SOURCE: Smithsonian TweenTribune
DATE: April 11, 2016
AUTHOR: Seth Borenstein, Associated Press
SNIP: Warmer air, less frigid water and gravity may combine to make parts of Antarctica’s western ice sheet melt far faster than scientists had thought. Sea levels could rise much more than expected. It all could happen by the end of the century.
The results of new physics-based computer simulations have been released. They forecast dramatic increases in melting. It could occur in the vulnerable western edge of Antarctica. The huge land mass at the southern end of the Earth is a continent. In a worst-case scenario, that could raise sea level in 2100 by 18 to 34 inches. That is much more than an international panel of climate scientists predicted. They made that prediction just three years ago.