The stability of a key Antarctic glacier appears to have taken a turn for the worse as a large iceberg that broke off during September has swiftly shattered. Meanwhile, scientists are concerned that the rate of sea level rise could further accelerate in a world forced to rapidly warm by human fossil fuel burning.
(Iceberg drifting away from the Pine Island Glacier rapidly shatters. Image source: European Space Agency.)
This week, a large iceberg that recently calved from West Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier rapidly and unexpectedly disintegrated as it drifted away from the frozen continent. The iceberg, which covers 103 square miles, was predicted to drift out into the Southern Ocean before breaking up. But just a little more than two months after calving in September, the massive chunk of ice is already falling apart.
The break-off and disintegration of this large berg has caused Pine Island Glacier’s ice…
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The Secular Jurist 
While I personally think we face rising sea waters, the big problem is it won’t happen overnight. In other words, the consequences of our actions today are not going to be evident for several years.
Thus, the climate change naysayers will stand their ground and continue to convince others that it’s all just the earth’s cyclical changes and there’s nothing to worry about.
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The article does not assert that (catastrophic) sea level rise will occur overnight; however, damaging effects of sea level rise are happening as we speak. Tidal flooding in south Florida has already become a costly problem for vulnerable communities (see: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/climate/the-sea-level-did-in-fact-rise-faster-in-the-southeast-us.html), and coastal Virginia is now experiencing even worse problems (see: http://www.13newsnow.com/news/local/sea-level-rise-threat-hampton-roads-virginia/487301336).
Climate change and the associated rise in ocean levels are not transpiring at a steady rate. Rather, the rate of change is increasing with each passing year. By the middle of this century, climate change deniers will be silenced by the painfully obvious impacts which most lay people today continue to underestimate. Science knows otherwise, yet is refraining from alarming the public.
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Like the iceberg, we humans drift slowly and quietly into the long dark night.
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Sad, but true.
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