A GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE; Why Texans Need to know How Fast Antarctica is Melting
WHY TEXANS NEED TO KNOW HOW FAST ANTARCTICA IS MELTING. REPORTING BY RYAN KELLMAN AND REBECCA HERSHER SOME OF THE FASTEST SEA LEVEL RISE IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING IN GALVESTON, TEXAS. Maybe you imagine sea level rise like a bathtub — with the water rising equally everywhere — but it’s much more complicated. The ocean is not a bathtub. West Antarctica contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by more than 10 feet and such melt affects certain places more than others. Galveston, Texas is in the crosshairs. By 2050, Galveston could experience more than 200 days of flooding every year.
The problem is that sea levels are rising faster in Galveston than almost anywhere else in the world. There has been more than 2 feet of sea level rise in Galveston in the last 100 years (1923- 2023). The global average during that time was about 8 inches. One hundred years from now, will there be 3 feet of sea level rise in Galveston? 11 feet? The answer partly depends on how much carbon dioxide humans pump into the atmosphere.
Unfortunately, we can’t predict how human greenhouse emissions will change. But the answer also depends on how ice caps respond to global warming. And there’s a lot we can learn about that.
