To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

×
      LATEST NEWSOPINIONCLIMATEECONOMY POLITICS RIGHTS & JUSTICEWAR & PEACE
      LATEST NEWS
      OPINION

      melting ice sheets

      Satellite imagery shows the Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica on February 21, 2000. The ice shelf's collapse in 2002 was hastened by fossil fuel-driven global warming.

      Glaciologist Says New Melting Study 'Frankly Scary. Even to Me.'

      "Ice sheets are retreating fast today," said one expert. "But we see traces in the seafloor that the retreat could go faster, way faster, and this is a reminder that we have not seen everything yet."

      Kenny Stancil
      Apr 05, 2023

      Peer-reviewed research out Wednesday shows that parts of a huge ice sheet covering Eurasia retreated up to 2,000 feet per day at the end of the last ice age—by far the fastest rate measured to date.

      The new finding, published in the journal Nature, upends "what scientists previously thought were the upper speed limits for ice sheet retreat," The Washington Postreported, and it has sparked fears about "how quickly ice in Greenland and Antarctica could melt and raise global sea levels in today's warming world."

      Keep ReadingShow Less
      News
      glaciers
      Rapidly melting ice in Antarctica

      Rapidly Melting Glaciers Threaten Collapse of Crucial Ocean Circulation Systems: Study

      "It's way faster than we thought these circulations could slow down," said one researcher. "We are talking about the possible long-term extinction of an iconic water mass."

      Julia Conley
      Mar 30, 2023

      Scientists from the United States and Australia on Wednesday warned in a new study that the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions and the resulting rapid melting of Antarctic glaciers is placing a vital deep ocean current "on a trajectory that looks headed towards collapse" in the coming decades.

      As Common Dreams has reported, Antarctic ice is melting at an unprecedented rate, and the melting is causing fresh water to enter the ocean—reducing the salinity and density which is needed to drive the "overturning circulation" of water deep in the world's oceans.

      Keep ReadingShow Less
      News
      Oceans
      Thwaites Glacier

      Ominous News From Deep Beneath Doomsday Glacier

      What researchers found is that weird stuff is going on down there that could speed up the day when Thwaites takes a swim.

      Juan Cole
      Feb 16, 2023

      The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica—the so-called "Doomsday Glacier"—is in the news again. We are fascinated with it because it is the Godzilla of glaciers, 80 miles across and as massive as Florida. If the ice sheet holding it back were to melt, and if Thwaites plopped into the ocean, it would all by itself raise sea level two feet. It functions, however, to hold back other glaciers and ice formations, which in its absence would themselves head for the sea. If that happened you would be talking about ten feet of sea level rise. The last time I discussed it, Alastair G.C. Graham had just shown that glaciers sometimes move very quickly. This finding has been widely accepted by scientists.

      B.E. Schmidt and colleagues write in a paper for Nature that scientists piloted an underwater vehicle beneath the ice shelf and the Thwaites glacier. Eat your heart out, James Cameron! They found that the glacier is melting a little slower than had been feared, but that since 2010 it has nevertheless shrunk consistently and fairly rapidly. Worse, much worse was their finding that there are big cracks in the glacier and terraced indentations from below that they call ‘staircase-like’ structures. These weak spots are exposed to relatively warm water, at a temperature of 2°C, i.e., 35.6°F, from beneath, and the glacier is melting especially rapidly at these weak hot points.

      Keep ReadingShow Less
      Opinion
      doomsday glacier
      SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
      Quality journalism. Progressive values. Direct to your inbox.
      Follow Us
      Most Popular

      House GOP Unveils Budget With Trillions in Cuts to Medicaid, Food Benefits, and More

      Auto Giants Refusing Union Demands Paid Just 1% in Federal Taxes on $42 Billion in Profits: Analysis

      Proposed Budget Offers Horrifying Vision of What Republicans Would Do If They Could

      Demanding an End to 'Deadly Fossil Fuels,' Tens of Thousands Take the Streets in NYC

      AOC Says Climate Movement Must Become 'Too Big and Too Radical to Ignore'

      With Alito's Billionaire Patron Holding $90 Million in Finance Firms, Watchdog Demands Recusal From CFPB Case

      Progressives Slam House GOP Push for Social Security 'Death Panel'

      'Their Plan Won't Work': UAW Rips GM and Ford for Laying Off Workers Amid Historic Strike

      Study Finds 'Forever Chemical' Exposure Increases Risk of Certain Cancers in Women

      Libya Dam Disaster Shows Horrific Consequences of US/NATO Imperialism

      Independent, nonprofit journalism needs your help.
      Please Pitch In
      Today!