Antarctica ice loss increases six fold since 1979, new study finds

Global warming is melting ice in Antarctica faster than ever before - about six times more per year now than 40 years ago - leading to increasingly high sea levels worldwide, scientists have warned.

This 2016 photo provided by NASA shows the Getz Ice Shelf.

Already, Antarctic melting has raised global sea levels more 1.4cm between 1979 and 2017, according to the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer-reviewed US journal.

And the pace of melting is expected to lead to disastrous sea level rise in the years to come, according to lead author Eric Rignot, chair of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine.

"As the Antarctic ice sheet continues to melt away, we expect multi-meter sea level rise from Antarctica in the coming centuries," Rignot said.

Read the SBS News story - “Antarctica ice loss increases six fold since 1979, new study finds.”

Domino-effect of climate events could push Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state

A domino-like cascade of melting ice, warming seas, shifting currents and dying forests could tilt the Earth into a “hothouse” state beyond which human efforts to reduce emissions will be increasingly futile, a group of leading climate scientists has warned.

Polar bears on sea ice: the loss of the Greenland ice shee
 could disrupt the Gulf Stream, which would in turn raise sea
levels and accelerate Antarctic ice loss.

This grim prospect is sketched out in a journal paper that considers the combined consequences of 10 climate change processes, including the release of methane trapped in Siberian permafrost and the impact of melting ice in Greenland on the Antarctic.

Read the story from The Guardian by Jonathan Watts - “Domino-effect of climate events could push Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state.”

Arctic melting could worsen future California droughts

Melting ice in the Arctic might seem a world away from California’s farms and aquifers. But droughts in the state could get worse as the Arctic melts.

Extent of Arctic sea ice in September 2016 versus the
1981-2010 average minimum extent (gold line). 

Summers in the Arctic Ocean are expected to be ice-free within a few decades. When that happens, the precipitation California receives could decrease as much as 15 percent.

Cvijanovic: “We see quite clearly sea ice shaping how much rainfall California receives.”

Read the Yale Climate Connections story by Diana Madson - “Arctic melting could worsen future California droughts.”