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| Increasing Temperature May Collapse West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
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Saturday, March 21 2009
by Kaustav Das Modak
After 400,000 years, the West Antarctic ice sheet may start succumbing to rise in sea temperature. Scientists say that a rise of 5 degree Celsius in temperature of the sea may melt the ice sheet in the West Antarctica. This would result in the rise of sea level by around 5 meters which will have the potential to permanently drown several low islands in the Pacific and also affect many coastal regions, as written in the science magazine Nature's March 19 issue.
The report published by University of Massachusetts researchers David Pollard and Robert DeConto gave an answer to a major question about the response of Antarctica to global warming. The West Antarctic ice sheet had melted several times in history but the East Antarctic ice sheet has remained intact throughout the history of the earth.
According to Philippe Huybrechts, Vrije University, Brussels, a rise of 5 degrees Celsius can take several centuries but it will definitely occur if the emissions of greenhouse gases are not checked.
UNO projections say that by the year 2100, increase in greenhouse gases is likely to increase earth's atmospheric temperature by 1.8 to 4 degrees Celsius. This would result in increased natural disasters like heavier storms, heatwaves, droughts and floods.
image source: reuters.com |
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