{"id":82137,"date":"2025-08-21T08:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/82137\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T08:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:10:07","slug":"antarctic-ice-loss-could-have-catastrophic-impact-dw-08-21-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/82137\/","title":{"rendered":"Antarctic ice loss could have ‘catastrophic’ impact \u2013 DW \u2013 08\/21\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists on Wednesday warned that abrupt and potentially irreversible changes are occurring in Antarctica<\/a>. They said the changes, which are\u00a0driven by climate change, could lead to “catastrophic consequences for generations.”<\/p>\n

The research was published in the journal Nature. It sought to describe the interlocking effects of global warming on the Antarctic<\/a>, the frozen continent at the planet’s South Pole.<\/p>\n

The “overwhelming evidence of a regime shift in sea ice<\/a>” means that, on current trends, Antarctica could essentially become ice free in summer sooner than the Arctic, the study found.<\/p>\n

This will speed up warming in the region and beyond, and could push some marine species toward extinction.<\/p>\n

“Antarctic sea ice may actually be one of those tipping points in the Earth’s system,” said the study’s lead author Nerilie Abram, a former professor at the Australian National University (ANU) and now chief scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division.<\/p>\n

The study warns that curbing global carbon dioxide emissions would reduce the risk of major changes in the Antarctic but still may not prevent them.<\/p>\n

“Once we start losing Antarctic sea ice, we set in train this self-perpetuating process,” Abram said. “Even if we stabilize the climate, we are committed to still losing Antarctic sea ice over many centuries to come.”<\/p>\n

What did the study say?<\/p>\n

Researchers gathered data from observations, ice cores, and ship logbooks to chart long-term changes in the area of sea ice.<\/p>\n

A “rapid and substantial slowdown” of the currents has already begun.<\/p>\n

“This would lead to widespread climate and ecosystem impacts,” ranging from an intensification of global warming to a decrease in the ocean’s capacity to absorb CO2, the study reported.<\/p>\n

Will it affect wildlife?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some 90% of the heat generated by manmade global warming is soaked up by oceans.<\/p>\n

Since 2014, sea ice has retreated on average 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the continent’s shoreline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loss of ice is\u00a0harming wildlife, including emperor penguins, who breed on the ice, and krill, which feed below it.<\/p>\n

And warming waters\u00a0will further reduce phytoplankton populations that draw down vast quantities of carbon from the atmosphere, the study reported.<\/p>\n

Edited by: John Silk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists on Wednesday warned that abrupt and potentially irreversible changes are occurring in Antarctica. They said the changes,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-82137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}