The greatest threat facing mankind, many scientists will tell you, is climate change,… and new evidence suggests… it’s having a devastating effect on glaciers… in Antarctica,… much faster than previously thought.
A new NASA report says that spells trouble for all of us,… particularly those who live in coastal areas.
Connie Lee has more. Large glaciers in west Anarctica… are melting away, and nothing is likely to stop it.
Through a telephone news conference held by NASA on Monday,… scientists raised concerns that the irreversible melting is occurring faster than expected…
and that the ice in the Amundsen Sea area … could raise global sea levels by more than one meter.
That’s higher than researchers previously anticipated.

“We’ve passed the point of no return,” said NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot, [ ] on NASA’s website. He said that it’s merely “a matter of time” before the glaciers completely disappear.

A consequence of human-induced climate change,… scientists say that warm water has been melting the underside of the floating ice at a speed of about one kilometer per year.
The joint publication by NASA and the University of California, Irvine… used satellite data and aircraft studies in the area dating back 40 years.

Scientists say that the complete meltdown could take hundreds of years– but that we could feel the effects of the melting process this century.
A recent climate report by the United Nations predicts that by the year 2100, sea levels could rise from about half a meter to nearly a meter… which could displace tens of millions of people who live in coastal areas worldwide.
Just last week, U.S. President Barack Obama warned that climate change was already happening, and not in the “distant future.”
The latest study is evidence… that some of the damage is already irreversible.
Connie Lee, Arirang News.