The British Antarctic Survey says warming waters are melting West Antarctica's ice shelf, contributing to rising sea levels. Research shows the trend is set to continue until at least the end of the century.
A study by the British Antarctic Society published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday claims, “we are now committed to the rapid increase in the rate of ocean warming and ice shelf melting over the rest of the century.”
Lead author, oceanographer Kaitlin Naughten, said of the study, "Our main question here was: How much control do we still have over ice shelf melting?
Researchers looked specifically at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that juts into the Amundsen Sea for their study and found that even if global warming could be held to the international target of just a few tenths of a degree it would have, “limited power to prevent ocean warming that could lead to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.”
Naughten’s team was the first to use high-resolution computer simulations that studied the effects of warm water melting the sheet from below, looking at four scenarios tied to different amounts of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere — in each case they found erosion would continue unabated, meaning the sheet would eventually collapse.
Author Naughten said she avoids the word “doomed” as it is still possible that emissions and indeed warming could theoretically be halted or even reversed in the longterm, adding, "It isn’t unavoidable that we lose all of it because sea-level rise happens over the very long term.
The study suggests the change could take several hundred years to play out but Naughten pointed to the ultimate speed of transformation as a key factor.
The original article contains 579 words, the summary contains 253 words. Saved 56%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A study by the British Antarctic Society published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday claims, “we are now committed to the rapid increase in the rate of ocean warming and ice shelf melting over the rest of the century.”
Lead author, oceanographer Kaitlin Naughten, said of the study, "Our main question here was: How much control do we still have over ice shelf melting?
Researchers looked specifically at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that juts into the Amundsen Sea for their study and found that even if global warming could be held to the international target of just a few tenths of a degree it would have, “limited power to prevent ocean warming that could lead to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.”
Naughten’s team was the first to use high-resolution computer simulations that studied the effects of warm water melting the sheet from below, looking at four scenarios tied to different amounts of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere — in each case they found erosion would continue unabated, meaning the sheet would eventually collapse.
Author Naughten said she avoids the word “doomed” as it is still possible that emissions and indeed warming could theoretically be halted or even reversed in the longterm, adding, "It isn’t unavoidable that we lose all of it because sea-level rise happens over the very long term.
The study suggests the change could take several hundred years to play out but Naughten pointed to the ultimate speed of transformation as a key factor.
The original article contains 579 words, the summary contains 253 words. Saved 56%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!