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(March 2008)Wilkins Ice Shelf melts
Rajendra Pachauri head of the Panel on Climate Change
Environmentalists are warning of the possibility of irreversible changes to sea levels as new satellite images show alarming evidence of the ice caps melting. The pictures show a chunk four times the size of Paris breaking off from Antarctica.
It belongs to the Wilkins Ice Shelf, a broad sheet of permanent floating ice located on the southwest Antarctic peninsula, some 1,600 kilometres from South America.
Speaking to the EU's environment committee in Brussels, Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, voiced concern:
"We have (...) clearly mentioned the possibility of irreversible and abrupt changes, which could be essentially a collapse of these large bodies of ice that would result in several metres of increase in sea level. I hope that doesn't happen but it's a possibility that we have to be aware of."
Experts believe warm air and exposure to ocean waves are triggering the breakup.
With the summer melting season coming to an end, the disintegration is expected to cease, but scientists will be watching to see if it continues to fall apart next year.
