Guardian: Ice area around Antarctica is at its lowest since 1979
The ice sheet around Antarctica has shrunk to 1.79 million square kilometers, the lowest since 1979. Ice continues to melt at a record pace and threatens global climate change informs The Guardian.
The volume of melted ice by February 25 in two weeks increased by 136 thousand square kilometers, which, for comparison, is twice the area of Tasmania. Will Hobbs, an expert on Antarctic sea ice at the University of Tasmania, explained that the reason for the loss of ice in Antarctica is not sunlight – because sea ice is highly reflective – but open water, which heats up from it.
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The ice continues to melt at a record pace and threatens the world with severe sea level rise and global climate change. One of the main concerns of scientists is the fate of the Thwaites Glacier, known as the “Doomsday Glacier”, in the Amundsen Sea. It contains enough water to raise sea levels by half a meter if the glacier melts.
Irreversible melting of ice shelves and ice sheets in Antarctica may be accelerated by an increase in El Niño, a phase of the Southern Oscillation, which is a natural fluctuation in the surface water temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. El Niño contributes to abnormally high temperatures and droughts that affect developing countries dependent on agriculture and fisheries.
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