INTRODUCTION
- Several ice shelves shelter the Antarctica Ice Sheet, which is the world’s largest ice reservoir. These ice shelves are supported below sea level by bedrock that slopes inward toward the continent’s centre.
- The ice shelves are exposed to warm ocean water flowing beneath them, which can cause thinning of their lower margins, destabilising and breaking up the ice shelves.
- When ice shelves break up, towering ice cliffs form, which are unstable and, when they collapse, accelerate ice flow into the oceans.
- The Thwaites Glacier is comparable to the British Isles or Florida. It is a component of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and is the subject of intense research by scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom.
- With existing policies and emissions rates, the world is on track to reach 2 degrees Celsius. One approach to dramatically lower rising sea levels is for countries to meet the Paris Agreement targets.
- Scientists believe that halting ice loss will be impossible by 2100 and that sea-level rise will be ten times quicker than it is now.
EXPLODE BY THE YEAR 2100 –
- According to a new study by David Pollard, Robert DeConto, and Richard Alley, sea-level rise might reach 2.3 inches (6 cm) per year by 2150 if current emissions are not reduced by 2100.
- If countries fail to fulfil the Paris Agreement targets, sea-level rise will be 10 times quicker by 2300 than it is today.
- To reach the Paris Agreement, three primary pathways must be followed: keep global warming between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius, remove enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to drop the temperature even further, and cut global emissions by half by 2030.
- By 2030, present strategies will only help to reduce world emissions by 1%.
MISSION TO REDUCE THE EMISSIONS QUICKLY –
- As governments prepare for the November Paris Agreement and deliberations on a Climate Action Plan, ocean and polar scientists have three critical messages to share:
- Every fraction of a degree is significant.
- Allowing global warming to rising above 2 degrees Celsius risks submerging coastlines. The disastrous effects will not be reversed by technological remedies.
- Policies must take the long view since they have the potential to cause irrevocable damage to Antarctica’s ice sheet and the rest of the globe.
- Scientists claim that as more information on Antarctica becomes available, it is increasingly clear that this continent will determine the planet’s fate.
