Antarctica is melting at a more terrifying rate than anyone expected

Things in Antarctica aren't exactly cool.

The southern continent is losing its icy covering at an absolutely unprecedented rate, a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found. Antarctica's glaciers may have melted at an astounding 40 billion tons per year in the 1980s, but that total increased more than sixfold from 2009 to 2019, The Washington Post reports via the study.

In the National Academy's most recent measurement, Antarctica's ice sheet lost 250 billion tons of ice every year. Seeing as it takes 360 billion tons of melting ice to produce a millimeter of sea level rise, sea levels have gone up by nearly 7 millimeters due to Antarctica's melt alone. "Global sea levels have already risen 7 to 8 inches since 1900," the Post writes, and the world's dismal attempts at curbing carbon emissions could cause another 3-foot rise by 2100. Letting Antarctica's ever-increasing melt go unchecked could push that total higher, and "would result in the inundation of island communities around the globe," per the Post. In all, Antarctica's remaining ice is capable of producing 187.66 feet of potential sea-level rise.

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Monday's publication yet again displays the dangers of warming ocean waters, an issue that largely stems from human-made climate change. Beyond the devastation that rising sea levels bring, warming temperatures also produce more extreme storms, droughts, and wildfires. Read more at The Washington Post.