The Antarctic ice sheet is melting. And this is bad news for humanity

Mar 3, 2023

A penguin stands on a block of melting ice in East Antarctica.

Antarctica holds 90% of the world's ice. Image: REUTERS/Pauline Askin

Marta Moreno Ibáñez

PhD candidate in Earth and atmospheric sciences, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Antarctica is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Antarctica

Antarctic sea ice concentration reached a record low on 13 February, 2023. Image: The Conversation/ National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder

Discover

What’s the World Economic Forum doing about climate change?

A seal is seen on ice that floats in Antarctica.

After decreasing the sea ice extent in the Arctic for decades, climate change is now visibly impacting the Antarctic sea ice too. Image: REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

Have you read?

A graphic showing the Marine Ice Sheet Instability process.

Schema showing the Marine Ice Sheet Instability (MSI) process. The blue arrows indicate the retreat of the grounding line, and the white arrows indicate the ice flux. Image: The Conversation.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

More on Antarctica
See all

1:28

This Robot Is Studying Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier From Below

48:47

Davos AM23 - Unpacking the Polar Crisis - English

More than 100,000 tourists will head to Antarctica this summer. Should we worry about damage to the ice and its ecosystems?

Elizabeth Leane, Anne Hardy, Can Seng Ooi, Carolyn Philpott, Hanne Nielsen and Katie Marx

January 9, 2023

How ancient ice-age valleys could hold the key to global ice-sheet loss

James Kirkham, Dr Kelly Hogan and Dr Robert Larter

October 12, 2022

How vulnerable are the world's ice sheets to climate change?

Chris Stokes and Guy Paxman

August 16, 2022

'Glimpse of hope': up to 150 fin whales spotted feeding off Antarctica

Olivia Rosane

July 13, 2022