Reciding Ice Shelf

Why in news?

A trillion-ton iceberg from the Larsen C Ice Shelf is being disintegrated into smaller icebergs in Antarctica.

What the Project MIDAS says?

• It is a U.K.-based Antarctic research project that has been looking at the ice shelf for many years
• Scientists from Project MIDAS have said the formation of icebergs is natural.
• And there seems no link to human-induced climate change was available in this case.
• Yet, the impact of such a loss on the stability of the ice shelf itself may not be good.

What are the impacts?

• The disintegrated icebergs and glaciers melts and flow into the nearby seas and oceans.
• It contributes to sea level rise, possibly at a slow rate.
• It highlights the need to stop continued warming of the planet from man-made carbon emissions.

What is the importance of Antarctica?

• Antarctica is a climate stabilising factor.
• Except for man-made causes, there was no anticipated factor in the natural geological cycle that would disturb Antarctica.
• The separation of an iceberg from the ice shelf shows the importance of such alarms.
• Species like emperor penguins which depend on sea ice to complete their life cycle are at risk if ice cover declines.
• Any dramatic changes will only add to the worry of irreversible effects of climate change, given that the Arctic and Greenland have also been losing ice cover.

What is the way ahead?

• The last pristine continent should be left well alone, with a minimum of human interference.
• At the same time research efforts are intensified to study the impact of human activities in the rest of the world on this wilderness.

Source: The Hindu