Melting Arctic ice is now pouring 14,000 tons of water per second into the ocean, scientists find

Source: Washington Post

Energy and Environment

Melting Arctic ice is now pouring 14,000 tons of water per second into the ocean, scientists find

A new survey finds that the region has contributed almost an inch to rising seas since 1971.

By Chris Mooney
December 21 at 12:57 PM

A new scientific survey (1) has found that the glaciers of the Arctic are the world's biggest contributors to rising seas, shedding ice at an accelerating rate that now adds well over a millimeter to the level of the ocean every year.

That is considerably more ice melt than Antarctica is contributing, even though the Antarctic contains far more ice. Still, driven by glacier clusters in Alaska, Canada and Russia and the vast ice sheet of Greenland, the fast-warming Arctic is outstripping the entire ice continent to the south -- for now.

However, the biggest problem is that both ice regions appear to be accelerating their losses simultaneously -- suggesting that we could be in for an even faster rate of sea-level rise in future decades. Seas are rising by about three millimeters each year, according to NASA. That's mainly driven by the Arctic contribution, the Antarctic and a third major factor -- that ocean water naturally expands as it warms.

For Arctic ice loss, "the rate has tripled since 1986," said Jason Box, first author of the new study and a scientist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. "So it clearly shows an acceleration of the sea-level contribution."
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Chris Mooney covers climate change, energy, and the environment. He has reported from the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, the Northwest Passage, and the Greenland ice sheet, among other locations, and has written four books about science, politics and climate change. Follow https://twitter.com/chriscmooney

(1) http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aaf2ed

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/12/21/melting-arctic-ice-is-now-pouring-tons-water-per-second-into-ocean-scientists-find/

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Melting Arctic ice is now pouring 14,000 tons of water per second into the ocean, scientists find

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3.5 Mil gallons

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Came here to say that. These kinds of stats need to be in relatable terms so a layperson can easily grasp, particularly when you're trying to tell the story in 140 characters.

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