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On Antarctic climate and change
Author(s) -
Broeke Michiel van den,
Lipzig Nicole van,
Marshall Gareth
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.467
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1477-8696
pISSN - 0043-1656
DOI - 10.1256/wea.77.03
Subject(s) - marine research , atmospheric research , oceanography , library science , geography , meteorology , history , geology , computer science
Scientists warned 25 years ago that global warming would initiate the retreat of ice shelves in the northern Antarctic Peninsula (Mercer 1978). A further warming could even lead to the disintegration of the huge Filchner-Ronne and Ross Ice Shelves. As a result, the West Antarctic ice sheet would become unstable and global sea-level could rise by as much as 5 m. To date, the first part of Mercer’s prediction has proved to be eerily accurate: recent decades have seen the disintegration of thousands of square kilometres of ice shelves in the northern Antarctic Peninsula. Are the West Antarctic ice sheet and thus our coastal communities really under threat?