Ice and Water: How Big Ice in the Cold South Affects People's Homes

In the cold south part of our world, there is a very large area of ice called Getz where nine big ice rivers flow toward the sea. These ice rivers are moving faster than before, which is bad news for people living near water everywhere. When this ice moves into the warm sea water, it turns to water and makes the world's seas rise higher. Over the last twenty-five years, these ice rivers have started moving almost one-fourth faster than before, and some are moving nearly half again as fast. This has caused enough ice to turn into water to make the seas rise by nearly one part in a thousand of a meter - which might seem small, but affects millions of people living near the water.

 

Our group of people who study ice and water, called GOAT, is working to understand why this is happening and what it means for people's homes and lives. We named these nine ice rivers after places where people came together to talk about making the world less warm. This helps people remember that what happens to far-away ice matters to everyone. When seas rise, they can push water into people's homes, hurt the places where people grow food, and force people to move away from the places they have lived for many years.

 

We are working together with other people who study ice to learn more about how warm sea water, along with other things like snow falling and heat from deep inside our world, makes the ice move faster and break apart. We also want to help more people understand why these changes matter to them, even if they live far from the cold south. By working together and sharing what we learn, we hope to help people better prepare for the rising seas and work to slow down the warming that is causing this problem.