Antarctica is melting at an alarming rate, guys, and it’s terrifying.
We all know global warming exists (except for those who try to deny it…), and see it in our day-to-day lives. Unseasonably warm temperatures and rising sea levels indicate that we are going down a bad and irreversible path, and fast.
So although it’s easy to ignore some of the signs, because who doesn’t enjoy a warm day, we need to really wake up and realize the implications of this horrifying pattern.
Climate change is really taking a toll on Antarctica, and scientists are taking serious notice. The New York Times just released an interactive report on what exactly is happening there, and it is worth the look. If you don’t have time to read it in full, here’s what you have to know.
The continent is in “the early stages of an unstoppable disintegration.”
The rise in global temperatures is causing the ice caps to melt, at an unstoppable and rapidly increasing rate. This will cause sea levels to rise, and eventually, coastal cities will flood, and perhaps even cease to exist. Cosmo reports that a full meltdown would cause sea levels to rise a whopping 160 feet, which is bad news for “low-lying cities like NYC, Miami, Shanghai, and Amsterdam.”
Scientists are hard at work to figure out when exactly this catastrophic level of rising sea levels will occur, but it will happen if that melting pattern continues. This kind of natural disaster that they once thought would take centuries, may happen in even just decades.
Granted, there are many factors in the works, and many calculations to be made. This isn’t meant to make you assume you’re going to wake up underwater in 15 years. But this study is a huge wake-up call. We can no longer deny climate-change and the impacts it will have. If you were selfishly not caring because things wouldn’t pick up speed in your lifetime, that may no longer be the case. Things are happening quickly, and we need to stay informed.
Click here for the link to the full study.
Allie Bush is a Contributing Writer at Femestella. She is interested in creating and sharing entertaining and engaging content, in whatever form it may take. She is a proud TV junkie and in her spare time can be found watching late night talk shows, talking about Chrissy Teigen or Amy Poehler, or eating off of other people’s plates.