ScienceCasts: No Turning Back - West Antarctic Glaciers in Irreversible Decline 

I think this is very interesting, yet very scary too. It's sad how the industrial era, in our history of the planet, was so exciting back in the day. Who knew back then what the cause and affect would be. That generation birthed so many great inventions and conveniences that have evolved over the years. All of us have had the luxury in this life time to know, use and let's face it- love them. Many of these things that have brought us all a 'better life'. We now know all about how they have indeed hurt the atmosphere. There is no turning back, just doing what we can to help preserve what we have.We can debate the issue and try and put blame on so many things, but we all know it's human invention that has caused irreversible damage to our planets atmosphere. The first thing that came to mind while watching this video was; how many vicious storms, tsunamis, tidal waves or anything related to ocean storms, will this produce? Can scientists predict that? Can they monitor that, knowing what is happening , so people in regions can be prepared? Or, is that hard to answer at this point? With all the wonderful technology that science has, one would think that this would be able to be monitored. Or not. I don't know- that's why I'm asking.

Thank you for the movie, that was well explained with good visuals.

How do you name some parts of Antarctica "western" or "eastern"? There should be nothing but inner (southern) and outer (northern) parts.

"A few hundred years" Really!?! NASA has such an optimism for an Agency solemnly developed to keep humans on this Planet.

I think the key words in that report were "in the centuries ahead"....

I wonder how much the introduction of various forms of energy from the all the nuclear industries around the world has contributed towards the global warming? It is not just heat that is generated by the nuclear power stations, there is also the increase of radioactivity that contains very energetic particles and other energies of various frequencies.

In the west Antarctic glaciers it should not be very difficult to channel cold streams and direct them into the hot currents under the glaciers to prevent further melting (?!)

Is there a way to move the polar bears and penguins and other animals to safety?

I'm not understanding why it is stated that it is not reversible. If we stopped the major polluters, China, India, Russia and the 10th largest USA, could the naturally occurring Earth systems then have a chance to ice back up? Also, at what balance point would we need to reverse it if that could happen? "Unstoppable" seems so concrete a statement. While a story stated Antarctic sea ice coverage reached record levels for April, hitting 3.5 million square miles - the largest on record according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDC). Remembering a recent Popular Science article about increased ice in the Antarctic. 2013 December, a group of tourists and climate scientists got caught in Antarctic ice pack about 1,500 miles south of Tasmania. Something doesn't add up here. Could it be possible that part of the Antarctic is being warmed while other part is being cooled more like something of a greater tilt to the Earth in reference to the Sun? I remember reading a long time ago that plant material was found in glaciers at the highest peaks on Earth. If that is so, then there must be a cycle of events that killed off some Woolly mammoths. I've been watching the Earth's magnetic fields on www.swpc.noaa.gov/SWN/sw_dials.gif for years and it expands as it is doing now and then weakens. Enlighten me.

LOVE ONE ANOTHER!!

It's too late. We fail. Now it's about limiting the damages...

I watched. The video Do They Really. Think, we have Hundreds. Of Years.?

The climate has been warming for 12,000 years, as the ice age cycle predictably progresses. The oceans have risen about 300 feet over that time span, with unexplained colder spells and warmer periods, probably caused by multiple origins. The industrial revolution is only about 200 hundred years old, so...

A lot of changes are irreversible now due to newly triggered positive feedbacks (and positive means that its negative for us). This is just one of many. Another one is the rapid melting of Arctic ice which will greatly reduce the albedo of our planet during the summer months in the northern hemisphere and warm the oceans there. Very likely it will be ice free in the summer within a couple of decades (some estimate around 2020 already for the first days). With the now 40% increase in CO2 over pre-industrial times we will continue to see warming, where a majority of this goes into the oceans (over 90%) - which again melts ice quicker (and causes a whole slew of problems for marine critters). CO2 reading today is 401ppm and has been climbing steadily with the rates of human emissions... it should have been around 280ppm.

We got a few "HUNDRED" years...

In a few hundred years we will hopefully be able to combat a four foot sea level rise. I mean shit, a few hundred years ago we didn't have electricity. We were barely able to leave Europe. This clip made me wonder if building air strips and colonizing on these ice sheets might have an effect.

Models? do any of the models show the effect of the added weight on th ocean floor, possible plate shifting, higher moutains, actually causing more land area! we are looking at eons of time not an overnight flood. Go ahead and send $$ to algore Ill keep driving my gas gusslers.

we've finally done it...

... watch this space as "a few hundred years" becomes "a few decades" ... I'm getting used to the idea that conservative estimates made (so as not to look foolish or freak out the idiots who run the show in business & government) really do not need to be quite so conservative, especially given how consistently reality outstrides the models

I'm glad I don't have the life expectancy to see that happen. It is a shame for the future generations. The movie Water World, comes to mind. heh.

That's it - we're toast. No question. Say goodbye to ___________ (fill in the blank).

A few hundred years! that's too long, we need to speed it up so I can moor my ship and walk around on Antarctica when I retire.

*Raise carbon taxes that will fix it*

The largest contributor to greenhouse gasses isn't transportation. It's animal agriculture. Of course, we should reduce our use of fossil fuels, but we should not overlook the damage we do by eating meat, eggs and dairy Every time we choose foods that do not come from animals, we are helping to reduce the greenhouse gasses being produced.

Well that sucks.

There is no going back, we need to focus on space elevators and O'Neill colonies. It would be a lot easier to terraform our planet back to life without all the people living on every corner of it.

few hundred years?! That's not very long. Can't we just build a underwater regulator to keep the sea level temps down in that are of the globe. Almost like the Antarctica having it's own AC system.

The tragedy of this page is that there are still folks out there that think global warming is some natural process in spite of what our scientific community has already said, ad nauseum. So they continue to believe it's a hoax & therefore will not do anything that might stop or slow it down because it would interfere with their everyday lives. I have nothing but contempt for those who continue to believe that Humanity has no role at all in global warming/climate change. If "Ignorance is bliss," then this world is full of happy people.

Only nasa can model water running uphill …..

Not a happy thought.

If we had Earth mass change and it broke off we would not have a hundred year's.

Dibs on the Danish and Dutch refugees! -Finland

At least man can say "now we know".......

Nice!!!

All what left for us now, is just to follow Dolphins ancient ancestry path.

both

For 60 years earth will dont have

The idea of the human race, and human civilization, surviving the next million years is no more impossible than it is possible. It’s up to us. Coming to peace with the environment is one of the two deadly challenges to our survival. The other is to be able to ward off an impact from space that we couldn’t survive. This object is coming. We don’t know when. If we allow these events to occur, when we know that if caught early enough they could be averted, we could in no way justify our inaction, so great would be the loss. We tend to think of our extinction in a ho-hum manner, as long as it takes place in the far, far future. But this is not necessarily the case. We don’t know for sure yet that the ice ages weren’t triggered by impacts of a lesser magnitude, yet traumatic enough to push the arctic ice cap as far south as the southern tip of Illinois. These planet jolting impacts may come frighteningly more often than we think.

We need Noah...

I'm not a brilliant scientist but I'm no idiot either, I was in the 8th grade in 1969 when my teacher asked the class what we thought the biggest problem facing the planet today was.......I raised my hand and he called on me , my answer then and now is......a lack of population control.....each child born will require a certain amount of natural resource to raise it to adult hood and sustain its life until death.......! the problem is the planet can only replenish that natural resource at a certain rate and at some point the population will be growing at a rate that the planet can not sustain , that and the industrialization of mankind is what brought us to this point . if people will quit having five and six children per family then perhaps scientist can win the race to undo enough of the damage to the environment to avoid a complete die off of our population........other wise its been nice knowing you all good bye

POLAR SHIFT.... there are places on the earth getting colder and other places getting hot. surprisingly nobody is talking about polar shift...

"For more news about climate change and hot topics..." I see what you did there...

I just ran into my closet and started crying.

change

WOW !!!!

Bad NASA the Earth has cooled not warmed

too bad I won't be around to see it. to say so fast but to take 200 years. I hope my great great great great great great great great grandchildren will know what to do and stay away from any coast.

shit looks like we have to pay more bull shit tax.

Robot voice annoying.

More prayer meetings will fix this

ice has always come and gone ... the sky is not falling ... you can't control this

what about that republicans???

Claiming there is no turning back is ridiculous probably intended as drama. When next the earth cools the ice will form again. I keep hearing that the ocean level is rising, yet I go to where I have visited for 50 years and the sea level is just the same. How can that be? We are lucky enough to live on a planet covered with water. Water in the form of gas, liquid and solid. This is what makes our climate stable enough for life to thrive. If we get heat from the sun at the surface it evaporates the water absorbing energy and carrying it high into the atmosphere where it condenses into rain. When the water condenses it releases the stored energy it collected lower in the atmosphere. Also the warmer it is the greater is the amount of water evaporated in the atmosphere more water more clouds, more clouds less heat reaches our planet from the sun. The white clouds reflect much solar radiation away from the earth. Besides all that. The only solution I have heard is to increase taxes on energy while All Gore flies his get all over the planet trying to manipulate politics. Lets get serious and toss these lying persons out of our lives.

"At this rate the glaciers will possibly melt within a few hundred years" Way to narrow it down hot shot. Possibly. Within. A few hundred. Years. Lol.

From NOAA --- "There are many questions surrounding climate change. One big question is how the changing climate will affect the oceans. The sea level has been steadily rising since 1900 at a rate of 1 to 2.5 millimeters per year. In fact, since 1992 new methods of satellite altimetry using the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite indicate a rate of rise of 3 millimeters per year. " Got that people!?!?!? 3 Millimeters a year? Do you know how small 3 millimeter is? 3MM = 1/8th of an inch. ?/ Also, where is the proof, that CO2 is the culprit (which is what they are trying to insinuate), and not natural warming- all evidence says natural warming. Sea Levels rise at general due to 2 factors- 1:) Rising and falling land masses, and 2:) thermal expansion of the oceans. Nothing to do with melting ice- ask you friend neighborhood Global warmers about this stuff- see what they have to say. This is what your paying billions of dollars of research tax dollars for. Paying attention people?

"OMG we should stop Global Warming right now !" *They said while driving SUV, using electric stove, and 24 hours air conditioner*

Well done explaining a natural occurrence, now go get some more government grants.

They saved the best line for last. "These glaciers will be history in a FEW HUNDRED YEARS." So nothing in the climate will defer this from happening 300+ years in the future. Balderdash, I say!

They've been saying this crap for years. We just had a near-historically cold winter, which is an inconvenient truth. I think we'll be okay.

Sorry, not buying it.

Follow the money. Why do the Koch brothers donate campaign funds to both the alleged left and right US political parties?

Was für ein Bullshit...

And they Just got caught modifying old data (significantly) to make temps seem warmer than they truely have been. Also, over the year since this was made, we have record ice accumulations ...even during their summer. The Arctic is still low during the winter. So, global warming doesn't explain that. The various planets in our solar system are having some real trouble as well. If we were experiencing the monster shifts in climates that the others have been over the last 2 or 3 years, there wouldn't be a human left on this rock. Be thankful.

THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING! Elect politicians who will do something about it!(lol) Help us make money off green products!

Raise the Earth's oceans by 4'. Sounds like BS to me.

I watched. The video Do They Really. Think, we have Hundreds. Of Years.?