Attwater's greater prairie-chicken

“It looks like we’ve lost control of melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet,” said one author. “The bright side is that by recognizing this situation in advance, the world will have more time to adapt to the sea-level rise that’s coming.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 10-23-2023 by Common Dreams

*A view from the ship of the edge of the Ronne Ice Shelf, the world’s second largest ice shelf located in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. Photo: Ricarda Winkelmann/CC*

Even if humanity dramatically reduces planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet faces an “unavoidable” increase in melting for the rest of this century, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is the continent’s largest contributor to rising seas and contains enough ice to increase the global mean sea level by over 17 feet, the study explains. Enhanced melting of ice shelves, “the floating extensions of the ice sheet, has reduced their buttressing and caused upstream glaciers to accelerate their flow” toward the Southern Ocean. Ice shelf melting could “cause irreversible retreat” of the glaciers.

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“There’s now no question that neonicotinoids play an outsized role in our heartbreaking extinction crisis,” said one advocate. The EPA must “ban these pesticides so future generations don’t live in a world without bees and butterflies and the plants that depend on them.”

By Kenny Stancil. Published 5-5-2023 by Common Dreams

Research has shown that a “serious reduction in pesticide usage” is essential to prevent the extinction of up to 41% of the world’s insects in the coming decades. Photo: Charles J Sharp/Wikimedia Commons/CC

A newly published assessment from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns that three of the most commonly used neonicotinoid insecticides threaten the continued existence of more than 200 endangered plant and animal species.

“The EPA’s analysis shows we’ve got a five-alarm fire on our hands, and there’s now no question that neonicotinoids play an outsized role in our heartbreaking extinction crisis,” Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said Friday in a statement.

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Study Warns Even With Emissions Cuts, West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt ‘Unavoidable’

“It looks like we’ve lost control of melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet,” said one author. “The bright side is that by recognizing this situation in advance, the world will have more time to adapt to the sea-level rise that’s coming.”