Sentences with phrase «in a matter of decades»

But in a high - CO2 world, that response — increased melting or even collapse — could occur in a matter of decades.

But they proved no match for humans, whose rapidly advancing technology drove the birds to extinction in a matter of decades.

But collisions between the orbiting fragments soon pack many of them together again, assembling a sizable satellite in a matter of decades — or even just a month.

Included are some towns that rose and fell in a matter of decades.

A work of nature that took ages to form had melted away in a matter of decades.

In fact, if they can get early warning of such an event they could probably get out of the way in a matter of decades, if not years.

They warned that the target is likely to be exceeded in a matter of decades unless steps are taken soon to reduce emissions.

Glaciologists report that the Gangotri glacier, which supplies 70 percent of the ice melt that feeds the Ganges River during the dry season, could disappear entirely in a matter of decades.

That's because China rocketed into its position as the world's second - largest economy in a matter of decades under a strict one - child policy, contributing to a rapidly aging society with rising medical needs.

It's 2,300 square miles and about 650 feet thick so, at this point, it might as well be a new country (one that has the misfortune of being born into an increasingly hot world in which it will most likely melt into seawater in a matter of decades).

«There will be incremental changes in the next 5 or 10 years, but that might not compare to what we're going to see in a matter of decades.

The multiflora rose, for instance, spread unimpeded from the East Coast to the Rockies in a matter of decades, then encountered a mite carrying a disease of native mountain roses.

Multiple studies (Alley et al. 2015, Pollard et al. 2015, Feldmann and Levermann 2015) highlighted the vulnerability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to collapse, indicated that the collapse could happen in a matter of decades once it began, and suggested that the threshold or trigger point for the collapse might have already been passed, though rapid changes might not occur for centuries.

There are some ideas, such as Gulf Stream failure, for how we might flip suddenly from warm - and - wet into cool - and - dry in a matter of decades.

One might as well try to reverse the planet's rotation as to try and turn the world economy around on a dime and convert it to non-fossil energy sources in the matter of decades.

Suddenly, just in the matter of a decade or so, the climate flipped from warm - and - wet into the cool - and - dry mode, with temperatures plunging back to what they had been in the ice ages.

For their study, Hansen and his colleagues combined ancient paleo - climate data with new satellite readings and an improved model of the climate system to demonstrate that ice sheets can melt at a «non-linear» rate: rather than an incremental melting as Earth's poles inexorably warm, ice sheets might melt at exponential rates, shedding dangerous amounts of mass in a matter of decades, not millennia.

«In contrast to investing in new oil fields where well yields begin to decline in a matter of decades, or in coal mines where the seams run out, these new energy sources can last forever.»

Midway has turned from a battle ground to a World Heritage Site in a matter of decades.

For instance, swords and spears have been the standard for warfare for thousands of years, but the invention of gunpowder suddenly changed how things were done in a matter of decades.

It was hunted to extinction in a matter of decades.

Several months earlier, scientists had reported that the Gangotri glacier, the principal glacier that feeds the Ganges River, is melting at an accelerating rate and could disappear entirely in a matter of decades.

Then, in a matter of decades, it was hunted to extinction.

They seem to be telling us that Earth's climate system has several distinct and quite different modes of operation and that it can jump from one of these modes to another in a matter of a decade or two.