New Delhi:
It was recently reported that Antarctica has lost ice cover four times the area of France in record time. And now, there’s another report about global warming and climate change linked to the fast melting ice of Antarctica, which brings worry to us.
A NASA-funded study has found critical instability in Antarctic glaciers. The study has found that enormous Antarctic glacier is on a brink of collapse which could cause catastrophic global sea level rises. Notably, the study warned that Antarctica is reaching a point when it would be impossible to stop or reverse it flowing into the sea and bringing a 50 cm sea level rise around the world.
The authors of a new study report that over the last six years, the rate at which five Antarctic glaciers slough off ice has doubled.
According to the research paper, Antarctica's Thwaites glacier poses the greatest risk of immediate water level rise globally. Well, it would not be wrong to say that the Thwaites Glacier is a melting time bomb.
Researchers have realized that Antarctica's ice sheet is fast reaching a point of no return, where accelerated melting ice will be impossible to stop or reverse even if the world took steps towards reducing global warming or climate change.
"After reaching the tipping point, Thwaites Glacier could lose all of its ice in a period of 150 years," Helene Seroussi, an author of the study and a NASA scientist, said in a press release. "That would make for a sea-level rise of about half a meter (1.64 feet)."
Alex Robel, another study author, added that if the glacier were to cross that Rubicon, nothing could stop the ice melt - even if Earth's temperatures stopped rising. "It will keep going by itself and that's the worry," he said.
If we don't take some serious efforts to control global warming and climate change, cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Vishakhapatnam and other coastal population belts will be harmed due to rising sea levels.
