The Arctic is warming twice as fast as rest of the world | Hacker News Reader

The Arctic is warming twice as fast as rest of the world

climaterealityproject.org

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Meanwhile, on the other pole, a huge crack is spreading across Antarctica.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/08/22/a-huge-crack-i...

When that falls into the ocean, how big will the tidal wave be, and which countries will it obliterate?

It's already floating ;)

Good question about the tidal wave. I'm not sure about that. From the article:

"When ice shelves lose large chunks, it does not raise sea level because these bodies are already afloat. However, the loss of an ice shelf can speed up the seaward flow of the nonfloating glacial ice behind it, and this ice can in turn contribute to sea-level rise. Researchers have estimated that the loss of all the ice that the Larsen C ice shelf currently holds back would raise global sea levels by 10 centimetres."

It's sea ice so it's already on the water :)

What should we do? Does anyone here know?

Plants absorb carbon dioxide. Grow more plants.

Fun fact: the US Midwest grows corn, which produces as much oxygen (absorbs as much CO2) as the Amazon Basin. During the summer anyway. So we're growing a lot of plants already.

Most of the oxygen we breathe comes from plankton. But we don't particularly care for or about the ocean -- we don't see it, and we can make money by ignoring its health.

It's the American Way (tm)!

Clearly that is not enough because the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are at never seen before levels:

http://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/

And most of that corn goes to feed cattle, which produce methane (worse than CO2). So, what we do with the plants matters. Do we allow them to sequester the carbon or we put their carbon right back into the atmosphere?

Under 40% these days. In Iowa the largest buyer of corn is Pepsi. Oh! Unless by 'cattle' you meant people?

Seems reasonable to move to a higher ground and out of the way of flash flood areas.

Eat some sushi before the ocean acidification decimates the fish population.

The rest, who knows.

Vote and argument publicly to being goal warming, and the short term costs of mitigation, into the public's mind. Choose against far supply chains. Go solar, ride public, and electric car of you have to, and consume as little materially as possible. Travel little, and prefer train over planes. It's a very small impact for one person, but if you multiply by /everyone/ it becomes large.

I worried about global warming 20 years ago, but there was so much unknown, that I decided to wait. Now, we know much better, and it's actually worse that we thought before!

At about 3.5 degrees warming, the global food supply chain breaks down. We're at 1 degree now, and get Louisiana floods. 3.5 is between 20 and 50 years off.

But, who needs food or social stability anyway? We're all rugged individuals who will survive alone based on low taxes and Freedom (tm)! So don't worry! If it's all going to hell anyway, might as well enjoy it now, and if we're wrong after all, then that was the right choice. Screw other people, I'm getting a SUV!

Simple - reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 50-80%. If we achieved 100% tomorrow the earth would continue warming by another degree or two.

Achieving those levels of reduction will need changes to nearly everything we do.

We could start by ceasing deforestation and getting off fossil fuels as soon as humanly possible, but it wouldn't stop there. Oh, and stop electing politicians who claim climate change is a hoax.

I found these to be helpful to think about what we can do as individuals to help fight against climate change:

From Nature Conservancy: http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/global-war...

From the EPA: https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/

From the Canadian government: http://www.climatechange.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=D27052C...

If you mean what we can do specifically about the melting polar ice caps? Pressurize our government to make legislation that helps reduce emissions.

We can either cut carbon emissions, or gamble on impacts of climate change. But given latency and positive feedbacks, restraint is unlikely. By the time that impacts are undeniable enough to motivate substantial reductions in carbon emissions, it will arguably be too late.

Have less children.

get a boat

Celebrate the opening of northern passages to more sea traffic and the new access to new previously inaccessible resources?

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