"The melting of these ice sheets is accelerating rapidly, at the moment they lose about 400 billion tons of ice every year. While the sea ice does not directly contribute to sea level rise, melting land ice does. "They are both in the same downward direction," he said. In addition to sea ice, the poles both have pretty massive amounts of ice on land.Īnnual land ice loss in the Arctic since 2002 has been 276 billion tons per year versus146 billion tons per year in Antarctica, Diamond of NOAA told CNBC. "Sea ice protects those ice shelves from being flexed and cracked by ocean swells, and also is a 'shade' that stops the water in front of those ice shelves from warming by summer sunlight." Why the sea ice levels in the Arctic are more damning "Antarctic ice sheets, which could cause huge sea level rise, are held back from slipping into the ocean by floating ice shelves, and those are melting," Hobbs told CNBC. Think about ice cubes melting in a glass of water.īut sea ice levels do impact sea level rise indirectly. 'The worst case is that the ice doesn't recover, and the future came a few decades earlier than we hoped and expected."īecause sea ice floating, it doesn't directly cause sea level rise, Hobbs told CNBC. "What we can say for certain is that this kind of collapse was predicted, albeit not for a few decades, so the best case scenario is that we're getting a glimpse of Antarctica's future," Hobbs told CNBC. It's "the million dollar question," Hobbs said, and answering it "will keep us busy for a few years yet." "As for the question 'is this climate change?', the science community probably isn't ready to state that yet," Hobbs told CNBC. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lowerīecause the downturn in Antarctic sea ice is new, it's too soon to know exactly why this is happening, according to scientists who study the flows of sea ice at the poles. Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
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