Antarctic tipping points for a multi-metre sea level rise

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), comprising more than two million cubic kilometres of ice, is under pressure from a warming climate, with scientists saying its break-up –– and an eventual global sea-level rise of 3–5 metres –– is not matter of if, but when.

The West Antarctic Peninsula is now the strongest-warming region on the planet, and WAIS glaciers are discharging ice at an accelerating rate

Recent studies, surveyed in this report, suggest that WAIS passed a tipping point for large-scale deglaciation decades ago.

This should not be surprising, because such an event was foreseen almost 50 years ago. In 1968, pioneer glacier researcher John Mercer predicted that the collapse of ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula could herald the loss of the ice sheet.

Read the Climate Code Red story - “Antarctic tipping points for a multi-metre sea level rise.”