"Polar Ice Sheets Shrinking Worldwide, Study Confirms"

"Polar Ice Sheets Shrinking Worldwide, Study Confirms"

Photograph by Stefan Keller, Reuters

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Written By:

Christine Dell'Amore
National Geographic News
Published November 29, 2012

The Polar ice sheets, in reality, are shrinking  and in a relatively fast pace as well, according to a comprehensive new study on climate change. This could potentially bring disastrous results to people and wildlife as sea levels are predicted to rise faster than ever.

Rising seas would increase the risk of massive flooding similar to that caused by Hurricane Sandy last month in New York and New Jersey.  And in the long term, hundreds of millions of people who live along the coast may be forced to abandon their homes.

By reconciling nearly two decades of often conflicting satellite data into one format—in other words, comparing apples to apples—the new study, published in the journal Science, made a more confident estimate of what's called ice sheet mass balance, which refers to how much snow is deposited on an ice sheet versus how much is lost. Between 1992 and 2011, the results reveal that all polar regions except for East Antarctica are losing ice. In that 20-year span, Greenland lost 152 billion tons a year of ice, West Antarctica lost 65 billion tons a year, the Antarctic Peninsula lost 20 billion tons a year, and East Antarctica gained 14 billion tons a year.

News of shrinking ice at the North and South poles is not new, but to know how the fast the rate is at brings much more concern. At the present moment, humans are not directly affected, but the continuous stress being brought upon the environment will eventually cause a calamity. Warming can't be stopped, but sometimes realizing the future will help in coping.

- Andrew