Melting Ice

Melting ice threatens march of the empire penguins at antartica
Fears about a rapidly melting Antarctic ice sheet can be put to rest for now, according to an international team of scientists whose study indicates a pretty stable situation.

The researchers analyzed five years of satellite radar measurements of the West Antarctic ice sheet and concluded that, for the time being, melting from the middle of the ice sheet does not seem to be raising sea levels more than one millimeter per year.

Some environmentalists have warned that global warming — which these scientists agree is occurring — could cause the world's ice sheets to melt with alarming results — tidal waves and large rises in sea levels.

Most of the West Antarctic ice sheet sits on dry land. Any melting that takes place pours new water into the oceans, raising sea levels. (The East Antarctic ice sheet is below sea level, so any melted water from it would have little effect on sea levels since the ice already displaces sea water.)

"We assume that global warming is under way now and it may be enhanced by human activities, but until now its effect on ice loss in Greenland and the Antarctic has been mostly speculation," said C. K. Shum, a professor at Ohio State University, who, along with scientists at University College in London and the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, analyzed the data from two European Space Agency satellites collected between 1992 and 1996.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administratio

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