Antarctic ice sheet collapse will cause sea levels to rise. So what's new?

The results of our study might be surprising to some. But although it rules out very high rises, climate sceptics certainly shouldn't be dancing in the aisles

The past, present and long term future of the Antarctic ice sheet and its surrounding ice shelves have been news over the past few months. I'm part of a team with a new study published in Nature predicting its future. You might think: what's new?

Our understanding of Antarctica is changing at an ever faster rate. For most of the time since discovering the continent we've thought of the ice sheet at the end of the world as a sleeping giant, stretching herself out over long ice ages but unmoved on fluttering human time scales. So when scientists began to predict the effects of global warming in the late 1970s most thought Antarctica, imperious, would take thousands of years to respond.