Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier Might Be Unstable

•Eight research teams will be part of a massive five-year project to study an Antarctic glacier that's in rapid retreat.
•If it happens, the Thwaites Glacier's collapse would cause a dramatic rise in sea levels.
•The researchers are hoping to find out how dire the situation is, and what additional impacts this collapse would have.

•They'll be focused on the Thwaites Glacier, located on the western side of Antarctica. It has lost a huge amount of ice recently – enough to contribute about 4 percent of overall sea level rise – and a complete collapse of the Florida-sized glacier would push sea levels up as much as 3 feet, according to Public Radio International.

The new study will be an attempt to learn more about the glacier in hopes that it'll lead to better modeling and a more exact projection of what might happen in the future.

"Really, the whole program is about understanding that extra uncertainty attached to sea level rise and doing what we can to remove it, allowing people to protect their coastal environments and to prepare property to protect their populations," David Vaughan, the director of science at the British Antarctic Survey,

One reason why we know relatively little about Thwaites is because few researchers have made expeditions to West Antarctica to study it since the first trip in the 1950s, PRI also said. The glacier is some 1,000 miles from the closest research station, and weather conditions are not friendly to those who venture into the region, the report added.

But this time, eight research teams will join together for the project, and they plan to study everything from the bedrock under the ice sheet to the climate above it in hopes of finding out as much as they can about the glacier, PRI added. They want to know the history of this ice sheet so they can understand how it has behaved in the past, and if there's any hope to save it during the rapid retreat period currently taking place.

"There is still a question in my view as to whether Thwaites has actually entered an irreversible retreat," Vaughan told BBC.com. "It assumes the melt rates we see today continue into the future and that's not guaranteed. Thwaites is clearly on the verge of an irreversible retreat, but to be sure we need 10 years more data."

About 100 scientists will be sent to West Antarctica as part of the study, according to BBC.com. It'll be the biggest collaboration between U.S. and U.K. scientists in Antarctica in at least 70 years, the report added.

The study will cost about $27.5 million, according to Newser.

Final Warning by Stephen Hawkings

Stephen Hawking's final warning to humanity by legendary physicist believed we must leave Earth in the next 200 years or face EXTINCTION. Humans must leave Earth in the next 200 years if we want to survive. That was the stark warning issued by Professor Stephen Hawking in the months before his death today at the age of 76. The legendary physicists believed that life on Earth could be wiped out by a disaster such as an asteroid strike, AI or an alien invasion. He also warned over-population, human aggression and climate change could cause humanity to self-destruct. He believed, if our species had any hope of survival, future generations would need to forge a new life in space.

One of Hawking's main fears for the planet was global warming. 'Our physical resources are being drained, at an alarming rate. We have given our planet the disastrous gift of climate change,' Hawking warned in July. Moreover, rising temperatures and reduction of the polar ice caps, deforestation, and decimation of animal species. We can be an ignorant, unthinking lot.'  Hawking said that Earth will one day look like the 460°C (860°F) planet Venus if we don't cut greenhouse gas emissions.  Next time you meet a climate change denier, tell them to take a trip to Venus. I will pay the fare,' Hawking quipped. The physicist also believed President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement has doomed our planet. He warned Trump's decision would cause avoidable damage to our 'beautiful planet' for generations to come. 'We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible,' the celebrated scientist told BBC last year.

If global warming doesn't wipe us out, Hawking believed Earth would be destroyed by an asteroid strike. 'This is not science fiction. It is guaranteed by the laws of physics and probability,' he said.  'To stay risks being annihilated. 'Spreading out into space will completely change the future of humanity. It may also determine whether we have any future at all.'  Hawking was working with Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Starshot project to send a fleet of tiny 'nanocraft' carrying light sails on a four light-year journey to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth. 'If we succeed we will send a probe to Alpha Centauri within the lifetime of some of you alive today,' he said. Astronomers estimate that there is a reasonable chance of an Earth-like planet existing in the 'habitable zones' of Alpha Centauri's three-star system.  'It is clear we are entering a new space age. We are standing at the threshold of a new era', said Hawking. 'Human colonisation and other planets is no longer science fiction, it can be science fact.'

Hawking believed that In the long run the human race should not have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. 'I just hope we can avoid dropping the basket until then', he said.  AI could replace humans. Hawking claimed that AI will soon reach a level where it will be a 'new form of life that will outperform humans.' He even went so far as to say that AI may replace humans altogether, although he didn't specify a timeline for his predictions. The chilling comments during a recent interview with Wired. He said: 'The genie is out of the bottle. I fear that AI may replace humans altogether.