Antarctica has moved to “the front of the line” as a global warming threat that’s already well beyond expectations, and it’s happening fast. Based upon statements by polar scientists over the past 18 months, it warrants a Red Flag Warning, meaning higher than expected risks of catastrophic meltdown within current lifetimes.
This meets criteria for the latest international concern surrounding climate change: “When is enough, enough” for world leaders to take to heart the risks of ecosystem failures and take extraordinary, drastic, unprecedented measures in unison to hopefully head off the onset of a maniacal worldwide climate system. There are people of stature who believe it (climate change) is already over the top, meaning “it’s too late.” But this is not universal belief.
Antarctica may be the catalyst that tips the scales enough to scare the daylights out of world leaders, but will this be recognized early enough for extreme mitigation measures to hopefully take hold well before EVs, with electron sparks flying, are left floating on city streets throughout the world?
Antarctica has been commanding more public attention as the principal ogre of global warming’s impact on sea levels simply because it is the biggest monster in the room, and it’s starting to move, a lot. Increasingly, the science that once, not so long ago, thought of Antarctica as an issue for the distant future, has turned tail as the rapidity of global warming has changed the entire complexity of the continent’s future. Its future is now, not a hundred years from now.
The risk of massive sea level rise flooding coastal megacities has jump-started from a distant hundred years hence, or more, to today’s generation, right now. This new unanticipated risk has been hammered home by statements from scientific meetings over the past 18 months with explicit warnings of Antarctica’s meltdown advancing much faster than ever expected:
The 11th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research meeting d/d August 2024 attended by 1,500 scientists: “Antarctica’s glacial melt is advancing faster than ever before in recorded history.” Quote by Gino Casassa, glaciologist head of Chilean Antarctic Institute: “Based upon current trends, sea levels will be up 13 feet by 2100.” If this happens, sea levels by 2035-40 will shock the world. After all, 13 feet doesn’t suddenly happen in the year 2099. And this is the first time such a projection (13’) has gone public.
A couple of months after that scientific meeting, 450 polar scientists held an emergency meeting in Australia d/d November 2024 issuing a press release to the public: “If we don’t act, and quickly, the melting of Antarctica ice could cause catastrophic sea level rise around the globe within our lifetimes.” The 450 polar scientists claim: “Drastic action is necessary regarding CO2 emissions as soon as possible.” Immense global warming-induced shifts were found in Antarctica. And this is the first time a group of polar scientists has stated “catastrophic sea level rise within our lifetimes.”
Now, a new study has discovered evidence of Antarctica mimicking Greenland’s meltdown dynamics, which are pervasive: Ruth Mottram, et al, The Greenlandification of Antarctica, Nature Geoscience, October 2025. Indeed, this study adds a new layer to outcries by scientists that a very big problem is about to burst loose with Antarctica’s meltdown phase.
Disturbingly, the Mottram, et al study exposes new dimensions of meltdown risks in Antarctica that should shatter any opposition to confronting global warming with every available resource guided by top notch scientists: “Both satellite data and field observations in Antarctica reveal alarming signs of a Greenland-like meltdown, with increased surface melting of the ice fields, faster-moving glaciers and dwindling sea ice.
Excerpted: ‘Antarctica’s Red Flag Warning’.
Courtesy: Counterpunch.org