Climate Change In Antarctica Essay

Despite being one of the coldest, most inhospitable places on Earth, Antarctica hosts a wealth of biodiversity. A variety of species use the extreme climate and remoteness of the continent and its surrounding waters as a sanctuary and protection from predators. The Antarctic has not been immune to human influences and climate change, however, and its flora and fauna is suffering from a range of negative effects triggered by climate change.

The polar regions are experiencing more dramatic changes than anywhere else on the planet in consequence of climate change and global warming. In Antarctica, climate change is having a range of impacts. Warming temperatures are a major problem, researches indicate that the Western Antarctic Peninsula is

Scientists fear that water that is currently in form of ice on land will melt and contribute to global sea level rise. Sea level has been rising over the past century. Satellite measurements indicate that sea level is rising at a rate of 3mm per year. However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are not able to confirm confidently at present what contributions the melting of ice sheets will have on sea level over the coming centuries. While technology makes sea-level rise easier to observe, and some contributions to future sea-level rise can be predicted with increasing certainty, yet the ice sheets’ contribution cannot be wholly predicted. There is thus a risk that sea-level rise contributed by ice melting could be higher than the estimates provided by the IPCC. There is also, however, a possibility that the effect on sea level imposed by ice melting in Antarctica is minimal. Researches show that the East Antarctic ice sheet may thicken slowly in the future due to the increased snowfall. The increase in ice capacity in East Antarctica may cancel out the melting of ice cap in other parts of Antarctica, causing little overall melting. Despite this, the instability and rapid changes of the Antarctica ice cap are generally regarded as unfavourable to the persistence of global sea