Renewable sources are an opportunity for humanity, but we have not always known how to use them properly. One of the worst examples is hydrogen extraction at the bottom of the sea, which destroys entire ecosystems. However, we have now made the worst mistake in the history of mankind: this (polluting) energy could burn the entire Antarctic… with the chaos that would ensue.
What we have discovered alarms humanity: it is underground, and it will make the Earth burn
A new study reveals that even though the world is rapidly depleting the amount of coal, oil and natural gas that it can extract and burn, there are still enormous reserves left. Scientists estimated that the belt of fossil fuel still in the ground has enough potential to raise the global temperature by more than 5°C.
In order of comparison; the Paris Agreement is focused on warming that will be less than 1.5 degrees to ensure that climate change effects are not devastating. But continuing to burn all the remaining fossil fuels would raise the temperature to trigger the melting of the whole Antarctic ice sheet and lead to major changes.
The problem is that the market value of these trapped and non-recoverable fossil oil and gas resources remains high for energy companies and oil-exporting companies. But climate scientists are calling this a big mistake in the future of humankind since these reserves cannot be extracted and burnt.
Antarctica is already suffering from fossil fuels: this is how we are melting it
Recent studies aimed at quantifying the potential impacts from using up the remainder of the fossil fuel reserves have contributed substantially to these assessments. Scientists have particularly targeted the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet and its effects on the release of GHGs.
Another research that the journal Science outlined showed that the exhaustion of all the fossil fuels would lead to an increase in the sea level from melting in Antarctica of over 5 metres. The researchers used dynamical models to simulate Antarctica ice sheet response to the conditions of forced warming.
They anticipate that if maximum extraction of all fossil fuel are burned the Antarctica may rise global sea level 3 meters by 2050, and 5 meters by 2100. This would change coastlines, and many major cities in the World will flood. Do you understand why this problem is so serious?
A significant research in 2015 also examined the effects of further consumption of CO2 on the whole Antarctic glacier. New research in the journal Nature estimated that if all available resources of oil, gas and coal resources are ever burned the Antarctica ice sheet would simply melt in less than 1000 years.
The latest consequence we did not know: Antarctica is getting darker
Current research has revealed that darkening of freshwater Antarctica from burning of fossil fuels is becoming apparent. When fossil fuels are combusted as a source of energy, black carbon and other dark particulate matters are discharged into the environment.
This darkening trend is particularly pronounced in locations that house research stations or other research facilities that use high carbon-emitting fuel. Yet those far flung reaches of Antarctica too are evidencing darkening from soot carried from afar in the planetary air.
Dark ice and snow us will absorb more of the heat that is coming from the sun as is reflected back into space. This heat absorption then causes further acceleration of melting of the ice sheets. It is through this that the fossil fuel burning causes the emission of the greenhouse gases that could cause global warming.
We have seen this at the last Climate Summit, also in the report that the IPCC published in 2023 and again in the latest WWF protest. The use of fossil fuels and polluting energy will lead humanity to a dystopian future, and not precisely in the long term, but much sooner. Now that we know we have enough fuel to melt the entire Antarctic, will we take action or keep waiting?
