 The continent of Antarctica is a beautiful land made almost entirely of snow and ice, unique on planet Earth. But what makes it beautiful also makes it sensitive to human influences. Our changing climate is causing rapid changes in the Antarctic. The West Antarctic ice sheet in particular is losing over 100 billion tons of ice each year. West Antarctica contains about 18% more ice than Greenland. If it all melted it would cause over 7 meters of global sea level rise. But West Antarctica has a much bigger brother, East Antarctica. The East Antarctic ice sheet is the largest ice mass in the world. It covers an area roughly the size of the United States. The East Antarctic ice sheet has been around for nearly 32 million years. The West Antarctic ice sheet by contrast formed millions of years later and has partially melted several times. If both of these ice sheets were to melt, global sea levels would rise 72 meters. At first, scientists thought Antarctica wouldn't respond strongly to global warming. Regional warming was expected to increase both ice melt and snowfall, which would balance each other out. However, recent studies have found that the West Antarctic ice sheet is more sensitive to climate change and in particular warming oceans than previously thought. Satellite measurements have shown that both the Antarctic Peninsula and the West Antarctic ice sheet are now losing ice. For both regions, ice losses began in the 1990s and have since accelerated. The best available knowledge today points to the West Antarctic ice sheet being a large contributor to current and future global sea level rise over the next century. The East Antarctic ice sheet by contrast has remained relatively stable since the late 1990s. In this case, ice losses in coastal areas have been balanced by greater snowfall in the interior. For now, the East Antarctic ice sheet is stable. There is of course another type of ice in Antarctica, which has undergone some recent changes. Antarctic sea ice has reacted to a changing climate very differently and arguably more interestingly than land ice. Antarctic sea ice forms in the ocean waters around the continent each winter during the polar night from July to August. During the 24 hours of daylight in the Antarctic summer, from December to February, it nearly completely melts. This means that Antarctic sea ice is mostly seasonal and does not influence the global climate as much as Arctic sea ice. The area of sea ice around Antarctica has actually been increasing over the last few decades, especially during winter. This is despite data showing that the southern ocean around Antarctica is warming. This raises an interesting scientific question. How can sea ice increase when the oceans are warming? One possible contributor is wind. The winds which flow off the Antarctic continent down onto the surrounding ocean have been increasing. This carries more cold air to the ocean where the sea ice forms. It also blows sea ice away from the coastline spreading it out further. That extra open water allows more sea ice to form and expand outward. Another potential factor is increasing meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheets. Fresh water is easier to freeze than salt water, so an increase in ice melt, say from coastal glaciers, can make the water surrounding Antarctica easier to freeze. Finally, Antarctica's changing climate may play an important role. Snowfall has increased over the continent and the surrounding oceans. This can lead to a thicker sea ice cover. Even though Antarctica as a whole has warmed, there are also regional differences with some areas cooling while other areas have warmed. Combined together, all these factors are the best available explanations for the recent increase in Antarctic sea ice. The differences in the reaction of land ice and sea ice to a changing climate feeds a very common myth that Antarctica is gaining ice. This myth relies on an error of omission and it ignores the difference between land ice and sea ice. It's also an example of cherry picking. By focusing on one small part of the Antarctic cryosphere, it ignores the full picture of how the Antarctic ice is changing. Although sea ice in Antarctica has increased in recent years, land ice in Antarctica is currently declining. Scientists are confident that both changes in sea ice and land ice are linked to a change in climate. They are both also examples of unexpected impacts of climate change. Although increasing Antarctic sea ice may have local impacts, the unexpectedly quick decrease of Antarctic land ice could have huge global implications through sea level rise.