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>> Welcome to "The newshour."
Alarming new evidence out today
shows once again the dramatic
impact of climate change.
>> A new study shows the massive
ice sheets at the top and bottom
of our planet are shrinking much
faster than previously thought.
More on what this means for
coastal communities around the
world.
>> This international study,
which compiles satellite
measurements over time, depict
what one researcher described as
a devastating trajectory.
In the early 1990's, the ice
sheets on Greenland and
Antarctica, were losing on
average about 116 billion tons
of ice per year, but in recent
years, that annual loss has more
than tripled to 410 billion tons
of ice.
As all that ice ends up in the
oceans, it is driving sea level
rise to an even greater extent.
For more on the implications of
this study, we are joined by the
deputy lead scientist at the
U.S. National snow and ice data
center.
She was not involved in this
study.
Great to have you.
You're the researcher I quoted
as describing this as a
devastating trajectory.
Can you explain why it feels
that way to you?
>> This is something where as we
are losing ice around the world,
the biggest impacts are felt by
those people who are actually
far from this ice and living in
coastal regions in north
America, Asia, Africa, all
around the world, so seeing this
continued rise in ice loss is
really not good news for dealing
with sea level rise, but I do
want to be clear that this is
not an inevitable trajectory,
either.
>> We are talking about ice
melting, disappearingending up
in oceans and driving up sea
levels.
When we talk about aliens of
tons, it is hard for people to
fathom what we are talking
about.
What are the downstream
consequences for communities all
over the world?
>> I understand how the numbers
can seem hard to deal with.
These are very vast areas that
are hard for us to imagine and
as we are losing ice from these
areas, what we see arising are
things like coastal erosion
where we are losing land.
We might see flooding in areas
that have never experienced it
for, even further inland from
the coast, and also areas that
you experience flooding, having
that occur more and more often.
These are impacts that we feel
around the world, and for those
of us who have felt very far
from ice.
>> You were saying that this is
not baked in, that we can act on
this, but there is an enormous
amount of carbon we have already
put up in the atmosphere.
Even if we stopped today and
emitting carbon 100%, wouldn't
there still be some of this
pollution and warming that is
baked in?
>> Yes, that's correct.
Unfortunately, we have already
put a lot of polluting gases
into the atmosphere, so we can
expect sea levels to rise over
the next 2030's, 2040's, and
that that amount of sea level
rise has been baked in due to
our past actions, but it is very
important to understand that sea
level rise after that time
period is very highly dependent
on what human actions we take,
what society does to address
climate change.
The impact your children and
grandchildren will have is
deeply affected by the actions
we take now and over this
decade.
>> I know you're not a political
scientist, but we just saw
another united nations climate
summit come and go with nearly
any commitment on global action.
-- Barely any commitment on
global action.
We are seeing the GOP try to
neuter the efforts of the Biden
administration to address
climate change.
Is it frustrating to you that
the evidence of this threat
keeps growing, but our appetite
to act on that evidence does
not?
>> It is frustrating that we are
not taking stronger and more
immediate actions in many cases,
but I think it is important to
still remember that we have made
progress from where we were, for
example, a decade ago, and that
starting progress in one
location can pass to another,
and we can create social,
societal tipping points in a
good way, so I think we have to
remember there is no expiration
on climate action.
Every 10th of a degree that we
prevent warming is worthwhile
and will benefit us, and we can
continue to strengthen our
actions.
>> Twyla moon of the national
snow and ice data center, thank
you very much for being here.
>> Thank.