Melting ice caps cause alarm
Environmentalists are warning of the possibility of irreversible changes to sea levels as new satellite images show alarming evidence of the ice caps melting. The pictures show a chunk four times the size of Paris breaking off from Antarctica.
It belongs to the Wilkins Ice Shelf, a broad sheet of permanent
floating ice located on the southwest Antarctic peninsula, some 1,600
kilometres from South America.
Speaking to the EU's environment
committee in Brussels, Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, voiced concern:
"We
have (...) clearly mentioned the possibility of irreversible and abrupt
changes, which could be essentially a collapse of these large bodies of
ice that would result in several metres of increase in sea level. I
hope that doesn't happen but it's a possibility that we have to be
aware of."
Experts believe warm air and exposure to ocean waves are triggering the breakup.
With
the summer melting season coming to an end, the disintegration is
expected to cease, but scientists will be watching to see if it
continues to fall apart next year.
