Inevitable melting underway in West Antarctica

by time news

2023-10-23 18:25:05

By Marc Cherki

Published 3 hours ago, Updated 2 hours ago

Sea ice reaches a minimum around the White Continent. Ueslei Marcelino / REUTERS

No matter the extent of the reduction in greenhouse gases, sea levels could rise by at least 5.3 meters, a British study indicates.

Clearly, the observations and predictions about the icy continent of the South Pole are catastrophic. It appears that a tipping point has been reached in West Antarctica: in this region bounded by the Amundsen Sea, the melting of a large area of ​​ice that rests on the land is ” inevitable » and could lead to a global rise in sea levels of 5.3 meters, with no hope of going back, indicates an article published in Nature Climate Change , this October 23. For comparison, the melting of the entire North Pole would have an impact of around 7 meters.

« Could we contribute, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to limiting the rise in sea levels by reducing melting on the Antarctic continent? ? »asks the first author of the article Kaitlin Naughten, researcher at British Antarctic Survey of Cambridge (Great Britain), the British organization in charge of research in Antarctica. « Bad news : We…

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