Abrupt Antarctic climate changes could lead to

Abrupt and potentially irreversible changes in Antarctica powered by Climate change It could lift global oceans by meters and lead to “catastrophic consequences for generations,” scientists warned Wednesday.

In more general terms, a statement of knowledge through a score of the main experts revealed accelerating changes throughout the region that are often a cause and effect of global warming, according to a study published in Nature, an international scientific journal reviewed by peers.

The authors of the study suggest that limit CO2 emissionsAnd, in turn, prevent global warming exceeding at least 1.5 degrees Celsius, “will be essential” to reduce and prepare for the broad effects of abrupt changes in the Antarctic and South Ocean.

“Antarctica shows worrying signs of rapid change in its ice, ocean and ecosystems,” said the main author and professor at the Australian National University Nerilie Abram to the Agite France-Presse. “Some of these abrupt changes will be difficult to stop.”

Changes in different facets of the Antarctica climate system are amplified with each other and have also accelerated the warming pace worldwide, Abam said.

The study analyzed the evidence of abrupt change, or “regime changes”, on sea ice, regional ocean currents, ice layer and ice shelves from the continent, and marine life. He also examined how they interact.

Floating sea ice does not add significantly to sea level when it melts, but its withdrawal replaces white surfaces that reflect almost all the energy of the sun in space with deep blue water, which absorbs the same amount.

The ninety percent of the heat generated by the artificial global warming is absorbed by the oceans.

Removing sea ice

After increasing slightly for the first 35 years that the satellite data were available, Antarctic sea cover cover He immersed himself dramatically during the last decade.

Since 2014, sea ice has been withdrawn on average 120 kilometers, or approximately 75 miles, from the coast of the continent. This contraction has happened approximately three times faster in 10 years than the decrease in arctic sea ice for almost 50.

In July 2025, the daily extension of sea ice in both hemispheres was in its third minor in the 47 -year -old satellite registry, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center of the University of Colorado Boulder.

NASA datareleased in 2020, indicated that Antarctica and Greenland had lost thousands of ice gigatons between 2003 and 2019, indirectly contributing to more than half an inch of general increase in sea level worldwide.

Last September, scientists warned that The Antarctic ice layerofficially called the Thwaites glacier, would deteriorate “more and faster”, with the increase in fusion that is expected to trigger the increase in sea level. The research carried out by the international collaboration of Thwaites glaciers, a group of more than 100 scientists, discovered that the volume of water flows to the sea from the Thwaites glacier and other nearby had doubled from the 1990s to the 2010.

The “overwhelming evidence of a regime change in sea ice” means that, in current trends, Antarctica could be essentially free of ice in summer before the Arctic, he found the recent study published Wednesday in Nature.

This will accelerate heating in the region and beyond, and could push some marine species towards extinction, experts warned.

In the last two years, for example, the penguin chicks of the helpless emperor perished in multiple reproduction areas, drowning or freezing when the sea ice gave way before the usual under its small feet.

Of five sites monitored in the Bellingshausen Sea region in 2023, all but one experienced a loss of 100% chicks, previous investigations reported.

Unlike sea ice, ice layers and ice shelves to which they are connected are on or supported by land.

The world would need to heat in 5 degrees Celsius compared to pre -industrial levels to melt the entire Antarctic ice layer, which would lift the global oceans of 58 meters almost unimaginable, or almost 200 feet.

Point without return

The global warming to date, on average, approximately 1.3 degrees Celsius, is quickly approaching a threshold that would cause part of the ice layer to generate at least three meters of increase in sea level, flooding coastal areas inhabited today by hundreds of millions, the study said.

“The unstoppable collapse of the ice layer of Western Antarctic is one of the most related global inflection points,” Abram said.

“The evidence indicates that this be activated in global warming well below 2 ° C”.

Another potential risk is the collapse of the circulation of Antarctic dump, a system of ocean currents that distribute heat and nutrients within the region already worldwide.

A “rapid and substantial deceleration” of the currents has already begun, and the evidence of the anterior interglacial period, between two ice ages, before ours, 125,000 years ago, points to an abrupt stagnation of the system in conditions similar to those observed today.

“This would lead to generalized impacts in the climate and the ecosystem,” ranging from an intensification of global warming to a decrease in ocean’s ability to absorb CO2, the study reported.

Ultimately, the only way to slow down the intertwined changes is to stop adding more planet heating gases to the atmosphere.

“The decisions of emission of greenhouse gases that we take during the next decade or two will block how much ice we will lose and how fast it will be lost,” Abram said.

• Climate change
• Antarctica
• Global warming