32 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
BACKGROUND GLOBE: GERHALD3D/TURBOSQUID. BEDROCK: ESA. SEAL: LARS BOEHMEThere’s still a window
to alter course on
climate change, but it’s
small. And what we
decide to do in the next
decade could make all
the difference. That’s
the sobering takeaway
from an assessment of
Antarctica published
in Nature in June,
claiming to offer the
most complete picture
yet of the continent’s
ice sheets. Meanwhile,
another international
team of scientists found
that Antarctica has lost
3 trillion tons of ice since
1992, causing a roughly
8-millimeter rise in sea
level, or about a third of
an inch. If we continue
our current carbon
emissions, Earth could
eventually see a 150-foot
rise in sea level from
Antarctica’s remaining
ice when it melts. The
findings come as climate
scientists prepare to
deploy new instruments
on land, air, sea and
space to poke and prod
Earth’s climate system in
the years ahead.ENVIRONMENT
& CLIMATE
As our world faces unprecedented change, scientists
amp up eforts to understand what the future holds.
BY KATHERINE MAST
Uplifting Story
As ice melts in western
Antarctica, the bedrock
below has been rising
faster than predicted,
a June Science study
shows. The increase may
be enough to slow some
of the ice sheet’s future
melting and, subsequently,
sea level rise.Iceberg Sanctuary
When the Larsen C Ice Shelf
calved in 2017, it revealed a
marine ecosystem that has
evolved, hidden from light,
for the past 120,000 years.
The first expedition to study
how this ecosystem responds
to dramatic environmental
change set off in February.Thwaites Invasion
Western Antarctica’s glaciers have been melting at
an accelerating rate since the 1990s, and the remote
Florida-sized Thwaites glacier is one of the least stable
on the continent. Creating better predictions for how
much, and how fast, Thwaites might collapse, is an
international priority. So, in April, research agencies
in the U.S. and U.K. announced a roughly $50 million,
five-year collaboration to get a better picture of how
this ice may behave in the coming decades.Seal Scientists
Fourteen sensor-bearing seals helped
scientists gather data about Antarctica’s
tough-to-reach Amundsen Sea. The marine
mammals’ measurements, published in May,
could help explain how the Circumpolar
Deep Water, a current circling the continent,
affects West Antarctic Ice Sheet melting.Rising
bedrock