Antarctica Ice Is Presently Melting At A Faster Rate Than In The Past

“The worst effects of climate change will not be experienced by you, personally. It will be the generations after us who will suffer, particularly from rising sea levels. Consider a recent study on Antarctica by the University of Texas.

East Antarctica has lost ice mass at an average rate of five to 109 gigatons a year from April 2002 to January 2009, according to the study. The rate increased from 2006. The increased rate could cause sea levels to rise sooner than expected. The entire Antarctic region could be losing ice at the rate of 113 to 267 gigatons a year, with 106 to 158 gigatons from West Antarctica.

"The key result is that we appear to be seeing a large amount of ice loss in East Antarctica, mostly in the long coastal regions (in Wilkes Land and Victoria Land), since 2006," said University of Texas scientist Jianli Chen. "This, if confirmed, could indicate a state change of East Antarctica, which could pose a large impact on global sea levels in the future," Chen said.

Another study found Greenland and Antarctica melting ice will cause a higher sea level rise. Scientific data by the environmental group, Clean Air-Cool Planet said climate change will cause at least a one meter rise in sea levels by the end of this century.

Next month representatives from countries will meet in Copenhagen to hammer out the details of a new climate change treaty. The United States' Congress has not yet passed a climate change bill. A Reuters article stated that the majority of nations have abandoned the hope of agreeing to a binding legal treaty, “partly because of uncertainty about what the United States will be able to offer.”

Adapted from an article by: GinaMarie Cheeseman

in Care2.com: Stop Global Warming 'Antarctica Melting At Faster Rate'.

Label: global warming