The Big Melt Accelerates

[ScienceRocks]

The Big Melt Accelerates

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/science/the-melting-isnt-glacial.html?hpw&rref=science&_r=0

Centuries from now, a large swath of the West Antarctic ice sheet is likely to be gone, its hundreds of trillions of tons of ice melted, causing a four-foot rise in already swollen seas.

Scientists reported last week that the scenario may be inevitable, with new research concluding that some giant glaciers had passed the point of no return, possibly setting off a chain reaction that could doom the rest of the ice sheet.

For many, the research signaled that changes in the earth’s climate have already reached a tipping point, even if global warming halted immediately.

“We as people see it as closing doors and limiting our future choices,” said Richard Alley, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. “Most of us personally like to keep those choices open.”

But these glaciers are just the latest signs that the thawing of earth’s icy regions is accelerating. While some glaciers are holding steady or even growing slightly, most are shrinking, and scientists believe they will continue to melt until greenhouse gas emissions are reined in.

“It’s possibly the best evidence of real global impact of warming,” said Theodore A. Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Furthest along in melting are the smallest glaciers in the high mountainous regions of the Andes, the Alps and the Himalayas and in Alaska. By itself, their melting does not pose a grave threat; together they make up only 1 percent of the ice on the planet and would cause sea level to rise only by one to two feet.

But the mountain glaciers have been telling scientists what the West Antarctica glacier disintegration is now confirming: In the coming centuries, more land will be covered by water and more of nature will be disrupted. A full melt would cause sea level to rise 215 feet.

During recent ice ages, glaciers expanded from the poles and covered nearly a third of the continents. And in the distant past there were episodes known as Snowball Earth, when the entire planet froze over. At the other extreme, a warm period near the end of the age of dinosaurs may have left the earth ice-free. Today the amount of ice is modest — 10 percent of land areas, nearly all of that in Greenland and Antarctica.

 

[ScienceRocks]

The melt is pretty amazing!
Glacier and Landscape Change in Response to Changing Climate

 

[IanC]

Didn't we already do that one to death a few years ago? The vast majority of the ice was already gone by 41. Then most of the 41 ice was gone by 60. The Little Ice Age is over. Ice is melting, so what?

 

[Crick]

Ice is melting because air and water temperatures are rising. The "coming out of an ice age" is pure bullshit and you know it. The rise of the last century is due primarily to human activities. The rise is taking place at a faster pace than humans will be able to cope with. The impact will be expensive in terms of both dollars and lives - the most expensive event in the history of the human race.

That's what.

 

[boedicca]

Noo Yawk Times?

meh

 

[flacaltenn]

Ice is melting because air and water temperatures are rising. The "coming out of an ice age" is pure bullshit and you know it. The rise of the last century is due primarily to human activities. The rise is taking place at a faster pace than humans will be able to cope with. The impact will be expensive in terms of both dollars and lives - the most expensive event in the history of the human race.

That's what.

So you would prefer a climate in which the ice is GROWING ?? IanC is correct, the sea level rise has been fairly consistent since before there was enough CO2 in the atmos to have an effect..

Shrill fear and panic gives folks a headache. Would be best to stick to the observations and facts..
Go pull up some sat photos of what Antarctica looks like today and maybe a temp forecast for the continent..

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Noo Yawk Times?

meh

Why do people pretend that the source really is The NYT?

Are they really THAT dumb?

Or, are they just to lazy to educate themselves?

For example, if the dummies bothered to read the link, they would find SEVEN links to scientific sources.

Then, they could post scientific sources to counter those claims.

But no. They don't read, they don't learn.

 

[boedicca]

We're still emerging from the Little Ice Age...and global warming since that time has been Berry Berry Good for humankind.

 

[flacaltenn]

There is no science predicting a complete meltdown of Antarctica -- yet those figures are INCLUDED in the NYTimes articles to spread fear and motivate panic...

 

[waltky]

Satellite's ice vision is boosted...

Cryosat spacecraft's ice vision is boosted
Thu, 12 May 2016 - European scientists have found a way to super-charge their study of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, enabling them to recover 100 times more detail in areas known to be melting.

The novel technique boosts the data about height changes that are gathered by radar instruments on satellites. Known as swath altimetry, it permits researchers to see broader regions of the ice sheets in any one pass overhead, and at a much finer scale. Areas of melting or accumulation can now be investigated with 100 times more information. The new approach has so far been applied only to a small set of data acquired by the Cryosat spacecraft. But the intention eventually is to go back and reprocess the entire six-year archive of observations made by this European Space Agency (Esa) mission.

Swath altimetry will totally change the way scientists are able to study some phenomena, says Dr Noel Gourmelen from Edinburgh University, UK. "The temporal and spatial improvements mean that if we have a surge in a glacier, it now makes it much easier to look at where that event initiated. Did the whole glacier start moving at once? Or did the change start at the ocean, meaning the ocean was having an impact on the glacier? Or perhaps it was further back, meaning different processes were involved. Now, we're better able to trace the history and the causes of the surge," he told BBC News.

To be clear, swath altimetry changes nothing about how Cryosat operates - only in the way its data is processed. The spacecraft already has a special radar designed to meet the peculiar challenges of observing ice sheets. With its twin antennas, the instrument can work in an interferometric mode, detecting not just the distance to a spot below it on the ice but also the angle to that location. Without this ability, it would struggle to map effectively the steep slopes and ridges found at the edges of the ice sheets - the very locations where recent melting and thinning have been most pronounced.

Broader brush

But even in this improved mode, standard data processing concentrates on the nearest radar echo return point and ignores much of the energy in the rest of the signal. Swath processing, on the other hand, unpacks it all, revealing a line of additional elevation points. It is now possible to see more of the shape of a depression or valley, not simply the rim or ridge that surrounds it. And because the "brush" of detection is much broader, it takes less time to "paint" the map of an ice sheet. "We can now see detail that was simply not possible before," said Cryosat's principal scientific advisor from Leeds University, Prof Andy Shepherd. "We can now map with about 500m spatial resolution the elevation and elevation change of Antarctica and Greenland, and other ice caps and glaciers across the globe."

The power of swath altimetry

 

[Crick]

The Big Melt Accelerates

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/20/science/the-melting-isnt-glacial.html?hpw&rref=science&_r=0

Centuries from now, a large swath of the West Antarctic ice sheet is likely to be gone, its hundreds of trillions of tons of ice melted, causing a four-foot rise in already swollen seas.

Scientists reported last week that the scenario may be inevitable, with new research concluding that some giant glaciers had passed the point of no return, possibly setting off a chain reaction that could doom the rest of the ice sheet.

For many, the research signaled that changes in the earth’s climate have already reached a tipping point, even if global warming halted immediately.

“We as people see it as closing doors and limiting our future choices,” said Richard Alley, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. “Most of us personally like to keep those choices open.”

But these glaciers are just the latest signs that the thawing of earth’s icy regions is accelerating. While some glaciers are holding steady or even growing slightly, most are shrinking, and scientists believe they will continue to melt until greenhouse gas emissions are reined in.

“It’s possibly the best evidence of real global impact of warming,” said Theodore A. Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Furthest along in melting are the smallest glaciers in the high mountainous regions of the Andes, the Alps and the Himalayas and in Alaska. By itself, their melting does not pose a grave threat; together they make up only 1 percent of the ice on the planet and would cause sea level to rise only by one to two feet.

But the mountain glaciers have been telling scientists what the West Antarctica glacier disintegration is now confirming: In the coming centuries, more land will be covered by water and more of nature will be disrupted. A full melt would cause sea level to rise 215 feet.

During recent ice ages, glaciers expanded from the poles and covered nearly a third of the continents. And in the distant past there were episodes known as Snowball Earth, when the entire planet froze over. At the other extreme, a warm period near the end of the age of dinosaurs may have left the earth ice-free. Today the amount of ice is modest — 10 percent of land areas, nearly all of that in Greenland and Antarctica.

Matthew, you should point out that this article is from almost exactly one year ago. The inevitability of the collapse of the WAIS is now a given.

 

[Crick]

Didn't we already do that one to death a few years ago? The vast majority of the ice was already gone by 41. Then most of the 41 ice was gone by 60. The Little Ice Age is over. Ice is melting, so what?

The world's warming of the last 150 years is not due to the end of the LIA.

 

[Crick]

Ice is melting because air and water temperatures are rising. The "coming out of an ice age" is pure bullshit and you know it. The rise of the last century is due primarily to human activities. The rise is taking place at a faster pace than humans will be able to cope with. The impact will be expensive in terms of both dollars and lives - the most expensive event in the history of the human race.

That's what.

So you would prefer a climate in which the ice is GROWING ?? IanC is correct, the sea level rise has been fairly consistent since before there was enough CO2 in the atmos to have an effect..

Shrill fear and panic gives folks a headache. Would be best to stick to the observations and facts..
Go pull up some sat photos of what Antarctica looks like today and maybe a temp forecast for the continent..

The collapse of the WAIS will produce catastrophic increases in sea level and has nothing to do with the Little Ice Age. If the subject gives you a headache, take an aspirin.

 

[Crick]

There is no science predicting a complete meltdown of Antarctica -- yet those figures are INCLUDED in the NYTimes articles to spread fear and motivate panic...

I don't need to push the NY Times to be concerned about catastrophic sea level rise from the collapse of the WAIS.

West Antarctic Ice Sheet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Potential collapse
Large parts of the WAIS sit on a bed which is below sea level and slopes downward inland.[A] This slope, and the low isostatic head, mean that the ice sheet is theoretically unstable: a small retreat could in theory destabilize the entire WAIS leading to rapid disintegration. Current computer models do not include the physics necessary to simulate this process, and observations do not provide guidance, so predictions as to its rate of retreat remain uncertain. This has been known for decades.[9]

In January 2006, in a UK government-commissioned report, the head of the British Antarctic Survey, Chris Rapley, warned that this huge west Antarctic ice sheet may be starting to disintegrate. It has been hypothesised that this disintegration could raise sea levels by approximately 3.3 metres (11 ft).[10] (If the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt, this would contribute 4.8 m (16 ft) to global sea level.)[11] Rapley said a previous (2001) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) report that played down the worries of the ice sheet's stability should be revised. "I would say it is now an awakened giant. There is real concern." [5]

Rapley said, "Parts of the Antarctic ice sheet that rest on bedrock below sea level have begun to discharge ice fast enough to make a significant contribution to sea level rise. Understanding the reason for this change is urgent in order to be able to predict how much ice may ultimately be discharged and over what timescale. Current computer models do not include the effect of liquid water on ice sheet sliding and flow, and so provide only conservative estimates of future behaviour." [12]

James E. Hansen, a senior NASA scientist and leading climate expert, said the results were deeply worrying. "Once a sheet starts to disintegrate, it can reach a tipping pointbeyond which break-up is explosively rapid," he said.[13]

Polar ice experts from the U.S. and U.K. met at the University of Texas at Austin in March, 2007 for the West Antarctic Links to Sea-Level Estimation (WALSE) Workshop.[14] The experts discussed a new hypothesis that explains the observed increased melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. They proposed that changes in air circulation patterns have led to increased upwelling of warm, deep ocean water along the coast of Antarctica and that this warm water has increased melting of floating ice shelves at the edge of the ice sheet.[15] An ocean model has shown how changes in winds can help channel the water along deep troughs on the sea floor, toward the ice shelves of outlet glaciers.[16] The exact cause of the changes in circulation patterns is not known and they may be due to natural variability. However, this connection between the atmosphere and upwelling of deep ocean water provides a mechanism by which human induced climate changes could cause an accelerated loss of ice from WAIS.[16] Recently published data collected from satellites support this hypothesis, suggesting that the west Antarctic ice sheet is beginning to show signs of instability.[4][17]

On 12 May 2014, It was announced that two teams of scientists said the long-feared collapse of the Ice Sheet had begun, kicking off what they say will be a centuries-long, "unstoppable" process that could raise sea levels by 1.2 to 3.6 metres (3.9–11.8 ft)[18][19] They estimate that rapid drawdown of Thwaites Glacier will begin in 200 – 1000 years.[20](Scientific source articles: Rignot et al. 2014 [21] and Joughin et al. 2014.[22])

Emphases mine.

References

1. Jump up^ Lythe, Matthew B.; Vaughan, David G. (June 2001). "BEDMAP: A new ice thickness and subglacial topographic model of Antarctica". Journal of Geophysical Research 106 (B6): 11335–11352. Bibcode:2001JGR...10611335L. doi:10.1029/2000JB900449.
2. Jump up^ Anderson, John B. (1999). Antarctic marine geology. Cambridge University Press. p. 59. ISBN 0-521-59317-4.
3. Jump up^ Ice Shelves, Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition Archived February 3, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b Rignot, E. (2008). "Changes in West Antarctic ice stream dynamics observed with ALOS PALSAR data". Geophysical Research Letters 35 (12): L12505.Bibcode:2008GeoRL..3512505R. doi:10.1029/2008GL033365.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b Jenny Hogan, "Antarctic ice sheet is an 'awakened giant'", New Scientist, February 2, 2005
6. Jump up^ Rignot, E.; Bamber, J. L.; Van Den Broeke, M. R.; Davis, C.; Li, Y.; Van De Berg, W. J.; Van Meijgaard, E. (2008). "Recent Antarctic ice mass loss from radar interferometry and regional climate modelling". Nature Geoscience 1 (2): 106.Bibcode:2008NatGe...1..106R. doi:10.1038/ngeo102.
7. Jump up^ King, M. A.; Bingham, R. J.; Moore, P.; Whitehouse, P. L.; Bentley, M. J.; Milne, G. A. (2012). "Lower satellite-gravimetry estimates of Antarctic sea-level contribution". Nature491 (7425): 586–589. doi:10.1038/nature11621. PMID 23086145.
8. Jump up^ ESA (December 11, 2013). "Antarctica’s ice loss on the rise".
9. Jump up^ Hughes, Terence J. (1981). "The weak underbelly of the West Antarctic ice-sheet.".
10. Jump up^ Bamber J.L., Riva R.E.M., Vermeersen B.L.A., LeBroq A.M. (2009). "Reassessment of the potential sea-level rise from a collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet". Science 324(5929): 901–3. Bibcode:2009Sci...324..901B. doi:10.1126/science.1169335.PMID 19443778.
11. Jump up^ Bamber J.L., Riva R.E.M., Vermeersen B.L.A., LeBroq A.M. (2009). "Reassessment of the potential sea-level rise from a collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (Supporting Online Material)". Science 324 (5929): 901–3. Bibcode:2009Sci...324..901B.doi:10.1126/science.1169335. PMID 19443778.
12. Jump up^ "West Antarctic ice sheet: Waking the sleeping giant?", Symposium, February 19, 2006
13. Jump up^ Jonathan Leake and Jonathan Milne, "Focus: The climate of fear", The Sunday Times — Britain, February 19, 2006
14. Jump up^ Statement: Thinning of West Antarctic Ice Sheet Demands Improved Monitoring to Reduce Uncertainty over Potential Sea-Level Rise | JSG News
15. Jump up^ Statement: Thinning of West Antarctic Ice Sheet Demands Improved Monitoring to Reduce Uncertainty over Potential Sea-Level Rise (March 28, 2007)
16. ^ Jump up to:a b Thoma, M.; Jenkins, A.; Holland, D.; Jacobs, S. (2008). "Modelling Circumpolar Deep Water intrusions on the Amundsen Sea continental shelf, Antarctica". Geophysical Research Letters 35 (18): L18602. Bibcode:2008GeoRL..3518602T.doi:10.1029/2008GL034939.
17. Jump up^ Kaufman, Mark (2008) "Escalating Ice Loss Found in Antarctica: Sheets Melting in an Area Once Thought to Be Unaffected by Global Warming" Washington Post (January 14) p. A01 online
18. Jump up^ Scientists warn of rising sea levels as huge Antarctic ice sheet slowly melts
19. Jump up^ Climate Model Predicts West Antarctic Ice Sheet Could Melt Rapidly March 30, 2016
20. Jump up^ Boyle, Alan (12 May 2014). "West Antarctic Ice Sheet's Collapse Triggers Sea Level Warning". Retrieved 12 May 2014.
21. Jump up^ Rignot, E., J. Mouginot, M. Morlighem, H. Seroussi and B. Scheuch (May 12, 2014)."Widespread, rapid grounding line retreat of Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith and Kohler glaciers, West Antarctica from 1992 to 2011". Geophysical Research Letters.doi:10.1002/2014GL060140.
22. Jump up^ Joughin, Ian, Benjamin E. Smith, Brooke Medley (May 12, 2014). "Marine Ice Sheet Collapse Potentially Underway for the Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica".Science. doi:10.1126/science.1249055.
23. Jump up^ Steig, E. J.; Schneider, D. P.; Rutherford, S. D.; Mann, M. E.; Comiso, J. C.; Shindell, D. T. (2009). "Warming of the Antarctic ice-sheet surface since the 1957 International Geophysical Year". Nature 457 (7228): 459–462. doi:10.1038/nature07669.PMID 19158794.
24. Jump up^ Matt McGrath (23 December 2012). "West Antarctic Ice Sheet warming twice earlier estimate". BBC News. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
25. Jump up^ The Rapid Disintegration of Projections: The West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Jessica O'Reilly Naomi Oreskes, Michael Oppenheimer Social Studies of Science June 26, 2012, doi: 10.1177/0306312712448130
26. Jump up^ Mike Hulme, "Lessons from the IPCC: do scientific assessments need to be consensual to be authoritative?" in (eds.) Doubleday, R. and Willesden, J. March 2013, page 142 ff

 

[IanC]

IF (a big if) the WAIS is collapsing, then the conditions that started it have been present for a long time, probably since the last Ice Age ended thousands of years ago. the idea that a few tenths of a degree for half a century is causing it is absurd.

 

[Crick]

Absurd? Is that more of that "Ian, the Hard Scientist" thinking?

That the WAIS is unstable has been known for decades. The current pronouncement is based on measurements of the grounding line. The recession of that line appears to be due to changes in ocean currents and, of course, the warming of the deep ocean. Those are due to the precipitous rate of warming produced by human GHG emissions.

 

[IanC]

ARGO data

southern hemisphere warming much slower than NH

southern ocean surface temps cooling

sorry, more up-to-date

Im having a hard time finding all this warming you are talking about.

 

[skookerasbil]

bArEly wArmiNg s0ns!!

And nobody in the real world is taking notice. This is a topic only in the nether-regions of the internet and a few Starbucks where the typical emotional hemophiliacs are sitting around sipping latte's and pretending they have real responsibilities in life.

Every poll taken by the top polling companies displays the same thing regarding voter concerns in 2016: global warming is at the bottom of the list of 20-22 concerns.

 

[flacaltenn]

Ice is melting because air and water temperatures are rising. The "coming out of an ice age" is pure bullshit and you know it. The rise of the last century is due primarily to human activities. The rise is taking place at a faster pace than humans will be able to cope with. The impact will be expensive in terms of both dollars and lives - the most expensive event in the history of the human race.

That's what.

So you would prefer a climate in which the ice is GROWING ?? IanC is correct, the sea level rise has been fairly consistent since before there was enough CO2 in the atmos to have an effect..

Shrill fear and panic gives folks a headache. Would be best to stick to the observations and facts..
Go pull up some sat photos of what Antarctica looks like today and maybe a temp forecast for the continent..

The collapse of the WAIS will produce catastrophic increases in sea level and has nothing to do with the Little Ice Age. If the subject gives you a headache, take an aspirin.

If there's a collapse of the WAIS anytime soon --- it will provide glorious evidence of the volcanic ridges below this area that are "ungluing" the sea bed footing of these shelves..

 

[flacaltenn]

There is no science predicting a complete meltdown of Antarctica -- yet those figures are INCLUDED in the NYTimes articles to spread fear and motivate panic...

I don't need to push the NY Times to be concerned about catastrophic sea level rise from the collapse of the WAIS.

West Antarctic Ice Sheet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Potential collapse
Large parts of the WAIS sit on a bed which is below sea level and slopes downward inland.[A] This slope, and the low isostatic head, mean that the ice sheet is theoretically unstable: a small retreat could in theory destabilize the entire WAIS leading to rapid disintegration. Current computer models do not include the physics necessary to simulate this process, and observations do not provide guidance, so predictions as to its rate of retreat remain uncertain. This has been known for decades.[9]

In January 2006, in a UK government-commissioned report, the head of the British Antarctic Survey, Chris Rapley, warned that this huge west Antarctic ice sheet may be starting to disintegrate. It has been hypothesised that this disintegration could raise sea levels by approximately 3.3 metres (11 ft).[10] (If the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt, this would contribute 4.8 m (16 ft) to global sea level.)[11] Rapley said a previous (2001) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) report that played down the worries of the ice sheet's stability should be revised. "I would say it is now an awakened giant. There is real concern." [5]

Rapley said, "Parts of the Antarctic ice sheet that rest on bedrock below sea level have begun to discharge ice fast enough to make a significant contribution to sea level rise. Understanding the reason for this change is urgent in order to be able to predict how much ice may ultimately be discharged and over what timescale. Current computer models do not include the effect of liquid water on ice sheet sliding and flow, and so provide only conservative estimates of future behaviour." [12]

James E. Hansen, a senior NASA scientist and leading climate expert, said the results were deeply worrying. "Once a sheet starts to disintegrate, it can reach a tipping pointbeyond which break-up is explosively rapid," he said.[13]

Polar ice experts from the U.S. and U.K. met at the University of Texas at Austin in March, 2007 for the West Antarctic Links to Sea-Level Estimation (WALSE) Workshop.[14] The experts discussed a new hypothesis that explains the observed increased melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. They proposed that changes in air circulation patterns have led to increased upwelling of warm, deep ocean water along the coast of Antarctica and that this warm water has increased melting of floating ice shelves at the edge of the ice sheet.[15] An ocean model has shown how changes in winds can help channel the water along deep troughs on the sea floor, toward the ice shelves of outlet glaciers.[16] The exact cause of the changes in circulation patterns is not known and they may be due to natural variability. However, this connection between the atmosphere and upwelling of deep ocean water provides a mechanism by which human induced climate changes could cause an accelerated loss of ice from WAIS.[16] Recently published data collected from satellites support this hypothesis, suggesting that the west Antarctic ice sheet is beginning to show signs of instability.[4][17]

On 12 May 2014, It was announced that two teams of scientists said the long-feared collapse of the Ice Sheet had begun, kicking off what they say will be a centuries-long, "unstoppable" process that could raise sea levels by 1.2 to 3.6 metres (3.9–11.8 ft)[18][19] They estimate that rapid drawdown of Thwaites Glacier will begin in 200 – 1000 years.[20](Scientific source articles: Rignot et al. 2014 [21] and Joughin et al. 2014.[22])

Emphases mine.

References

1. Jump up^ Lythe, Matthew B.; Vaughan, David G. (June 2001). "BEDMAP: A new ice thickness and subglacial topographic model of Antarctica". Journal of Geophysical Research 106 (B6): 11335–11352. Bibcode:2001JGR...10611335L. doi:10.1029/2000JB900449.
2. Jump up^ Anderson, John B. (1999). Antarctic marine geology. Cambridge University Press. p. 59. ISBN 0-521-59317-4.
3. Jump up^ Ice Shelves, Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition Archived February 3, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b Rignot, E. (2008). "Changes in West Antarctic ice stream dynamics observed with ALOS PALSAR data". Geophysical Research Letters 35 (12): L12505.Bibcode:2008GeoRL..3512505R. doi:10.1029/2008GL033365.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b Jenny Hogan, "Antarctic ice sheet is an 'awakened giant'", New Scientist, February 2, 2005
6. Jump up^ Rignot, E.; Bamber, J. L.; Van Den Broeke, M. R.; Davis, C.; Li, Y.; Van De Berg, W. J.; Van Meijgaard, E. (2008). "Recent Antarctic ice mass loss from radar interferometry and regional climate modelling". Nature Geoscience 1 (2): 106.Bibcode:2008NatGe...1..106R. doi:10.1038/ngeo102.
7. Jump up^ King, M. A.; Bingham, R. J.; Moore, P.; Whitehouse, P. L.; Bentley, M. J.; Milne, G. A. (2012). "Lower satellite-gravimetry estimates of Antarctic sea-level contribution". Nature491 (7425): 586–589. doi:10.1038/nature11621. PMID 23086145.
8. Jump up^ ESA (December 11, 2013). "Antarctica’s ice loss on the rise".
9. Jump up^ Hughes, Terence J. (1981). "The weak underbelly of the West Antarctic ice-sheet.".
10. Jump up^ Bamber J.L., Riva R.E.M., Vermeersen B.L.A., LeBroq A.M. (2009). "Reassessment of the potential sea-level rise from a collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet". Science 324(5929): 901–3. Bibcode:2009Sci...324..901B. doi:10.1126/science.1169335.PMID 19443778.
11. Jump up^ Bamber J.L., Riva R.E.M., Vermeersen B.L.A., LeBroq A.M. (2009). "Reassessment of the potential sea-level rise from a collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (Supporting Online Material)". Science 324 (5929): 901–3. Bibcode:2009Sci...324..901B.doi:10.1126/science.1169335. PMID 19443778.
12. Jump up^ "West Antarctic ice sheet: Waking the sleeping giant?", Symposium, February 19, 2006
13. Jump up^ Jonathan Leake and Jonathan Milne, "Focus: The climate of fear", The Sunday Times — Britain, February 19, 2006
14. Jump up^ Statement: Thinning of West Antarctic Ice Sheet Demands Improved Monitoring to Reduce Uncertainty over Potential Sea-Level Rise | JSG News
15. Jump up^ Statement: Thinning of West Antarctic Ice Sheet Demands Improved Monitoring to Reduce Uncertainty over Potential Sea-Level Rise (March 28, 2007)
16. ^ Jump up to:a b Thoma, M.; Jenkins, A.; Holland, D.; Jacobs, S. (2008). "Modelling Circumpolar Deep Water intrusions on the Amundsen Sea continental shelf, Antarctica". Geophysical Research Letters 35 (18): L18602. Bibcode:2008GeoRL..3518602T.doi:10.1029/2008GL034939.
17. Jump up^ Kaufman, Mark (2008) "Escalating Ice Loss Found in Antarctica: Sheets Melting in an Area Once Thought to Be Unaffected by Global Warming" Washington Post (January 14) p. A01 online
18. Jump up^ Scientists warn of rising sea levels as huge Antarctic ice sheet slowly melts
19. Jump up^ Climate Model Predicts West Antarctic Ice Sheet Could Melt Rapidly March 30, 2016
20. Jump up^ Boyle, Alan (12 May 2014). "West Antarctic Ice Sheet's Collapse Triggers Sea Level Warning". Retrieved 12 May 2014.
21. Jump up^ Rignot, E., J. Mouginot, M. Morlighem, H. Seroussi and B. Scheuch (May 12, 2014)."Widespread, rapid grounding line retreat of Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith and Kohler glaciers, West Antarctica from 1992 to 2011". Geophysical Research Letters.doi:10.1002/2014GL060140.
22. Jump up^ Joughin, Ian, Benjamin E. Smith, Brooke Medley (May 12, 2014). "Marine Ice Sheet Collapse Potentially Underway for the Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica".Science. doi:10.1126/science.1249055.
23. Jump up^ Steig, E. J.; Schneider, D. P.; Rutherford, S. D.; Mann, M. E.; Comiso, J. C.; Shindell, D. T. (2009). "Warming of the Antarctic ice-sheet surface since the 1957 International Geophysical Year". Nature 457 (7228): 459–462. doi:10.1038/nature07669.PMID 19158794.
24. Jump up^ Matt McGrath (23 December 2012). "West Antarctic Ice Sheet warming twice earlier estimate". BBC News. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
25. Jump up^ The Rapid Disintegration of Projections: The West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Jessica O'Reilly Naomi Oreskes, Michael Oppenheimer Social Studies of Science June 26, 2012, doi: 10.1177/0306312712448130
26. Jump up^ Mike Hulme, "Lessons from the IPCC: do scientific assessments need to be consensual to be authoritative?" in (eds.) Doubleday, R. and Willesden, J. March 2013, page 142 ff

THIS is the part you need to get thru your head and be "concerned": about...

Current computer models do not include the physics necessary to simulate this process, and observations do not provide guidance, so predictions as to its rate of retreat remain uncertain. This has been known for decades.[9]

That and ice that is ALREADY resting on sea bed rock and underwater is NOT gonna fully contribute to sea level rise. Do I have to draw you a picture? This is mental masturbation about feelings and "what ifs"..