After climate scientists began talking about Antarctica’s “doomsday glacier” recently, previous warnings from television personality and scientist Bill Nye have resurfaced – and gone viral.

According to new studies, the glacier — nicknamed because its collapse could cause unprecedented sea level rise — began melting rapidly in the 1940s.

During a CNN interview in 2021, Nye discussed the impacts that the glacier melting could have.

“It is estimated that the ocean will rise about half a meter. You may think, ‘I’ve been around half a meter of snow.’ But this would be catastrophic,” he said. “Places like southern Florida would be underwater. People would leave… It won’t happen instantly but it would happen soon enough.”

Nye said climate scientists have been predicting a rise in sea level for decades, though people are just starting to listen.

“This gets back to the problem that we’ve been talking about for 30 years. Scientific concerns have not been heeded by governments and by people around the world because the fossil fuel industry has been successful at introducing the idea that scientific uncertainty is somehow the same as doubt about the whole thing,” Nye said. “This is leading to catastrophes that are big enough for people to start noticing them.”

It can take years to see the effects of rising sea levels. Nye said these impacts “are not that hard to visualize right now.”

“The tornado that swept through Kentucky set all kinds of records in December. People will now be able to see that these predictions that climate scientists have been making for decades are coming true. Maybe people will start taking it seriously, which could be a good thing that comes out of these disasters.

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