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babylonsister

(171,072 posts)
Sun Aug 18, 2019, 07:55 PM Aug 2019

'Only you know if we did it': Scientists write dire letter to the future about climate change


‘Only you know if we did it’: Scientists write dire letter to the future about climate change
"We know what is happening and know what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it."
Joe Romm
Aug 18, 2019, 11:21 am


Scientists are gathering in Iceland Sunday to memorialize Okjökull — the country’s first glacier to be destroyed by global warming.

Okjökull, nicknamed Ok, lost its status as a glacier 2014. The monument being unveiled at the “funeral” is inscribed with an ominous warning, titled “A letter to the future.”

“Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier,” it states in English and Icelandic. “In the next 200 years, all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and know what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.”


Only future generations will “know if we did it” — if we melted all of the glaciers, raised sea level tens of feet, destroyed all of our coastal cities, and ruined our livable climate.

But the truth is that human-caused global warming is disintegrating Arctic glaciers and the great ice sheets at such a rapid and accelerating pace that we will all know within a decade whether humanity has acted fast enough to avert catastrophe.

more...

https://thinkprogress.org/scientists-hold-funeral-for-first-icelandic-glacier-killed-by-global-warming-5df0d504809b/
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'Only you know if we did it': Scientists write dire letter to the future about climate change (Original Post) babylonsister Aug 2019 OP
I don't think we have to wait a decade or 1 minute. BigmanPigman Aug 2019 #1

BigmanPigman

(51,611 posts)
1. I don't think we have to wait a decade or 1 minute.
Sun Aug 18, 2019, 08:07 PM
Aug 2019

Humans did this to Earth for GREED! We killed the plants and animals for self interest by governments and companies for the past 30+ years and are continuing to do the same. What was predicted to happen in 40+years is happening NOW! Alaska's waters are 8° higher than normal this year, killing salmon before they can spawn. The sea level has risen .5mm from glaciers melting this Summer alone. The scientists are using current data to change their predictions and now they are saying that the earth's temp could rise between 5.5°-9° by 2100. That is A LOT in 80 years.

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