Irreversible Antarctic Melt Will Flood Coastlines Worldwide

Current climate change deniers and other opponents of fossil fuel conservation are leaving residents of Miami, Manhattan and dozens of other major population centers worldwide an egotistical, expensive and consequential inheritance: 

A slow-motion and irreversible collapse of a massive cluster of glaciers in Antarctica has begun, and could cause sea levels to rise across the planet by another 4 feet within 200 years, scientists concluded in two studies released Monday. 

Researchers had previously estimated that the cluster in the Amundsen Sea region of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would last for thousands of years despite global climate change. But the new studies found that the loss is underway now as warming ocean water melts away the base of the ice shelf, and is occurring far more rapidly than scientists expected.