The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica has a very gloomy nickname: The Doomsday Glacier. It got its name from the fact that the collapse of this single enormous glacier, which is roughly the size of Florida, could raise sea levels by 65 cm. That could kick off a domino effect, causing the West Antarctic ice sheet to destabilize and eventually raising sea levels by an additional 3.3 m.
Researchers say it isn’t doing too well. Suddenly, “doomsday” doesn’t seem like it’s ominous enough.
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Scientists from the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, who have been studying the Doomsday Glacier extensively for the past six years, revealed that its bedrock is sitting below sea level and sloping inward, exposing more ice to warm ocean water which is accelerating its melting process.
Projections say that the Doomsday Glacier and the Antarctic Ice Sheet’s collapse could occur within the next 200 years. Sure, not your problem, right? Well, your children and their children and their children would be very fucked. And possibly even you, depending on how quickly the acceleration occurs.
The only tiny silver lining in the report is that the Doomsday Glacier’s melting isn’t happening as quickly as was once theorized. But it’s still pretty dire. The researchers fear that the damage may already be done and that the glacier is already on an irreversible path to global catastrophe, even if the world rapidly ditches fossil fuels within the next few years.
Should the Doomsday Glacier and the Antarctic Ice Sheet break apart, coastal cities around the world will suddenly find themselves in a world of shit. New York, Miami, Galveston, New Orleans, and every other city and town that touches an ocean will be affected. If you think that doesn’t affect you at all because you live in an inland area, I guess you don’t quite grasp the larger ramifications of mass climate change migrations into your inland regions from people fleeing an ecological disaster that could have been prevented.
