Antarctica looked down a gun bottle, and people handle it. Hundreds of concerned scientists gathered in Australia recently to discuss how to put down the gun in what is being called an “emergency meeting.”
The conclusions of this meeting were put on paper in a statement published on November 22, 2024, and it is full of dire warnings that, if history is any teacher, he will be excused.
“Nowhere on Earth is there a greater lack of awareness of sea level rise than from East Antarctica, behind Australia,” the researchers wrote. “The East Antarctic Ice Sheet alone holds enough water to raise the global sea level by about 50 meters [164 feet] if completely dissolved. It means our coastal cities and big buildings. “
The Southern Ocean and Antarctica play very important roles in the Earth’s climate. They, like IFLScience he says, “the ocean is a carbon sink and a planetary air-conditioner,” and we are taking those services for granted. The temperature changes in that particular part of the world are much greater than anywhere else, and a recent study found that things are not getting any better. They are getting worse. Sea ice is shrinking, ice shelves are unstable, and temperatures are rising including heat waves that are hitting 72°F above average. These are big red flags, but they are so far away and in places we don’t usually see that it’s easy to ignore the breaking of that flag.
“Early work researchers are recommending to pay more attention to this region, which plays an important role in regulating the Earth’s climate and is important for our future, but is often neglected in public discussion and policy making,” the scientists wrote. “We believe that Antarctic and Southern Ocean science should be at the center of informing climate policy.”
The conference, officially called the 2024 Australian Antarctic Research Conference, was held in Hobart, Tasmania. Some 500 experts showed up to complain about the reports and try and figure out a better way to sound the alarm so that the world really listens.
According to research, Antarctica currently loses around 13 million cubic meters of ice each year hour on average, and that rate is increasing.
“Satellite images show that Antarctica is losing ice six times faster than it was 30 years ago,” IFLScience he wrote. “Even East Antarctica, once thought to be unstable and unchanging, is starting to show signs of extreme upsets, such as heat waves and major melting events.”
This is an almost impossible problem to solve, because the solution requires the people of the world to come together and make radical changes in the way we live our daily lives. Of course we will change, but reform alone will not be enough. The real answer is “deep, fast, and steady” cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, which, of course, the Average Joe has no control over in any meaningful way.
“Efforts to mitigate climate change through coordinated global action are critical to the future of Australia, Antarctica and our planet,” the researchers wrote. “…Our societies must set and achieve goals to ‘bend the carbon curve’ as quickly as possible. Failure to quickly reduce emissions – every year and every ton – will give actual and future generations a huge rise in sea levels. Every part of the degree is important. “
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