The reason behind West Antarctica's rapid ice melt

West Antarctica's ice sheet is melting quickly due to the warm oceans surrounding it, and even with reductions in carbon emissions, this trend is inevitable.

This concerning pattern has the potential to have disastrous repercussions, perhaps raising global sea levels by 5.3 meters. This would be disastrous for coastal towns around the world, particularly India, where millions of people are susceptible to increasing sea levels.

There will still be three times as much warming in the ocean surrounding West Antarctica as there was in the 20th century, even if global warming is kept to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. According to a study called "Unavoidable future increase in West Antarctic ice-shelf melting over the twenty-first century," this faster warming will cause the ice sheet to melt even more.

Greenland and Antarctica's ice sheets, for example, play vital roles in regulating global sea levels. They hold a considerable amount of the world's clean water, and their changes affect sea levels - melting ice caps contribute to increasing sea levels.

Whilst West Antarctica's ice melts, warm ocean waves wear away at ice shelves, which are the floating edges of the ice sheet. These ice shelves are critical in stabilizing the land-based glaciers behind them. When ice shelves thin or disintegrate, glaciers accelerate, sending more ice into the water which leads to sea-level rise.

While the results of the study are troubling, they emphasize the importance of continuing efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. While West Antarctica's melting ice sheet appears unavoidable, it is only one component of the greater jigsaw of climate change. We can still take steps to limit other effects, such as averting the collapse of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and tackling challenges like as extreme weather events and droughts.