Humans will not stop burning fossil fuels and there is no known viable alternative. Gasoline is the safest AND most compact AND most portable form of potential energy in the universe. We will continue to use fossil fuels until they are gone. When you burn one gallon of gasoline you remove 12 pounds of oxygen from the atmosphere and replace it with 19.2 pounds of carbon dioxide. The change in the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is significant and measurable and is presently at the highest level it has ever been in the entire history of mankind. The Earth's mean temperature is proportional to the percentage of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and will continue to rise over time. The melting of the entire Ice cap in Antarctica is inevitable in the future.
The crack in Antarctica is very significant, During the next twenty years ALL the ice shelves will be in danger of breaking off into the ocean. Although this won't represent a major rise in sea level it will accelerate the melting of the entire ice cap on Antarctica significantly. This all above is a layman's opinion and subject to extreme over simplification and "rounding error" but seems to represent the most likely course of events.
Additionally. there is a range of ten active underwater volcanoes off the coast of Antarctica. This includes one of the largest volcanoes on the planet. As the ice on Antarctica melts, the continent will "lift". This mechanical activity will lessen the physical pressure keeping the volcanoes "closed" and will make them more likely to erupt. The eruption of one or more of these underwater volcanoes will hasten the melting of the Ice cap on Antarctica which will in turn make another volcanic eruption even more likely in the future.
If an Ice Shelf of significant size does fall into the ocean it could cause a Tsunami to fan out across the ocean and strike all the nearest land in the southern hemisphere. The Indonesian Tsunami from the earthquake in 2005, was over two hundred feet tall and killed almost 200,000 people (125,000 dead 95,000 missing) on the Island nation. It was so powerful that it swept across the Indian Ocean and hit Sri Lanka, It destroyed a railroad, and left debris sixty feet up the mountain side. Do a google search on these geographical "facts". I think you will find them to be largely accurate. The sequence of events and imminence of certain events is debatable, but the inevitable conclusion seems certain. The Earth climate will change dramatically.
ADDENDUM:
"Prepare for doom" We are at the beginning of the ten thousand year dark ages. Everything we know will be swept away and buried under water. We are at the beginning of the great transition. While we are living in it -- it wont seem that unusual, because that is all we know; but future generations will marvel at the rapidity of change we will experience and our adaption to it.
copyright (c) 2017
William Schaeffer
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