by DAVID BIELLO
Antarctica: The coldest continent, seen here from space in September 2005, could lose its icy cover if fossil fuel burning continues unabated. PHOTO/NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Seas could rise as fast as three centimeters a year if fossil fuel consumption continues at its present rate. Such increases would amount to ten times the current rise of roughly three millimeters annually. But Antarctica’s vast ice sheets may substantially melt and accelerate the rise of seawaters should the burning of fossil fuel continue unabated, according to new computer simulations of climate change’s future impact.
Scientists had previously thought that East Antarctica’s massive ice sheets were relatively safe, requiring thousands of years to pass before warming global temperatures would begin to melt them. But the new simulations, published in Science Advances on September 11, suggest Antarctica’s ice is much more vulnerable—and thus sea level rise could be a lot worse.
“Humanity can indeed melt all of Antarctica’s ice, if we were to burn all of the fossil fuels,” says Ricarda Winkelmann, a physicist by training who now works on computer models at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “What we do today by emitting greenhouse gases within just a few decades triggers changes that will be felt by many, many generations to come.”
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