Ice, Ice, Baby!

The journal 'The Cryosphere' (concerned with ice-dominated areas of the globe), has published an article revealing that, world-wide, the melting of ice is accelerating at a record rate (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/25/global-ice-loss-accelerating-at-record-rate-study-finds). The Greenland and the Antarctic ice-sheets are the most rapidly disappearing. These changes are in line with the worst case scenarios, proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The paper estimates that the planet lost 28tn tonnes of ice between 1994 and 20l7 (and the rate must have subsequently speeded up, as 'greenhouse gases' have continued to climb). About 67% of the melt seems due to an increase in mean atmospheric temperature (those 'greenhouse gases' again), with the remainder down to an increase in sea temperature (picked up from the air). Pretty obviously, the melting ice increases sea levels, a serious problem for low-laying coastal or island communities (and most of our major cities are coastal). Less obvious, is the impact on further global heating. The more ice melts, the less solar energy is reflected back into space. The faster the planet heats up. The more the ice melts. And so on ad infinitum (or at least until the ice runs out).