New Climate Change Prediction Says Were Really, Really, Really Effed, Bros

Good morning, Bros, and I guess this is goodbye, because if the predictions just made by former NASA climate scientist James Hansen come to fruition, were so fucking fucked.

:/

The gist of the study he dropped this week is that the ice sheets of both Greenland and Antarctica are going to melt way faster than previously predicted. They’ll all pretty much be gone by the time were 60. Per Slate:

The study—written by James Hansen, NASA’s former lead climate scientist, and 16 co-authors, many of whom are considered among the top in their fields—concludes that glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica will melt 10 times faster than previous consensus estimates, resulting in sea level rise of at least 10 feet in as little as 50 years.

That’ll just about flood New York City, Miami, Seattle, you know, pretty much any one of those cities that are on the ocean. Barcelona, probably.

The problem stems from the fact that melting glaciers create a feedback loop which leads to more melting. Once that starts — and consensus is it has — we are powerless to stop it.

The study… brings new importance to a feedback loop in the ocean near Antarctica that results in cooler freshwater from melting glaciers forcing warmer, saltier water underneath the ice sheets, speeding up the melting rate.

Oh, goody. The language they use to describe the cycle is frigging dire.

We conclude that continued high emissions will make multi-meter sea level rise practically unavoidable and likely to occur this century. Social disruption and economic consequences of such large sea level rise could be devastating. It is not difficult to imagine that conflicts arising from forced migrations and economic collapse might make the planet ungovernable, threatening the fabric of civilization.

Like I said, good morning! Recycle a can or something today.