Global Warming
Global warming is real, it is happening more quickly in some parts of the world than others.
The Antarctic Peninsula is particularly sensitive to small rises in the annual average temperature, this has increased by nearly 3°C in the region in the last 50 years, this is about 10 times faster than the average in the rest of the world. This makes it an excellent study area.
The temperature of Western Antarctica has also risen by a comparable amount, this is the region attached to the Peninsula and stretches to the Transantarctic Mountains.
The temperature of Eastern Antarctica has risen by a much smaller amount or has remained stable,this is the region on the other side of the Transantarctic Mountains.
There is no unusual significant loss of ice of any kind from the larger 96% of Antarctica that is not the Peninsula.
Rising temperatures cause ice shelves to break up - as they are floating already this will not affect sea levels, it may cause the glaciers behind them to speed up their flow-rate considerably. These glaciers will add to sea-level rise if they melt.
The temperature of Antarctica as a whole is predicted to rise by a small amount over the next 50 years.Any increase in the rate of ice melting is expected to be at least partly offset by increased snowfall as a result of the warming.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula) has thinned significantly as a result of warmer temperatures in the surrounding Antarctic Ocean. The upper ocean in this region has increased in temperature by more than 1°C since 1955. The greatest degree of thinning has happened in an area called the Amundsen Sea Embayment.
Many glaciers have retreated and 10 ice shelves have been seen to retreat in recent years. 87% of glaciers along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula have retreated in the last 50 years with most of these showing accelerated retreat in the last 12 years.
Recently (May 2014) it has been revealed that the WAIS is collapsing, an event that seems to be unstoppable. It will still take a very long time to happen however, several centuries or perhaps up to 1,000 years.
