In the late 19th century, climate change was first mentioned when ice ages and the warming effect of carbon dioxide became more convincing. Now, despite world leaders taking a hard line on climate change, a critical Antarctic glacier is looking more vulnerable, according to satellite images. As such, scientists is warning of a much worse-than-expected glacier collapse, should the situation there worsen.
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Around four centuries ago, when the Industrial Revolution first began, climate change reared its ugly head. As the warming effects of many types of gas, including carbon dioxide, became more convincing, world leaders finally realised the world should take bold steps to tackle climate change.
But now, notwithstanding their efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, a critical Antarctic ice shelf protecting the Antarctic glacier is breaking up faster, according to a new study. The ice shelf serves as a wall to prevent its much larger ice mass from flowing into the ocean.
Back in 2017, the Pine Island Glacier’s ice shelf loss began to accelerate, causing scientists to worry that with climate change, the glacier’s collapse could possibly happen quicker than predicted.
According to satellite pictures from a European satellite that takes pictures every six days, that critical ice shelf has retreated by 12 miles, or 20 kilometers, between 2017 and 2020. During that period, there were three major breakup events, creating icebergs which are more than 5 miles long and 22 miles wide, which were then smashed to smithereens as a result of smaller breakups.
Pine Island contains 180 trillion tons of ice, and is responsible for about a quarter of the continent’s ice loss.
Climate change is literally devastating, as the North Pole and Antarctica are now in such dire straits that the two consummate living places for many endangered animal species will soon disappear, should the situation worsen. Needless to say, Antarctica’s future hinges on the world’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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