Antarctica Ice Sheet Research Paper

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If the Antarctic ice sheet was to melt completely, the world would rise almost 200 feet, totally remapping the world as we know it. Of the seven continents scattered across the globe, only one of them is almost entirely made out of ice. The Earth’s southernmost continent is located in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere. The Antarctic Ice Sheet covers almost 98% of the entire continent and has close to 90% of Earth’s fresh water supply locked away in its glaciers (cite). This massive ice sheet is 7 000 feet thick, spread across the World’s fifth largest continent that is nearly twice the size of Australia (cite). The Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is surrounded by the Southern Ocean, is divided up into the East Antarctic …show more content…
According to British and Australian climatologists, the summer ice melt in Antarctica is now ten times as intense as it was 600 years ago. (Cite) One of the largest problems of this situation is that the human population as a whole does not seem overly concerned by the unstoppable catastrophic process. Today, it is crucial for society to be educated about what is happening to this warming continent in order to promote awareness and to cause immediate action towards preventing global warming. Also, mitigation policies supporting the reduction of greenhouse gasses provide a chance to reduce the risk associated with sea level rise. More specifically, they have adaption policies that outline potential disaster areas and measures of how an appropriate response must be handled during a natural disaster. The serious risk of extreme coastal devastation raises concern for low-lying areas where millions of people would have to abandon their homes and communities. Constructing massive walls close to the coastline could temporarily solve the problem, however the sea will still continue to rise centuries after this generation of people are gone, so we need to discover a permanent solution to a problem that is only going to increase in severity as time goes

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