Antarctic's ice vanishing faster than expected, scientists discover

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Antarctic's ice vanishing faster than expected, scientists discover
Parts of the ice sheets covering Antarctica are melting faster than predicted, and the loss of ice has probably accelerated in recent years because of global warming, a study has found. A satellite survey between 1996 and last year found that the net loss of ice from Antarctica rose by about 75 per cent as the movement of glaciers towards the sea speeded up. Scientists say the West Antarctic ice sheet lost about 132 billion tonnes of ice last year, compared with a loss of 83 billion tonnes in 1996. As well, the Antarctic peninsula lost about 60 billion tonnes of ice last year. "To put these figures into perspective, four billion tonnes of ice is enough to provide drinking water for the whole UK population for one year," said Professor Jonathan Bamber, of the University of Bristol. "We think the glaciers of the Antarctic are moving faster to the sea. "The computer models of future sea-level rise have not really taken this into account."
The worst case scenario is fast becoming the only scenario, my climate denying friends have long claimed any global warming would have an effect on Antarctica and to date we had seen no data suggesting a melt – well the data is here and it not only shows a melt, it shows that it is happening faster than any of the predictions – Antarctica was considered so stable it was not included at all in the IPCC’s report on rising sea levels, which are now considered out of date and a 40cm rise by the end of 2100 now sounds as crassly over optimistic as claims that the Arctic would be ice free by 2100 – the Arctic now looks to be ice free by 2013. The reality is that global warming is not only here already, it is happening much, much, much faster than anyone predicted, and that rapid change has dire consequences to the continuation of our civilization. We reap what we sow.