The sea is frozen for 1,600 km away from the coast, but due to some mysterious CO2 related phenomenon – the interior is melting at -119F.
Wed Aug 22, 2007
Antarctic ice thawing faster than predicted
A thaw of Antarctic ice is outpacing predictions by the U.N. climate panel and could in the worst case drive up world sea levels by 2 meters (6 ft) by 2100, a leading expert said on Wednesday.
Millions of people, from Bangladesh to Florida and some Pacific island states, live less than a meter above sea level. Most of the world’s major cities, from Shanghai to Buenos Aires, are by the sea.
Chris Rapley, the outgoing head of the British Antarctic Survey, said there were worrying signs of accelerating flows of ice towards the ocean from both Antarctica and Greenland with little sign of more snow falling inland to compensate.
“The ice is moving faster both in Greenland and in the Antarctic than the glaciologists had believed would happen,” Rapley told Reuters during a climate seminar in Ny Alesund on a Norwegian Arctic island 1,200 km from the North Pole.
“I think the realistic view is that we will be nearer a meter than the 40 cm” in sea level rise by 2100, Raply said. The U.N. climate panel in February gave a likely range of 18 to 59 cm this century, for an average around 40 cm.
Antarctic ice thawing faster than predicted | Reuters
h/t to Marc Morano