BONN, GERMANY — The acceleration of Antarctic ice loss in recent decades may already mark the beginning of a “self-sustaining and irreversible period of ice sheet retreat,” according to a study measuring historical ice sheet debris, which has identified patterns behind eight episodes of ice sheet destabilization across recent millennia that could also apply now. <br /> <br /> <br />The Nature Communications journal study found that in the eight previous episodes, mass Antarctic ice sheet destabilization “switched on” within “only a decade or two,” with bursts of iceberg calving causing the sheet itself to destabilize within only a few years each time, before continuing for many centuries, according to a press release published on Eurekalert. <br /> <br /> <br />The study also found that sea levels responded to these tipping points accordingly, also rising for several centuries and up to a millennium in some cases. <br /> <br /> <br />One study co-author, Zoe Thomas, summarized why we should worry: “If it just takes one decade to tip a system like this, that’s actually quite scary, because if the Antarctic Ice Sheet behaves in future like it did in the past, we must be experiencing the tipping right now.” <br /> <br />
