There is a danger Antarctica “stops acting as a refrigerant for the planet, and it starts acting as a radiator”, one of the scientists involved has warned.
“Tumbling” records in Antarctica must be taken more seriously because of their “cascading” global impacts, a group of scientists asked by the Foreign Office to investigate the “unprecedented” changes has warned today.
After enormous icebergs up to a quarter the size of Wales appeared to break off with “increasing frequency”, the Foreign Office commissioned the review, which has confirmed extreme events there are happening more often and are more intense.
Jane Rumble, head of polar regions at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, said: “What happens in Antarctica does not stay in Antarctica.
“It has global consequences and therefore it’s important to raise awareness of what Antarctica is going through.”
Professor Martin Siegert, glaciologist at the University of Exeter, said they were extremely worried about “the increasing intensity and frequency of extreme events and the cascading influences that they have in other areas”.