Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf - Last Remnant Of Thwaites Glacier Ice Shelves - Collapsing Now

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Anyone who blogs on Daily Kos is aware that the world's ice is melting, causing sea level rise, changes in the balance of fresh versus salt water in the oceans of the world, a loss of reflection of solar energy back into space that has significantly increased heat energy into the oceans, coastal erosion.

The loss of ice around Antarctica ice and sea ice reflectivity (2023-2024 is the fourth lowest on record) has changed ocean currents, damaging the ability to regulate carbon in the atmosphere. "This area is where the deep water of the oceans rises to the surface, where it mingles with the air, changes, and reforms, sinking back into the depths. This moment of air-sea exchange of CO2 greatly impacts the overall amount of CO2 the ocean keeps safely sequestered in its depths."

West Antarctica is most vulnerable to rapid and devastating ice loss. Thwaites has been in the news as the glacier holds up to 2 feet of sea level rise. Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf is the plug that keeps inland ice from flowing into the sea. If we lose it, that will add another 8 feet of sea level rise, inundating Earth's coastal cities from Shanghai to Lagos to New York City and beyond.

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Ed. - The tweets immediately below are false-color coded; bright blue = glacier. Other colors farther out to sea = ice shelf/sea ice.

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/24/2225146/-Massive-damage-at-Thwaites-Glacier?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

[GreenWave]

1. 280 more feet of water to rise. Wake up people.

[Think. Again.]

2. Thanks for posting this...

...seems to have only happened in the past week and other than the twitter posts you posted, I can't find any more info yet...

[NNadir]

3. Don't worry, be happy.

Wind turbines, solar cells, electric cars, hydrogen, blah, blah, blah...

It's all working just great!

...Or so I'm told here and elsewhere...

"By 2050"

...by highly intelligent people.

People lie, to themselves and each other, but numbers don't lie:

At the Mauna Loa CO2 Observatory, Yet Another Terrifying, Startling Week in 2024.

[Goddessartist]

4. Thanks for posting this.

I've been following this for quite a while.

Fascinating times we're living in. Glad I'm on the late side of life, but man, people need to wake up! Our children and grandchildren, everyone pays the price for continuing on as we are.

[IbogaProject]

5. Big issue is almost all the heat absorption of ice is that last degree

It takes lots if calories to get ice from 32 to 33, and only 1 calories to get it each degree warmer.

https://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Global_EN/SEMHE7TWLUG_0.html#:~:text=Ice%20is%20the%20solid%20phase,334%20Joules%20for%20each%20gram.

Glaciers do not instantly melt completely once they are exposed to air temperatures higher than 0°C. They melt slowly because the ice has to absorb the energy from its surroundings. Thus, glaciers or glacier parts can exist for a certain amount of time under environmental conditions above 0°C.

To melt ice of 0°C to water of 0°C requires as much energy (latent heat) as, for example, heating water of 0°C to about 80 °C. Ice can therefore be quite stable if only limited energy is available to melt it.

Ice is very sensitive to temperature changes on Earth. It survives over a longer period only if the temperature stays below 0°C. As soon as the temperature increases and is above 0°C, the ice begins to melt. If there is enough energy (heat) available to the ice, it absorbs that and changes its phase from ice to water by the process of melting