As if the impending doom of global warming wasn’t terrifying enough, it turns out that continental ice sheets could melt into nothingness far quicker than first presumed.
In an era where flooding and heat waves are becoming the dystopian norm, the New York Times reports that the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet, a sheet of ice the size of Mexico, could be completely melted in 94 years.
It was previously thought that it would take another thousand years before the segment of ice would melt away, but a shocking new report suggests otherwise due to the continued high emission of gases.
When the sheet of ice does disintegrate waters will rise by a minimum of 12 feet.
The long-term effect of this would mean that many of the worlds great cities such as New York, Miami, New Orleans, London, Venice, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Sydney would be merely drowned and submerged under water.
David Pollard, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University and a co-author of nerve-racking new paper said:
We are not saying this is definitely going to happen. But I think we are pointing out that there’s a danger, and it should receive a lot more attention.
And if that wasn’t depressing enough for a Thursday afternoon, it turns out that health systems in the UK are massively unprepared for the ‘devastating’ effects of climate change.
According to The Guardian, The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, have urged those in charge, not to wait around for disaster before acting but to act now.
The group which only began last Wednesday has said that many of the systems in the UK, including the health system, are simply not ready to deal with the consequences of global warming, such as the shocking weather seen in the past couple of months up and down the country.
In other words, we’re fucked.
