As ice in Antarctica melts to new lows, scientists warn 'no quick fix'

As the Earth heats up, sea ice in the Antarctic region has fallen to a record low this year. On Tuesday, scientists warned that as the global temperatures rise, there is no quick fix to reverse the damage done.

In a study published on Tuesday (August 8) researchers reported that the continent's minimum summer ice cover, which last year had dipped to a low of below two million square kilometres (or 772,000 square miles) has now fallen further.

Lowest of lows

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The study published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science found that in February, for the first time since satellite monitoring started keeping a track of Antarctica's summer ice, levels have reached this low.

In 2023, the sea ice minimum reached levels 20 per cent lower than the average levels recorded in the last 40 years. This, as per Tim Naish, director of the Antarctic Research Centre at New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington, equals to sea loss nearly 10 times the area of New Zealand. Naish was not a part of this study.

"In some cases we are getting close to tipping points, which once crossed will lead to irreversible changes with unstoppable consequences for future generations," he added.

As per Caroline Holmes, one of the study's co-authors, "It's going to take decades if not centuries for these things to recover. There's no quick fix to replacing this ice."

"It will certainly take a long time, even if it's possible," said Holmes, a polar climate scientist at British Antarctic Survey.

Study findings

The study says that the burning of fossil fuels is a driving force behind Global warming. This has made Antarctica vulnerable to extreme events, and the impact is "virtually certain" to get worse, it claims.

While it is certain that climate change will "lead to increases in the size and frequency" of heatwaves, ice shelf collapses and declines in sea ice in Antarctica, the precise impact has been hard to measure.

Scientists, as per Reuters, have struggled to measure the exact extent to which global warming is affecting the thickness of Antarctic ice. However, as per Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at the University of Exeter and a co-author of the study, it's "scientifically reasonable" to assume that extreme events are going to get more frequent.

(With inputs from agencies)

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