WELLINGTON, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Antarctic ice sheets are under threat, according to a new research on Tuesday led by New Zealand and U.S. scientists who calls for concrete action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the study underscored just how sensitive the ice sheet is to climate change, according to Richard Levy of GNS Science and Victoria University of Wellington and Stephen Meyers of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who jointly led the research team.
"We've long known that the way the Earth moves in space influences climate," Levy said, adding, "If we fail to reach emissions targets, the Earth's average temperature will warm more than two degrees, sea ice will diminish, and we will jump back to a world that hasn't existed for millions of years."
The research confirms a connection between those astronomical changes and changes in the size and extent of the Antarctic ice sheets.
"It highlights that parts of the ice sheets that sit in the ocean are particularly sensitive to changes in the tilt of our planets axis," Levy said, adding it also raises serious questions about how these changes will affect Earth in the future as carbon emissions rise.
"Antarctica's vulnerable marine-based ice sheets will feel the effect of our current relatively high tilt, and ocean warming at Antarctica's margins will be amplified," he said.
The study's co-author Tim Naish of the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington said urgent action is needed on cutting emissions, and it needs to happen on a national and global level.
