Antarctica continues to loose ice, and the rate is increasing

The Antarctic icecap has lost ‘billions’ of tons of ice over the last 10 years. This ice melted in two main areas of Antarctica, stated climatologist, Eric Rignot in the scientific journal ‘Nature Geoscience”.

Satellites, monitoring the West Ataractic coastline, have picked up changes, in the shape of the continent, and scientists have calculated that these changes amount to a loss of 132 billion tons of ice, and that, is for just for the year 2006.

A similar study in 1996, showed a loss of 83 billion tons. In addition, in 2006, the Antarctic Peninsula, a huge finger of ice pointing towards South America, lost an additional 60 billion tons.

So what do the figures mean? According to Jonathan Bamber at the University of Bristol, all 60 million inhabitants of the UK use 4 billion tons of water a year.

Rignot, was quoted as saying, “One immediate consequence (of the melting Antarctic ice) is to raise sea level,”, sea levels were raised 0,02 inches in 2006, compared with 0.01 in 1996, a 100% increase.

Rignot further stated that, the U.N. Panel on Climate change had concluded that melting of ice in Antarctica would not contribute to a rise in global sea levels. And actual the U.N predicted a growth in the size of the Antarctic ice fields.

Rignot refutes these findings, that, ‘this this has not been observed so far’ and, “In some regions the ice sheet is close to warm sources of water. The parts of Antarctica we are seeing change right now are closest to these heat sources,” he stated.

His findings mirror those of the Greenland ice fields, which also melted at a record rate in 2006, and also studies of the Arctic sea ice, which is now at it’s lowest ever level.