Since 2006, the Antarctic ice sheet has been flowing into the surrounding ocean at an increased rate, resulting in ever-rising sea levels, a new study says.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin said satellite images suggest sea level will likely to rise faster than previously predicted.
"If the current trend continues or gets worse, Antarctica could become the largest contributor to sea level rises in the world. It could start to lose more ice than Greenland within a few years,"
the study's lead author, Jianli Chen, told the BBC.The study's release comes as world nations prepare to meet Dec. 7 in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. The White House says it will propose a target for reduced carbon emissions at the conference.
New studies show an increase in Antarctic ice sheet flow, in combination with rapidly melting Greenland ice, is causing a rise in global sea levels.
Over the weekend, controversy erupted when computer hackers broke into the e-mail account of Phil Jones, one of the world's leading researchers on climate change, and posted messages that appeared to show Jones admitting to tinkering with temperature data to explain a relative lull in global warming over the past 10 years.
Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a skeptic of global warming, has accused U.N. researchers of "cooking the science" to make climate change seem more severe than it is.
Meanwhile, another report released Monday by Europe's largest insurance company, Allianz, warns that unless immediate action is taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the world faces a "tipping-point scenario," resulting in billions in weather-related insurance losses.
The Allianz report said that if climate change is left unchecked, rising sea levels would be particularly hard felt in the United States, because of its proximity to Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet:
"As water added to the ocean takes time to be globally distributed, this leads to sea level rise that is larger than the global average in some regions. Here, the greatest initial sea level rises are predicted down the North Eastern seaboard of the USA, affecting a number of U.S. port megacities including Baltimore, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Providence," the report said.
Another new study, conducted at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and published in the journal Science, found that, as with Antarctica, Greenland's ice sheet is melting faster than past studies showed.
According to The Associated Press, sea level has risen by an average of an inch and a half since 1997.
This is another real world news story. Tell in a small paragraph of 4 or more sentences, what is the problem with the ice melting. What can we do to stop the problem?
We need to stop the water that is coming. The water is coming fast and hard. It will be hard. I can’t help.
ReplyDeleteLance perlow
Since 2006 the Antarctic ice sheet has been flowing into the surrounding ocean at increased rate resulting in ever rising sea levels anew study says.
ReplyDelete-Ben Wasserman