As Rubio Denies Climate Change, the West Antarctica Ice Sheet Begins to Collapse

At times I wonder whether Republican politicians are as dumb as they act or are they simply so consumed by ego and a desire for power that they will deny reality in order to pander to the increasingly insane and objective reality denying members of the Republican Party base.  A party base where the embrace of ignorance, rejection of scientific knowledge and rank racism now seem to be worn as badges of honor and distinction.  As noted over the weekend, Marco Rubio has taken the plunge of denying climate change and rejecting scientific findings that mankind IS playing a role in its causation.  All, apparently, to better endear himself to the drooling, knuckle dragging GOP base.  Meanwhile, the New York Times reports further on the collapse of the West Antarctica ice sheet and the likely corresponding sea level rise which will threaten some of Rubio's home state's largest cities.  To say that Rubio is worse than a tawdry whore is an understatement.  Here are highlights from the New York Times piece:

A large section of the mighty West Antarctica ice sheet has begun falling apart and its continued melting now appears to be unstoppable, two groups of scientists reported on Monday. If the findings hold up, they suggest that the melting could destabilize neighboring parts of the ice sheet and a rise in sea level of 10 feet or more may be unavoidable in coming centuries.

Global warming caused by the human-driven release of greenhouse gases has helped to destabilize the ice sheet, though other factors may also be involved, the scientists said.

The rise of the sea is likely to continue to be relatively slow for the rest of the 21st century, the scientists added, but in the more distant future it may accelerate markedly, potentially throwing society into crisis.

The only thing more frightening than what science has learned about climate change is the unanticipated consequences that we have yet to learn.

“This is really happening,” Thomas P. Wagner, who runs NASA’s programs on polar ice and helped oversee some of the research, said in an interview. “There’s nothing to stop it now. But you are still limited by the physics of how fast the ice can flow.”

The West Antarctic ice sheet sits in a bowl-shaped depression in the earth, with the base of the ice below sea level. Warm ocean water is causing the ice sitting along the rim of the bowl to thin and retreat. As the front edge of the ice pulls away from the rim and enters deeper water, it can retreat much faster than before.

“Today we present observational evidence that a large sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet has gone into irreversible retreat,” Dr. Rignot said in the NASA news conference. “It has passed the point of no return.”

The global sea level has been rising since the 19th century, but Antarctica so far has been only a small factor. The biggest factor to date is that seawater expands as it warms.

The effects will depend in part on how much money future governments spend to protect shorelines from a rising sea. Research published in 2012 found that a rise of less than four feet would inundate land on which some 3.7 million Americans live today. Miami, New Orleans, New York and Boston are all highly vulnerable.

He added that while a large rise of the sea may now be inevitable from West Antarctica, continued release of greenhouse gases will almost certainly make the situation worse. The heat-trapping gases could destabilize other parts of Antarctica as well as the Greenland ice sheet, potentially causing enough sea-level rise that many of the world’s coastal cities would eventually have to be abandoned.

As Rome figuratively burns, the GOP continues to fiddle on.