{"id":23816,"date":"2024-01-19T11:44:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T16:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=23816"},"modified":"2024-01-19T11:44:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T16:44:00","slug":"why-melting-polar-ice-is-a-debt-we-cant-afford-to-carry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2024\/01\/19\/why-melting-polar-ice-is-a-debt-we-cant-afford-to-carry\/","title":{"rendered":"Why melting polar ice is a debt we can\u2019t afford to carry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Near Palmer Station, Antarctica. Photo: Alice Alpert<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We now know it\u2019s official \u2013 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Citizens across the globe felt the impacts long before it was confirmed. There were unprecedented wildfires in Canada that turned the New York sky orange. Phoenix saw a record-breaking 31 consecutive days with temperatures topping 110 degrees.<\/p>\n

Along with these very immediate impacts, we also need to pay attention to the longer-term impacts of climate change. Specifically, when it gets hotter, ice locked in glaciers and ice sheets melts and ends up as water in the ocean.\u00a0It takes a long time to melt, but eventually all that water raises the level of the ocean.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a simple way to think about it: Imagine taking an ice cube out of your freezer and putting it on the kitchen counter. It\u2019s sitting there, you can see it. But you know it won\u2019t be there forever because at room temperature it will naturally melt and become water.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s basically what\u2019s happening now. We just took some (not all) ice out of Earth\u2019s freezer and it\u2019s slowly melting. A glacier is a huge volume of ice that takes a long time to melt. But it will keep melting until it\u2019s at its natural balance point, like the ice cube.<\/p>\n

About 15 years ago I worked at a science base in Antarctica called Palmer Station, where I observed pieces of \u201cdead ice,\u201d just sitting there melting like big dirty ice cubes. That dead ice has turned into sea water, and more glaciers are dying every day.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Alice Alpert and colleagues near Palmer Station, Antarctica <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because temperature is rising so fast, we haven\u2019t seen the full impacts of melting and sea level rise from the warming that\u2019s already occurred. It\u2019s like there\u2019s a melting debt that we haven\u2019t paid yet. It also means that the more<\/em> the temperature rises the larger our sea level rise debt will get, and the science indicates that it would rise exponentially.<\/p>\n

If we are able to hold temperature rise below 1.5 Celsius, sea level rise in 2100<\/a> would be about a foot higher than it is now And, and more likely than not, it would be about three feet higher in 2300 \u2013 endangering coastal communities from Florida and Texas to the Netherlands and Vietnam.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Near Palmer Station, Antarctica. Photo: Alice Alpert<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To reduce our sea level rise debt, we need to stop emitting greenhouse gases and further increasing the temperature as soon as possible<\/em>. That\u2019s why it\u2019s critical that we accelerate efforts to stabilize the climate and achieve a just transition.<\/p>\n

To learn more about melting debt, watch our video<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We now know it\u2019s official \u2013 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded. Citizens across the globe felt the impacts long before it was confirmed. There were unprecedented wildfires in Canada that turned the New York sky orange. Phoenix saw a record-breaking 31 consecutive days with temperatures topping 110 degrees. Along with these very immediate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152911,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,95,52,38,42],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-23816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arctic-antarctic","category-basic-science-of-global-warming","category-extreme-weather","category-oceans","category-science"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy melting polar ice is a debt we can\u2019t afford to carry - Climate 411<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2024\/01\/19\/why-melting-polar-ice-is-a-debt-we-cant-afford-to-carry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why melting polar ice is a debt we can\u2019t afford to carry - Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We now know it\u2019s official \u2013 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded. 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