Accelerated ice loss found in Antarctica
It seems that Antarctica is experiencing a meltdown, literally. Both sides of the continent are experiencing increasing loss of ice which could mean rising ocean levels that threaten inhabitants of many small island nations.
A new study out of the University of Texas using the data collected by the twin GRACE satellites, shows massive ice loss on both the Western and Eastern Antarctic ice sheets. Melting ice is generally not a problem because as ice melts more ice is created. Or that’s what scientists thought until this recent study.
“University of Texas professor Jianli Chen and colleagues analyzed nearly seven years of data on ocean-ice sheet interaction in Antarctica.” What they found was alarming. Utilizing data that was collected through January of 2009, the researchers found that Western Antarctica was indeed losing ice at the rate of “132 billion tonnes of ice into the sea each year, give or take 26 billion tonnes.” This finding wasn’t particularly surprising since several other studies that used different methods had shown the same alarming results. Continued rising temperatures could cause a faster “collapse” of Western Antarctica which could raise ocean levels by five meters or 16 feet.
The more surprising find was that Eastern Antarctica was losing ice mass quicker than it could be replaced. The loss of ice is “about 57 billion tonnes annually.” Scientists had previously believed that this portion of Antarctica was in balance. Eastern Antarctica was thought to be gaining as much if not more, ice as it was losing. But the current findings disprove that commonly held belief.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) predicted in 2007 that “sea levels would rise 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches)” by the next century. Those predictions did not have the latest information on the accelerated loss of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.
As the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change takes place next month, it is hoped that scientific research like this study conducted by the University of Texas will be viewed and utilized for comprehensive changes on the part of governments worldwide. Should scientific findings like these be ignored in favor of business interests, we may be colluding in the destruction of island civilizations and global coastal regions. Let’s hope the delegates and politicians pay attention to science.
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