Grim glacial warnings

There is growing evidence that climate change is fueling more powerful hurricanes and typhoons.

Also, the Greenland, Iceland, Himalayas and Antarctica glaciers are accelerating their melting. As ocean temperatures increase, some major glaciers are at risk of disappearing.

An Antarctic glacier the size of Florida is on the verge of collapse, a nightmare scenario made worse by climate change that could eventually result in several feet of global sea level rise.

Thwaites Glacier has been nicknamed the “doomsday glacier,” because of the cracks across its surface that could shatter like a car windshield.

“The eastern ice shelf is likely to shatter into hundreds of icebergs,” Oregon State University glaciologist Erin Pettit stated and would raise the height of the world's oceans by 65 centimeters.

A yellow submarine, called Boaty McBoatyface (I'm not making this up) will dive under the glacier soon to gather data.

How does this affect us on Negros?

Has the 174 reclamation project accounted for sea rise? If this reclamation development is planning to be here at least into the next century, then the sea rise is likely to be a meter or more. We will have to build higher sea walls and better flood defenses.

The development calculations of the extra land fill, and sea defenses against typhoons should be available to expert civil engineers, architects, and planners to go over in detail.

Provinces to be most adversely affected by a one-meter sea level rise are Negros Occidental, Capiz, Tawi-Tawi, Bohol, and Sulu.

Please join environmental organizations locally and internationally. Let's have a nice place for our grandchildren to live in.

Stephen Lowrie, PhD

Silliman University