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Source: CNN March 29, 2008 By Marsha Walton

Ice shelf collapse: What does it mean?

Scientists look at how reducing ice cover affects the entire food chain.
Here is an Excerpt:

" According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, in the past 50 years, the western Antarctic peninsula has undergone the biggest temperature increase on Earth: up .9 degree Fahrenheit, or .5 degree Celsius, in each of the past five decades. How the ice is disappearing »

Scientific American (February 2008) outlines the risk that the major ice sheets (particularly the West Antarctic Ice Sheet) hold for potential rapid sea level rise. This piece is written by Robin Bell at Columbia University.

The Unquiet Ice (stub)

NOTE: the whole article requires a subscription.

Key Concepts:
The land-based ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica hold enough water to raise global sea level by more than 200 feet.

Source: The Australian, Leigh Dayton, Science writer, January 15, 2008

New data from the NASA GRACE mission satellite shows that ice melt at the edges of the Antarctic is accelerating, and outpacing the build-up of snow in the interior.

Antarctica's ice melting faster

Below is an excerpt from this press story:

"THE most comprehensive study to date of Antarctica's ice confirms growing concern that the ice cap is melting faster than predicted.

The USGS fact sheet on Antartica:

Coastal-Change and Glaciological Maps of Antarctica

Excerpts below:

Source: BBC November 10, 2007

UN chief makes Antarctica visit

Excerpt below:
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has visited Antarctica in an effort to highlight global warming.
Mr Ban - the first UN chief to visit the continent - wanted to see for himself the effects of climate change on the world's largest wilderness.
After flying over melting glaciers, he told reporters that what he had seen had been both "extraordinarily beautiful" and "disturbing".

September 20, 2007: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Press Release
NASA Researchers Find Snowmelt in Antarctica Creeping Inland

The Post's article outlines the state of scientific research on polar ice and sea level rise. It's worth a read. You can read the entire article here: Clues to Rising Seas Are Hidden in Polar Ice Below are some excerpts:

Clues to Rising Seas Are Hidden in Polar Ice
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 16, 2007; Page A06

"Few consequences of global warming pose as severe a threat to human society as sea-level rise. But scientists have yet to figure out how to predict it.

The Daily Mail (June 20, 2007) reports on a research article published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A:

"A group of US scientists may have given the clearest warning yet that global warming is presenting an imminent threat to civilisation.

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE British Antarctic Survey, June 5, 2007

"Hundreds of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula are flowing faster, further adding to sea level rise according to new research published this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Climate warming, that is already causing Antarctic Peninsula increased summer snow melt and ice shelf retreat, is the most likely cause.

May 15, 2007
A team of NASA and university scientists has found clear evidence that extensive areas of snow melted in west Antarctica in January 2005 in response to warm temperatures. This was the first widespread Antarctic melting ever detected with NASA's QuikScat satellite and the most significant melt observed using satellites during the past three decades. Combined, the affected regions encompassed an area as big as California.