January 16, 2008

Accelerating Ice Melt in Antarctica

Antarctic is unexpectedly melting We’ve been looking a lot at the Polar Bear lately and his shrinking home of ice up in the north, but there is news from the south as well. I wish it were better news.

Climate models had shown an expected increase in ice mass over the coming years, not the shrinking of ice that has now been observed in two independent studies using satellite imagery. The studies both show an accelerating and unexpected loss of ice mass on the continent, enough in 2006 to apparently raise sea levels over one-half of a millimeter. It adds up.

To the Source:
Nature.com
Grist.com