Antarctica has lost a staggering three trillion tonnes of ice since 1992, according to a landmark study published today that suggests the frozen continent could redraw Earth's coastlines if global warming continues unchecked.
Two-fifths of that ice loss occurred in the last five years, a three-fold increase in the pace at which Antarctica is shedding its kilometres-thick casing, a consortium of 84 scientists reported in the journal Nature.
The findings should dispel any lingering doubts that the continent's ice mass is shrinking, and could pose an existential threat to low-lying coastal cities and communities home to hundreds of millions of people, the authors said.
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