Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Melting Rapidly

1996 users shared this document! click

Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Melting Rapidly New Study Warns Of Rising Sea Levels By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 3, 2006; A01 The Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as 36 cubic miles of ice a year in a
trend that scientists link to global warming, according to a new paper that
provides the first evidence that the sheet's total mass is shrinking significantly. The new findings, which are being published today in the journal Science,
suggest that global sea level could rise substantially over the next several
centuries. It is one of a slew of scientific papers in recent weeks that have sought to gauge
the impact of climate change on the world's oceans and lakes. Just last month
two researchers reported that Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea twice
as fast as previously believed, and a separate paper in Science today predicts that
by the end of this century lakes and streams on one-fourth of the African
continent could be drying up because of higher temperatures. The new Antarctic measurements, using data from two NASA satellites called
the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), found that the amount
of water pouring annually from the ice sheet into the ocean -- equivalent to the
amount of water the United States uses in three months -- is causing global sea
level to rise by 0.4 millimeters a year. The continent holds 90 percent of the
world's ice, and the disappearance of even its smaller West Antarctic ice sheet
could raise worldwide sea levels by an estimated 20 feet. "The ice sheet is losing mass at a significant rate," said Isabella Velicogna, the
study's lead author and a research scientist at Colorado University at Boulder's
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. "It's a good
indicator of how the climate is changing. It tells us we have to pay attention." Richard Alley, a Pennsylvania State University glaciologist who has studied the
Antarctic ice sheet but was not involved in the new research, said more research is needed to determine if
the shrinkage is a long-term trend, because the new report is based on just three years of data. "One person's
trend is another person's fluctuation," he said. But Alley called the study significant and "a bit surprising" because a major international scientific panel
predicted five years ago that the Antarctic ice sheet would gain mass this century as higher temperatures led
to increased snowfall. "It looks like the ice sheets are ahead of schedule" in terms of melting, Alley said. "That's a wake-up call.
We better figure out what's going on." Velicogna acknowledged that it is hard to predict how fast the ice sheet will melt in the future but said, "I
don't expect it's going to stop in the next couple of years." Scientists have been debating whether the Antarctic ice sheet is expanding or shrinking overall, because the
center of the sheet tends to gain mass through snowfall whereas the coastal regions are more vulnerable to
melting. Velicogna and her co-author, University of Colorado at Boulder physics professor John Wahr, based their
measurements on data from the two GRACE satellites that circle the world more than a dozen times a day at
an altitude of 310 miles. The satellites measure variations in Earth's mass and gravitational pull: Increases or
decreases in the Antarctic ice sheet's mass change the distance between the satellites as they fly over the
region. "The strength of GRACE is that we were able to assess the entire Antarctic region in one fell swoop to
determine if it was gaining or losing mass," Wahr said. But some scientists remain unconvinced. Oregon state climatologist George Taylor noted that sea ice in
some areas of Antarctica is expanding and part of the region is getting colder, despite computer models that
would predict otherwise. "The Antarctic is really a puzzle," said Taylor, who writes for the Web site TSCDaily, which is partly
financed by fossil fuel companies that oppose curbs on greenhouse gases linked to climate change. "A lot
more research is needed to understand the degree of climate and ice trends in and around the Antarctic." At the other end of the temperature spectrum, two South African researchers are reporting today in Science
that their computer models indicate that by 2100 climate change may rob the south and west of Africa and
areas in the upper Nile region of a significant portion of their current water supply. Warming may reduce
the rainfall needed to replenish up to 25 percent of Africa's surface water, said Maarten de Wit and Jacek
Stankiewicz at the University of Cape Town in Rondebosch, South Africa. "Water is essential to human survival," they wrote, "and changes in its supply can potentially have
devastating implications, particularly in Africa, where much of the population relies on local rivers for
water." Congressional Democrats, including Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.) said
yesterday that the two new papers show that the United States must act quickly to impose mandatory limits
on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Bush administration opposes such curbs on the grounds
that they could hurt the country's economy and has instead invested money on new technology to limit
greenhouse emissions and further climate science research. "Climate change is not just someone else's concern but a very real threat to the lives and livelihood of
people across the globe," Kerry said.

Comments