West Antarctic ice sheet may be melting more rapidly than previously thought

New York Times : If greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated and global temperatures keep increasing, sea levels could rise by more than one meter by 2100 and more than 15 meters by 2500 due to the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet alone. That is according to a new computer model by Robert DeConto of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and David Pollard of the Pennsylvania State University, who have been studying ice-sheet behavior for years. Earlier models have lacked a complete picture of the effects of global warming on the West Antarctic ice sheet because they did not take into account the melting of the floating ice that surrounds it. The new model shows that as the protective ice shelves melt, the ice sheet could form vast, sheer cliffs that rapidly become unstable, calve, and fall into the sea. Although limiting greenhouse gas emissions could save West Antarctica from complete collapse, the researchers say, the limits would have to be much more stringent than those agreed to at the recent Paris climate talks.