New research shows that warming by more than 2°C could be a tipping point for Antarctica’s ice sheets, resulting in widespread meltdown and changes to the world’s shorelines for centuries to come.
The IPCC report says extreme sea level events that used to hit once a century will occur once a year in many places by 2050. This situation is inevitable, even if emissions are dramatically curbed.
Dan Lowry, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
New research shows that ocean and air temperatures both contributed to the melting of Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf in the past, but melting from below by a warming ocean became more important over time.
Jennifer Walsh, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Sending autonomous vehicles to the Southern Ocean can be fraught with anxiety, especially if one of them doesn’t make radio contact when it’s supposed to.
Emperor penguins have a few hidden tricks to stay warm, like blood vessels in the nose arranged so they can regain most of the heat that would be lost by breathing.
A paleooceanographer describes her ninth sea expedition, this time retrieving cylindrical ‘cores’ of the sediment and rock that’s as much as two miles down at the ocean floor.
Nick Golledge, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Climate scientist predict that the combined effect of ice loss in Greenland and Antarctica will be more extreme weather, with impacts on agriculture, infrastructure and human life itself.
Antarctic sea ice cover fell to an all-time low recently and hasn’t yet recovered. Why? The initial answers could lie in an unlikely place – the tropics.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current provides a barrier to heat that keeps warm subtropical waters away from Antarctica. Yet, there are a few places where the heat gets through.
More than two-thirds of Earth’s remaining wilderness is in the hands of just five countries, according to a new global map. A concerted conservation effort is needed to save our last wild places.
Chief Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes; Deputy Director for the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science; Deputy Director for the Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, Australian National University
Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong