Uploaded July 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The enormous West Antarctic Ice Sheet contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by 3.3 m - coastline-changing amounts.
But is it becoming less stable? And is it going to collapse in the near future?
The short answer is that it's down to us: what we do now will determine the future of the Antarctic and the rest of the planet as we know it.
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## Some excellent articles and resources
antarcticglaciers.org/antarctica-2/west-antarctic-ice-sheet-2
carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-close-is-the-west-antarctic-ice-sheet-to-a-tipping-point
carbonbrief.org/guest-post-overshooting-2c-risks-rapid-and-unstoppable-sea-level-rise-from-antarctica
## References
Bromwich et al. (2013) Central West Antarctica among the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. Nature Geoscience 6 139–145 nature.com/articles/ngeo1671
DeConto et al. (2021) The Paris Climate Agreement and future sea-level rise from Antarctica nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03427-0
Edwards et al. (2021) Projected land ice contributions to twenty-first-century sea level rise. Nature 593, 74-82 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03302-y
Fretwell et al. (2013). Bedmap2: improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica, The Cryosphere, doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-375-2013
Huybrechts (2009) West-side story of Antarctic ice. Nature 458, 295–296 doi.org/10.1038/458295a
Jun et al. (2020) The internal origin of the west-east asymmetry of Antarctic climate change. Science Advances (24) eaaz1490, doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz1490
Lhermitte et al. (2020) Damage accelerates ice shelf instability and mass loss in Amundsen Sea Embayment. PNAS 117 (40) 24735-24741 doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912890117
Pattyn et al. (2018) The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets under 1.5°C global warming. Nature Climate Change 8, 1053–1061 doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0305-8
Pattyn & Morlighem (2020) The uncertain future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Science 367 (6484) 1331-1335. doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz5487
================================ %%% ============================
Did you love this video? If you did, you can support me on Patreon: patreon.com/Dr_Gilbz
The enormous West Antarctic Ice Sheet contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by 3.3 m - coastline-changing amounts.
But is it becoming less stable? And is it going to collapse in the near future?
The short answer is that it's down to us: what we do now will determine the future of the Antarctic and the rest of the planet as we know it.
================================ %%% ============================
## Some excellent articles and resources
antarcticglaciers.org/antarctica-2/west-antarctic-ice-sheet-2
carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-close-is-the-west-antarctic-ice-sheet-to-a-tipping-point
carbonbrief.org/guest-post-overshooting-2c-risks-rapid-and-unstoppable-sea-level-rise-from-antarctica
## References
Bromwich et al. (2013) Central West Antarctica among the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. Nature Geoscience 6 139–145 nature.com/articles/ngeo1671
DeConto et al. (2021) The Paris Climate Agreement and future sea-level rise from Antarctica nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03427-0
Edwards et al. (2021) Projected land ice contributions to twenty-first-century sea level rise. Nature 593, 74-82 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03302-y
Fretwell et al. (2013). Bedmap2: improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica, The Cryosphere, doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-375-2013
Huybrechts (2009) West-side story of Antarctic ice. Nature 458, 295–296 doi.org/10.1038/458295a
Jun et al. (2020) The internal origin of the west-east asymmetry of Antarctic climate change. Science Advances (24) eaaz1490, doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz1490
Lhermitte et al. (2020) Damage accelerates ice shelf instability and mass loss in Amundsen Sea Embayment. PNAS 117 (40) 24735-24741 doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912890117
Pattyn et al. (2018) The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets under 1.5°C global warming. Nature Climate Change 8, 1053–1061 doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0305-8
Pattyn & Morlighem (2020) The uncertain future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Science 367 (6484) 1331-1335. doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz5487
================================ %%% ============================
Did you love this video? If you did, you can support me on Patreon: patreon.com/Dr_Gilbz
