A new study published in 'Science' found the ice in Greenland is melting five times faster than in the early 90s, part of what accounts for a 20 percent rise in sea level over the past two decades. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.By Miguel Llanos, NBC NewsWhat had been a blurry picture about polar ice — especially how it impacts sea levels — just got a whole lot clearer as experts on Thursday published a peer-reviewed study they say puts to rest the debate over whether the poles added to, or subtracted from, sea level rise over the last two decades.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (http://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld) "This improved certainty allows us to stay definitively that both Antarctica and Greenland have been losing ice," lead author Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds in Britain, told reporters. Not only that, but the pace has tripled from the 1990s, the data indicate.
Combining satellite data from dozens of earlier studies, the study "shows that the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have contributed just over 11 millimeters (0.4 inches) to global sea levels since 1992," he added. Two-thirds was from Greenland, a third from Antarctica.
(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121129_pig-calving.photoblog600.jpg)NASA Earth ObservatoryThis 20-mile-long rift on Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier, seen from a satellite on Oct. 26, will eventually calve off, possibly in the next few months, creating an iceberg the size of New York City. While that won't raise sea levels since the glacial tongue sits on water, the loss could speed up the flow of ice from Antarctica's mainland into the sea.
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