AUSTIN, Texas, March 15 (UPI) -- More than 30 of the world's leading polar ice experts are preparing for a discussion concerning the fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The scientists want to seek greater scientific consensus on one of the world's major uncertainties involving future sea-level rise during the March 26-28 meeting at the University of Texas at Austin. They are to issue a public statement after the meeting.
The ice sheet contains the potential to raise the global sea level by several feet, thereby increasing the risk of flooding for tens of millions of people living along the world's coastal regions, scientists said.
A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change didn't include the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with scientists acknowledging they needed greater consensus on the subject.
The first two days of the Texas meeting will be private, with scientists combining knowledge and latest research on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. They are to focus on the Amundsen Sea embayment, which represents one third of the ice sheet and its most rapidly changing drainage basin.
This workshop is an International Polar Year event.
