Floods, Droughts, and Icebergs: A Planetary Water Mini-Update for 2025
- Tawanda Jazz
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
"Picture yourself pouring a liter of water into the ocean, the stream quickly disappearing into the surf. Now imagine every person on Earth, all 8.025 billion of us, adding a liter of water to the ocean every 15 minutes, day in and day out, for the last 22 years. The steady and substantial influx of freshwater would change the ocean’s salt content, alter current patterns, and raise sea levels. This is what’s happening as the Greenland Ice Sheet shrinks."
—Twila Moon, National Snow and Ice Data Center, 2025
With all of the craziness in the news, a lot is going unnoticed, with pressing issues like the Avian Flu virus (H5N1) mutating and spreading across species, the Gaza genocide, and more being buried under other headlines (Charlie Kirk, anyone?). Climate change may not seem as important to discuss now, but it is, and more than ever. This month, I will focus on the state of water on our ailing planet, including melting ice sheets, floods, and droughts. Next month, we will look at how we can adapt to what is happening.
The ice sheets are rapidly melting.
First, let's review the basics. Ice sheets are huge masses of glaciers and frozen land that are larger than 20,000 square miles. The only two ice sheets still in existence are located at the North and South poles of the plane. They once covered the majority of Greenland and stretched across the continent of Antarctica.
The Doomsday Glacier and the Antarctic Ice Sheet
Located in West Antarctica, the Thwaites Glacier (nicknamed the "Doomsday Glacier" because of the fact that it could cause catastrophic sea level rise) is the widest glacier on the planet, about the size of Florida. Beginning in the 1940s, the glacier started to melt due to warming temperatures, and by the 1970s, melting had begun accelerating at an alarming rate. As of last year, the glacier causes 4% of the seal level rise on Earth, releasing billions of tons of glacial ice per year into the ocean. If that were the only problem, the collapse of Thwaites could raise sea levels by over two feet. Of course, that is just the (pun not intended) tip of the iceberg. When (not if) the Thwaites glacier collapses, it will cause the Antarctic ice sheet to destabilize, which then could raise sea levels by another 10 feet or more.
Greenland and Its Cracking, Melting Ice Sheet
As the earth warms, ice from the ice sheets melts and flows into the ocean (at a faster rate than ever, now), and huge cracks form in the previously solid ice sheet. "Cracks" aren't a great descriptor here— perhaps canyons or crevasses, because they can be up to 328 feet (100 meters) wide! in a study this year at Durham University in the UK, it was found that between 2016 and 2021, Greenland's ice sheet gained over 900 million cubic meters of new cracks/crevasses. According to Yale Climate Connections:
"When a crevasse forms, that can cause the ice sheet’s flow to speed up. That results in even more crevasses, triggering a feedback loop where the ice sheet breaks apart faster and faster. And as more ice melts into the ocean, sea levels will rise – increasing the risk of flooding in coastal cities."
Other Important Points:
Both polar ice sheets hold enough water (fresh water, which is another problem) to eventually raise sea levels by 213 feet. The amount of ice lost has quadrupled in the last 30 years or so, and today, the total loss of ice is approximately 370 billion tons a year (quick math lesson: a ton is 2,240 pounds, so around 829 trillion pounds)
The rate of sea level rise is double what is was in 1995.
In recent studies and computer simulations, scientists predict that the Arctic will be completely ice-free in summers by as early as 2040, and winter ice in the Arctic will be only 3 feet thick (down from 12 feet thick), if greenhouse gas emissions are not significantly reduced (and let's be real, most world governments are not doing much to reduce emissions, and the US government seems to be trying like hell to increase emissions).
Sea level rise isn't the only problem. When ice sheets melt, they can alter the ocean's circulation, change temperature patterns around the world, and even cause extreme weather events. This becomes a domino effect, with more and more aspects of life on earth being negatively affected, from famine due to crop failure to the extinction of tons of species (including humans).
Climate Change-Caused Flooding is Widespread and Frequent
Due to rising global temperatures from climate change, incidences of flooding have increased exponentially. Atmospheric water vapor increases as a result, and with the atmosphere being warmer, it will contain much more moisture. This inevitably leads to heavier rainfall. Needless to say, climate change will continue to intensify weather events, and as temperatures rise, the severity will increase.
The Huge Increase in Flash Flooding in the U.S.
Over 3,600 flash flood warnings were issued by the U.S. National Weather Service by July, surpassing the average for a whole year, and more keep coming. Most are hitting the eastern and central parts of the U.S., notably Kentucky and Appalachia—but we have also seen devastating flash floods in California and Arizona in the last two weeks of September, with the city of Globe, Arizona partially in ruins and homes being destroyed in southern California. The major floods in Texas on July 4th killed over 135 people, with the river rising more than 30 feet in 45 minutes, with damages that will cost upwards of $18 billion to repair and rebuild.
Extensive and Deadly Global Flooding
The African continent has seen record levels of flooding, with a much higher death toll than we are currently seeing in the U.S. In East Africa, catastrophic flooding lasted from March to May of this year, with much heavier seasonal rains than usual pounding down on Kenya, Burundi, and Tanzania. There were hundreds of deaths and over 700,000 people affected in these floods. A similar situation happened in Nigeria, where 151 people died and over 3,000 were uprooted from their homes. In the eastern Cape province of South Africa, floods destroyed schools, homes, and roads, killing 49 people.
In Afghanistan, heavy rain caused a glacial lake outburst, which led to a dam collapsing. Flash flooding completely erased 5 villages, but residents were evacuated in time. Australia experienced one of the worst floods in its history early this year, when Queensland was hit with over 11 inches of rainfall in 24 hours. Flooding in Nepal killed over 40 people, with floods in India and Pakistan each claiming around the same number of lives and causing extensive damage.
The Other Side of the Coin: Global Drought
Droughts in arid regions and deserts are natural occurrences, but due to climate change, other regions see drought conditions regularly as well. You're probably thinking, "but there is so much rain!". Let me explain. When high temperatures zap all the moisture out of plants and soil, it transforms it into atmospheric water vapor, which then winds up causing heavy downpours of rain in other regions, hence all the flooding. Higher temperatures also reduce the amount of snowfall, which leads to less snowmelt in areas that depend on that source of water in the warmer months.
Other Important Points:
The journal Science published a study in 2020 which revealed that climate change was responsible for 46% of the current megadrought's severity.
August 2025 is the driest month on record for all of North America, and the second-driest for Europe.
August of 2025 was also the 3rd warmest August on record for the whole world.
About 40% of the world relies on farming for their main source of income, and as droughts worsen and become more frequent, the world's food supply will also be negatively affected.
What Can We Do About This?
Of course, there is the usual advice of "writing to your congresspeople" or electing officials who will help fight climate change, but we are living in a world where 72% of its inhabitants live under authoritarian rule (according to the Variety of Democracies Report from the University of Gothenburg in 2023). Money is king in these autocracies, and furthering the interests of oil and gas companies, among other destructive entities, is often a high priority. It is likely that there is nothing that we (the little people) can do to affect what governments are doing, for the most part. In the next issue, we will look at ways to take action in our daily lives to adapt to and prepare for these challenging circumstances.