SCIENCE FILE / An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment : Melting of Antarctic Ice Shelves Tied to 50-Year Warming Trend
From Times staff and wire reports
Antarctica’s ice shelves are melting away as temperatures climb because of global warming, British scientists reported in today’s Nature. At least five of the thick ice shelves that make up much of what is considered Antarctica have retreated dramatically over the past 50 years, said David Vaughan and colleagues at the British Antarctic Survey.
“Meteorological records along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula show a . . . consistent warming trend. At Faraday Station, a warming of [about 0.084] degree Fahrenheit a year has been measured since 1945, a total of about 4.2 degrees Fahrenheit,” they wrote.
