West Antarctica warming faster than thought

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Alister Doyle / Reuters fileClimate change is turning Antarctica's ice into one of the biggest risks for coming centuries, scientists say. By ReutersWest Antarctica is  warming almost twice as fast as previously believed, adding to worries of a thaw  that would add to sea level rise from San Francisco to Shanghai, a study showed  on Sunday.

Follow @NBCNewsWorld  Annual average temperatures at the Byrd research station in  West Antarctica had risen 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 Farenheit) since the 1950s, one of the  fastest gains on the planet and three times the global average in a changing  climate, it said.

The unexpectedly big increase adds to fears the ice  sheet is vulnerable to thawing. West Antarctica holds enough ice to raise world  sea levels by at least 3.3 meters (11 feet) if it ever all melted, a process  that would take centuries.




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