Global warming cracks ice sheets

Calcutta News.Net
Sunday 12th April, 2009

Scientists have once again been prodded into believing global warming is progressing faster than predicted.

Evidence of thinning ice from both poles this week has created fears that ice bridges and shelves will shatter.

The shrinkage in Arctic ice has been dramatic, and thin seasonal ice, which melts and refreezes each year, now makes up about 70 per cent of the Arctic winter ice.

The phenomenon has left far less of the older, thicker ice that is harder to melt.

The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed by more than three degrees Celsius in the past 50 years.

Apart from concerns about rapid melting accelerating the warming process, melting ice sheets raise sea levels dramatically.

A one per cent loss of the Antarctic land ice would raise levels by about 65cm.

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