Antarctica is not as resilient as we thought to rising global temperatures. Research published in Nature Geoscience warns that the Antarctic continent is experiencing changes that increasingly resemble those already seen in the Arctic. A “Greenlandization” that makes the ice of the South Pole much more sensitive than expected to the effects of global warming, and which could have disastrous consequences in the coming decades.
“Antarctica has long been considered more stable than the Arctic. But today, the picture has changed”, explains Ruth Mottram, a researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute who participated in the study. “Sea ice is disappearing. Temperatures are rising here too. Ice flows are accelerating and melt water is penetrating the crevasses of glaciers, making them slide faster towards the sea.”
The study was carried out using a mix of climate models and satellite observations. And it uses the similarity with the situation of the Arctic ice, Greenlandization, as a tool to evaluate the state of the Antarctic ice, based on the phenomena, now much studied and well understood, which have accelerated the melting of the northern ice in recent decades.
“We use the experience we have gained in Greenland as a sort of ‘laboratory’ to understand the same processes in Antarctica – confirms Mottram – And unfortunately, it seems that our experiences at home are becoming increasingly relevant”.
If the trends observed by the research were confirmed, it would be an extremely important problem. In fact, the Antarctic ice sheet contains most of the frozen fresh water on our planet. And the melting of its eternal ice, which to date has occurred at a much slower rate than the Arctic ice, would therefore have a devastating impact on sea levels.
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To make a comparison, the total melting of Greenland’s glaciers would lead to a rise in the oceans of about seven metres; that caused by Antarctica could reach 58. And with numbers like that, it is clear that even if only a fraction more of the total ice stored in Antarctica melts, the potential damage to the planet risks being incalculable.