb187bc53
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ComradeTaco
I honestly believe the US isn't going to have enough political capital or will
to do anything about climate change in next 15-20 years.

What we will have to do regardless is deal with rising storm surges and sea
levels. Pretty much every major city will need a significant storm barriers.
We should consider land buy back on easily flooded harbor barriers, and
perhaps even abandonment of smaller coastal communities.

Unfortunately, the everglades are sunk, and Florida will become increasingly
unlivable, as salt water infiltrates almost all groundwater supplies.

~~~
jshawl
The US President (as of today) thinks climate change is a hoax -
[https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/26589529219124838...](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/265895292191248385?lang=en)

~~~
Retric
Don't assume he is being honest when he says anything. Lying is practically
the guys calling card.

That said, he is unlikely to push climate change one way or another globally.
With how cheap wand and solar has gotten coal is on the way out and would take
significant subsides to become competitive.

~~~
manarth

      he is unlikely to push climate change one way or another
    

He has appointed a number of climate-change deniers to the cabinet [1],
including positions such as the EPA Administrator. I wouldn't be surprised to
see action _against_ mitigating climate change, such as removing protections,
or reducing funding for agencies involved in environmental protection.

[1] [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/15/trump-
ca...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/15/trump-cabinet-
climate-change-deniers)

~~~
conistonwater
This seems right to me, by the principle that "actions speak louder than
words". Presumably actions also speak louder than words that weren't said.

~~~
plussed_reader
Right, but the campaign is run on words. And now we get to live the reality of
whatever those words 'meant'.

------
fny
By the way, Scientists studying the rift don't attribute this event to climate
change:

> "This is probably not directly attributable to any warming in the region,
> although of course the warming won't have helped," says Luckman. "It's
> probably just simply a natural event that's just been waiting around to
> happen." [0]

[0]: [http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2017/01/16/509565462/...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2017/01/16/509565462/an-ice-shelf-is-cracking-in-antarctica-but-not-for-
the-reason-you-think)

~~~
refurb
Jesus Christ. 100+ comments with back-and-forth about climate change and the
scientist who knows the most doesn't think it has anything to do with the
crack.

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woliveirajr
If the cracking speed continues, it'll brake apart in few weeks.

I'm curious if there are projections on where it'll float after it looses
connection, given that certainly there are currents in the region, but I don't
think that such huge mass wasn't used in drift calculations earlier.

~~~
bebop
From what I have heard, it sounds like it will spend most of it's time in the
South Sea. As it breaks apart smaller chunks can move farther north.

------
enlightenedfool
Is there a prediction model for the coastal line recession over the next few
decades? A map with timelines would be great.

~~~
dnm
For the USA: [https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/](https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/)
(Sorry, no timeline, just predictions by feet).

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macu
The title of this article is missing a crucial "in 2 weeks" that actually
gives meaning to 6 miles. I can't believe how poorly articles are titled.
Qualifying information takes a few words.

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castis
Do we know how tall the walls of that rift are, and/or whether or not the
material filling in the gap is at sea level?

~~~
scarletham
Last I saw, ~300ft wide and ~1700ft deep.

[https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/rift-in-antarcticas-
larse...](https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/rift-in-antarcticas-larsen-c-ice-
shelf)

------
neom
I believe this is the same crack that we discussed a couple weeks back:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13365211](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13365211)

~~~
grahamel
It is yeah (Larsen C ice shelf)

------
dwaxe
That's 9.6 kilometers for you metric folk. Someone has suggested a March
breakup for the Ice block. That is the time of the Minimum Ice Extent. I would
love to know what the projections are for how long it will take for this
iceberg to melt. Imagine what adventures it will have traveling around the
world with albatross, turtles and whales for company.

------
SpikeDad
Fortunately the US has solved that problem. Trump has removed all mentions of
climate change from the Whitehouse website thereby fixing the problem.

------
mabbo
For thousands of years, soothsayers and prophets have predicted the end of the
world.

Kind of neat that we get to actually watch it happen and understand they whys
and hows.

~~~
adrianN
Climate change is not the end of the world. The climate has been warmer in the
past and CO2 levels higher. The transition period until the climate stabilizes
at a higher temperature will be uncomfortable because of problems with
agriculture, sea level rise and so on, but I don't think it will wipe out
modern civilization.

~~~
brchr
"CO2 levels higher": Would you mind sharing your source on this?

Here are the last 6,000 years [1] (it cuts off at 4713 BC because that happens
to be the earliest timestamp available in Postgres). The source data from the
NOAA are here [2] and you can see for yourself that we are something like 30%
higher than the highest level of CO2 recorded in the last 800,000 years.

If you have a source that tells a different story, let me know.

[1] [https://numer.al/noaa_data/figures/antarctic-ice-cores-
revis...](https://numer.al/noaa_data/figures/antarctic-ice-cores-
revised-800kyr-co2-data)

[2]
ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/icecore/antarctica/antarctica2015co2composite.txt

~~~
adrianN
During the Devonian and Carboniferous time (~400 million years ago) Earth was
like 20 degrees warmer and CO2 was really high.

~~~
brchr
Okay, so we can say that:

1\. CO2 is currently the highest it has ever been since human civilization has
existed (10k years, roughly).

2\. CO2 is currently the highest it has ever been since humans have existed
(200k years, roughly).

3\. CO2 is currently the highest it has ever been since primates have existed
(50M years, roughly).

But for the sake of argument let’s say:

4\. CO2 may not be the highest it has ever been since mammals have existed
(200M years, roughly).

5\. CO2 is not the highest it has ever been since multicellular life has
existed on land (500M years, roughly).

Fair enough. Maybe 1-3 are less concerning to you than they are to me. When
you say "the climate has been warmer in the past and CO2 levels higher" and
are referring to a period prior to the existence of primates, it doesn't
necessarily make me feel that much better. :) That said I’m nothing close to
being expert in this stuff.

It’s interestingly difficult to think about time over so many orders of
magnitude.

~~~
notyourwork
When put in this perspective it is hard to not be concerned about 1-3.

------
bedhead
I believe in climate change, however, I'm not sure what the big deal is. It is
a natural byproduct of increasing prosperity. Humanity can cope with the
effects, and do so with relative ease. As a whole, the world gets better every
day. Furthermore, the hyperbole (can extreme hyperbole exist or is that
redundant?) that has developed around climate change is _deeply_ troubling to
me. The fear mongering and impending doom predictions remind me of religious
extremists and worry me greatly. Look no further than comments right here
which extrapolate a crack in an ice shelf to literally witnessing the end of
the world as we know it. That so many people accept this detached extremism
concerns me far more than weird weather patterns or a bunch of beach homes
being exposed to storm damage.

~~~
nitrogen
Rising sea levels will swallow major coastal cities, not just "beach homes".
Entire island nations will cease to exist.

Acidifying oceans are destroying marine ecosystems necessary for generating
food and oxygen for the rest of the planet.

Rising temperatures might cause the release of frozen methane from ocean floor
deposits and arctic permafrost. Methane accelerates greenhouse warming.

Melting ice could dilute the salt balance that drives major ocean currents and
plunge Europe into an ice age while the planet bakes.

People are alarmed because the Titanic of society is cruising calmly toward an
iceberg, and it takes an awfully long time to change direction, and no amount
of technological advancement can swallow trillions of dollars in floods,
droughts, famines, and barren seas.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Rising sea levels will swallow major coastal cities, not just "beach homes".

Perhaps more importantly, rising sea levels mean salinity intruding on inland
fresh water supplies and low-lying agricultural land, _literally_ salting the
earth.

