Sea ice in the Antarctic region has reached an all-time high due to escalating global temperatures, scientists warn.
For the first time since the start of satellite tracking in 1978, the continent's minimum summer ice cover has fallen below 2 million square kilometers. This year, the area fell further and hit a new low in February.
Caroline Holmes, a polar climatologist at the British Antarctic Survey and one of the study's co-authors, said it would take decades, if not centuries, for the ice to recover. return. “There is no magic solution to replace this cream,” she told a news conference. The western end and especially its peninsula have seen significant melting of the ice sheet, threatening sea level rise over the next few centuries, while the east has occasional ice.
According to Tim Naish, director of the Center for Antarctic Studies at Victoria University in Wellington.
Research published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science warns that global warming from burning fossil fuels has made Antarctica more vulnerable to extreme events. It predicts an increase in the size and frequency of heat waves, sea ice collapse, and a decrease in sea ice.
Last year, an "atmospheric river" from Australia brought subtropical heat and humidity to the continent, sending unprecedented temperatures up to 38.5 degrees Celsius above normal. Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at the University of Exeter and another co-author of the study, described the temperature rise as "absolutely astounding".
Scientists are deeply concerned about the increasing intensity and frequency of extreme events and their cascade effects on other regions. “The Antarctic environment is fragile, but extreme events will test that fragility,” says Siegert.
What if this trend continues, a possible outcome if humans do not reduce emissions, will be a range of consequences from the disappearance of coastlines to increased global warming. increase faster due to the loss of the main source of sunlight reflecting ice.
