Last week, we reported that a heat wave is hitting the North and South Poles with temperature reaching 70 degrees and 50 degrees above normal, respectively. The situation has since worsened as scientists on Friday reported that the ice shelf on the eastern part of Antarctica, the 463-square-mile Glenzer Conger about the size of New York City, has now collapsed due mainly to human activity that continues to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The eastern part of Antarctica has always been considered stable, compared with the western part where the Thwaites Glacier about the size of Florida is in danger of collapse, making this latest development worrisome for scientists. The former contains more than five times the ice that is found in the latter. If all of the ice in the east part were to melt it would release so much water that sea levels would rise by more than 160 feet. While this may take centuries to happen at the current rate of warming, scientists are unclear as to the extent of sea level rise in the coming decades because of the melting of polar ice caps. (See https://ca.yahoo.com/news/antarctic-ice-shelf-the-size-of-new-york-city-collapses-201709973.html).
