Antarctic is warming, scientists claim

The Antarctic is warming up, a group of scientists have revealed, despite recent studies showing that the continent is cooling.

East Antarctica is cooling, the scientists said, but the rest of the continent is warming at a rate that makes this fact irrelevant.

Eric Steig, co-author of the research, said: We now see warming as taking place on all seven of the Earth’s continents in accord with what models predict as a response to greenhouse gases.”

The research, based on satellite readings, found that since 1957 the region has warmed up by an average 0.12 degrees Celsius per decade - about 0.5 degrees in total.

Steig said the findings will ‘kill off’ claims by global warming sceptics that Antarctica is cooling.

Scientists believe that cooling in East Antarctica is due to a hole in the ozone layer that stretches over the region during the winter.

The hole - caused by human use of chemicals that are now banned - is repairing itself.

Once the hole is healed, the continent will begin to warm at a much higher rate, Steig said.

Climate scientists estimate that if even a small amount of Antarctica’s ice sheets melted, sea levels could rise over two metres by the end of the century.