‘We will witness a radically redrawn coast line’: Sea levels poised to run 15 feet or more over the rest of this century

 In May 2014, NASA announced at a press conference that a portion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appeared to have reached a point of irreversible retreat. … When those glaciers go, sea levels will rise by more than a meter, inundating land currently inhabited by 230 million people. And that would be just the first act before the collapse of the entire ice sheet, which could raise seas 5 meters and redraw the world’s coastlines.

At the time, scientists assumed that the loss of those glaciers would unfold over centuries. But in 2016, a bombshell study in Nature concluded that crumbling ice cliffs could trigger a runaway process of retreat, dramatically hastening the timeline.

However, not all scientists are convinced by the runaway scenario. Thus, a tension has emerged over how long we have until West Antarctica’s huge glaciers vanish. If their retreat unfolds over centuries, humanity may have time to adapt. But if rapid destabilization begins in the coming decades through the controversial runaway process, the consequences could outpace our ability to respond. 

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