Independent Home | News | Sport | Comment | Education | Motoring | Money | Jobs | Travel | Enjoyment Home > News > World > Environment Dramatic change in West Antarctic ice could produce 16ft rise in sea levels By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor 02 February 2005 Dramatic change in West Antarctic ice could produce 16ft rise in sea levels Coral reefs may start to dissolve in 30 years Leading article: Icy warning British scientists have discovered a new threat to the world which may be a result of global warming. Researchers from the Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have discovered that a massive Antarctic ice sheet previously assumed to be stable may be starting to disintegrate, a conference on climate change heard yesterday. Its collapse would raise sea levels around the earth by more than 16 feet. BAS staff are carrying out urgent measurements of the remote points in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) where they have found ice to be flowing into the sea at the enormous rate of 250 cubic kilometres a year, a discharge alone that is raising global sea levels by a fifth of a millimetre a year. Professor Chris Rapley, the BAS director, told the conference at the UK Meteorological Office in Exeter, which was attended by scientists from all over the world, that their discovery had reactivated worries about the ice sheet's collapse. Only four years ago, in the last report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), worries that the ice sheet was disintegrating were firmly dismissed. Professor Rapley said: "The last IPCC report characterised Antarctica as a slumbering giant in terms of climate change. I would say it is now an awakened giant. There is real concern." He added: "The previous view was that WAIS would not collapse before the year 2100. We now have to revise that judgement. We cannot be so sanguine." Collapse of the WAIS would be a disaster, putting enormous chunks of low-lying, desperately poor countries such as Bangladesh under water - not to mention much of southern England. The conference has been called by Tony Blair as part of Britain's efforts to increase the pace of international action on climate change, in a year when the UK is heading the G8 group of industrialised nations and the European Union. Mr Blair has asked it to explore the question of how much climate change the world can take before the consequences are catastrophic for human society and ecosystems. Yesterday, it heard several alarming new warnings of possible climate-related catastrophic events, including the failure of the Gulf Stream, which keeps the British Isles warm, and the melting of the ice sheet covering Greenland. But it was the revelations of Professor Rapley, head of one of the world's most respected scientific bodies, which were the most dramatic, as they reopened a concern many scientists assumed had been laid to rest. "..." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Hotter world may freeze Britain Fifty-fifty chance that warm Gulf Stream may be halted Paul Brown Wednesday February 2, 2005 The Guardian The chance of the Gulf Stream, which brings warm waters around the British Isles, being halted, sending temperatures plummeting by more than 5C, is now more than 50%, a scientific conference on climate change was told yesterday. The conference, called by Tony Blair to inform world leaders about the urgency of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, was told of a series of new research findings which showed that climate change was speeding up and would be worse than hitherto expected. Only five years ago the scientists on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were confident that Antarctica was a "slumbering giant" and its vast ice sheets so cold that they would not begin to melt for centuries, even if the climate changed elsewhere. This conference was told "the giant is awakening", and areas of the ice-bound continent melting, causing faster sea-level rise than expected. Whatever politicians and scientists do, temperatures will rise another 0.6C in the next 30 years, on top of 0.7C in the past century, pushing a number of vulnerable species, such as polar bears and penguins, to extinction. The 30-year time lag between man putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the Earth responding by becoming warmer meant that we were already committed to further climate change. "..." _________________________ Peter Anderson, President RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING 4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15 Madison, WI 53705-4964 Ph: (608) 231-1100 Fax: (608) 233-0011 Cell: (608) 698-1314 eMail: anderson@no.address web: www.recycleworlds.net