Author: Matthew Taub / Source: Atlas Obscura
In the fall 0f 2018, we learned that climate change was proceeding at an even more alarming rate than we had thought. The United Nations’ disturbing October report, which warns of a crisis by 2040, is reinforced by new research demonstrating the harsh acceleration of Antarctic ice loss since 1979: By 2017, Antarctica was losing more than six times as much ice per year as it did nearly 40 years prior, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Between 1979 and 1990, the researchers explained in a release, Antarctica lost, on average, about 40 billion tons of ice per year (or 40 gigatons, if you prefer). That’s not exactly slim, but it hardly compares to Antarctica’s average annual ice loss between 2009 and 2017, which weighed in at more than 250 billion tons annually.
The researchers, from the University of California, Irvine, and Utrecht University in the Netherlands, say that…The post Antarctica Is Losing 250 Billion Tons of Ice Per Year appeared first on FeedBox.