Poles are melting much faster than previously thought!

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in their 2007 analysis of sea level rise for the next one hundred years, decided to exclude both the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets from their calculations. A decision that may come back to haunt them in the long term. Rather than a two foot rise in sea levels, scientists now estimate they could rise as high as seven feet or more!

According to an article published in the Yale College publication 'Environment 360' - “The ramifications of a major sea level rise are massive. Agriculture will be disrupted, water supplies will be salinized, storms and flood waters will reach ever further inland, and millions of environmental refugees will be created — 15 million people live at or below three feet elevation in Bangladesh, for example. Governments, especially those in the developing world, will be disrupted, creating political instability.' But, that's not all!

Now, new evidence has come to light which indicates that both the arctic ans antarctic polar ice sheets are under attack by warm water from below. This disclosure, according to a recent article published in Nature Geoscience. Preliminary findings from the Arctic suggest that a key buffer layer of fresher cooler water – which lies beneath the ice and warmer Atlantic Ocean waters flowing into the area at a greater depth – is being lost. This is causing the glaciers to be melted from the bottom up even as global warming is attacking it from above. The full analysis of this research is expected to be published later this year.