May 13, 2014 โ Years from now, when scientists look for a precise moment when the Earthโs climate began to inexorably change, they may mark this week.
Two separate studies Monday appeared to confirm a fear scientists have harbored for decades: major glaciers in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet are irrevocably destabilized, and their slide into the ocean will swell the worldโs oceans by four feet.
Glaciers in West Antarctica โhave passed the point of no return,โ said Eric Rignot, the author of a study from the University of California at Irvine and NASA published in Geophysical Research Letters. It โwill be a major contributor to sea level rise in the decades and centuries to come.โ
Thomas P. Wagner, another NASA researcher who studies polar ice, was equally grave in an interview with the New York Times. โThis is really happening,โ he said. โThereโs nothing to stop it now. But you are still limited by the physics of how fast the ice can flow."
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