Polar ice sheets melting intensifies

Article Type: News From: Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume 24, Issue 3.

Nearly two dozen research teams collaborating to study polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, have identified the fact that they have added 11 mm to global sea levels since 1992, melting ever more quickly. This polar melting added about one-fifth of the overall global sea level rise in this period,contributing 11.1 mm overall but with a “give or take” uncertainty of 3.8 mm,such that the figure could be anywhere between 7.3 and 14.9 mm. All the ice sheets’ combined rate of melting has grown since 1992, with Greenland losing five times as much ice now and Antarctica showing about a 50 per cent increase ice loss rate for the last decade.