To stop rising seas from flooding coastlines, inundating cities and creating millions of refugees, scientists have looked into a novel solution: pump the troublesome extra seawater onto the Antarctic ice sheet, turning it into a salty mountain of snow and ice. Of course, acting as if Earth's oceans are a flooding bathtub and bailing water onto Antarctica like it's a big bucket is an extreme idea. But given the collective failure to tackle global carbon emissions -the sensible way to slow the rising seas - we are now in an era when such ideas need airing. Sea level rise is driven by unforgiving physics: as Earth's temperature rises, seawater expands and ice melts into the ocean. Each l ℃ of temperature rise bakes in an extra 2 metres of sea level over the next 2000 years. Warming so far means we're committed to at least this rise.
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