Both Antarctica and the Wicked Witch of the West are wailing:
“I’m melting, melting!” And once they are gone, there is no coming back.
That’s right, the West Antarctic ice sheet is melting
at a pace that is deemed irreversible. What that means for humans: a four foot rise in sea level is anticipated just from those few glaciers. That number doesn't account for the snowball effect (pun intended) that warmer temperatures will have on the rest of Antarctica and the ensuing ice
loss, which puts the figure around 10 to 15 feet of global sea level rise in
the coming centuries.
The New York Times points out that these jarring conclusions come from two scientific papers that were released independently of one another on Monday by the journals Science and Geophysical Research Letters. The scientists point to warm ocean
currents influenced by strong winds that encircle Antarctica as the main
culprit of the melting ice sheet in the Amundsen Sea. Those warm currents are, in turn, largely influenced
by climate change. This shouldn’t come
as a major shock. In fact, scientists—most notably Ohio State University geologist, John Mercer— identified the trend in this area as irreversible as early as 1968. What makes
this region in West Antarctica particularly unique is that it is the largest
sheet of grounded ice left in the world, and
it is grounded below sea level which makes it even more susceptible to the
warmer ocean currents.
“Oh what a world, what a world!” cries the Wicked Witch of
the West as she meets her demise. Perhaps we humans could go down a different path?
Nicole Catino is PennFuture's 2014 Student Conservation Association Green Cities Sustainability Fellow and is based in our Pittsburgh office.
