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The Antarctic ice sheet - Source: ONE News -
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There are stark new warnings that coastal parts of New Zealand,
Australia and the South Pacific Islands are at risk of being wiped
off the map if sea temperatures rise by 5 degrees.
Researchers say it could trigger a thaw of the west Antarctic ice
sheet, which would raise sea levels around the world.
Tim Naish of the Antarctica Research Centre is part of a group drilling through layers of rock that have accumulated in the area, which show how Antarctica has been affected by carbon dioxide and temperature changes over the past three to five million years.
Researchers believe that a rise in sea levels could happen over the next thousand years or so, because of recent unprecedented increases in greenhouse gases caused by human activity.
Previous predictions from the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change are that sea levels will rise by about 50cm in the next century. However, researchers here have upped that to about a metre.
Such a rise in sea levels would swamp coastlines, and potentially wipe Pacific nations, like Tuvalu, off the map.
"If you're in Bangladesh; if you're in New Orleans; if you're in Miami, if you're in Petone, Wellington& without scaremongering, a metre rise in sea level is just a metre high that your storms are going to be on, that natural processes happen. And it does have a big affect," says Naish.
The researchers plan to be back on the ice in the next few years to gather more vital data about our planet's history, to help the human race plan its future.
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