ANTARCTICA - THE MELTING POT!

Is history unfolding right in front of our eyes?

Yes, we are here and we would be here. Things we had learned through the school years, global warming and melting of polar ice is becoming reality.

Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun disintegrating under the effects of global warming. Just a few weeks ago, a massive ice shelf broke off in the Antarctica. The collapse of a substantial section of the shelf was triggered at the end of February when an iceberg measuring 41 by 2.4 kilometers broke off its southwestern front.

(Images courtesy NSIDC, NASA, University of Colorado)

Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started February 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years.

The rest of the Wilkins ice shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut, is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice. Scientists worry that it too may collapse. Larger, more dramatic ice collapses occurred in 2002 and 1995.

Melting of polar caps will lead to rise of oceans, submergence of low lying coastal areas and causing masses to relocate. Excessive heat trapped in the earth's 'green house' would increase the relative humidity of the earth and thus result in significant climatic extremes.

Are we prepared to see such catastrophic consequences and would we able to survive?

Action is needed right now, if it is not already too late. Let's do our part to leave behind a habitable earth for the generation to come.

Source and Further Information: http://nsidc.org/news/press/20080325_Wilkins.html
http://staffwww.fullcoll.edu/tmorris/an_inconvenient_truth/an_inconvenient_truth.htm