ICE in the heart of Antarctica is retreating, causing the sea level to rise.
鈥淭his is nothing like anyone has seen before鈥攊t鈥檚 a huge amount of ice,鈥�
says Andrew Shepherd at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling,
University College London.
Shepherd and his colleagues used satellites to monitor the largest glacier in
the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the Pine Island Glacier. They discovered it is
losing ice faster than snowfall can replenish it. If it continues to melt at the
current rate, it will disappear in 600 years, raising global sea level by a
catastrophic 5 metres (Science, vol 291, p 862). 鈥淭his is the first
time we have seen an Antarctic glacier retreating,鈥� says Shepherd. 鈥淭he concerns
for sea level rise are real in that respect.鈥�