The West Antarctic Ice Sheet spans roughly 760,000 square miles and is weakening as atmospheric CO2 concentrations rise. A full collapse could raise global sea levels by more than three metres, inundating coastal cities and communities worldwide. In the UK, Hull, Skegness, Middlesbrough and Newport would be submerged; in Europe much of the Netherlands, Venice, Montpellier and Gdansk would be flooded. Observed rapid changes in Antarctic ice, oceans and ecosystems are expected to worsen with every fraction of a degree of warming. Loss of sea ice reduces solar reflectivity and increases ocean heat retention, making ice shelves more vulnerable to wave-driven and circulation-related collapse.
'Rapid change has already been detected across Antarctica's ice, oceans and ecosystems, and this is set to worsen with every fraction of a degree of global warming,'
'The loss of Antarctic sea ice is another abrupt change that has a whole range of knock-on effects, including making the floating ice shelves around Antarctica more susceptible to wave-driven collapse,'
'The decline in Antarctic sea ice and the slowdown of deep circulation in the Southern Ocean are showing worrying signs of being more susceptible to a warming climate than previously thought.'
'As sea ice is lost from the ocean surface, it is also changing the amount of solar heat being retained in the climate system, and that is expected to worsen warming in the Antarctic region.'
Collection
[
|
...
]