Scientists have called it plausible. Ice sheet melt in East Antarctic may cause costal mess.
East Antarctic may melt in the coming decades and centuries, at least a large part of it called Wilkes Basin, if scientists are to be believed.
Though many reports have been published over the years suggesting that the scenario was bleak and that climate change was going to turn the world either into a desert or cause flooding in a huge part of it, there were no previous reports that were so specific.
The latest report has appeared in Nature Climate Change. It says if the ice in East Antarctic was to melt in area known as Wilkes Basin, it may well cause seal level to rise up by around 13 feet.
The latest report in the Nature Climate Change has this to say "East Antarctica may become a large contributor to future sea-level rise on timescales beyond a century". Already oceanographers have said that sea level has risen in the past one hundred years and a small nation's entire cabinet held its meeting in the Indian Ocean to attract the world's attention towards this major threat to its existence.
Scientists are critical about lack of action from different governments across the world. The scientists who are behind the latest report suggest that what they are saying will become true if nations across the world do not take drastic measures to take care of it. The report says that some of the most vulnerable ice sheets are in the West Antarctic and that it poses almost immediate threat of a large sea-level rise, owing to its potential instability. Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre Johan Rockstrom says, "The window is shutting very rapidly on [limiting global warming to] the 2 degrees target…The debate is drifting to 'maybe we can adapt to 2 degrees, maybe 3 or even 4.'"
In the meantime other experts too believe that this scenario is not fictional, but believable. Tony Payne, a professor of glaciology at Bristol University reportedly told Reuters, "It sounds plausible…(East Antarctica) could contribute meters to sea level rise over thousands of years," he said.
Source : http://nvonews.com/ice-sheet-melt-in-east-antarctic-may-cause-coastal-mess/
