The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfern
One of the world's largest ever coordinated science research projects has uncovered further evidence of rapid climate change in polar regions.
Researchers found signals that ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica were melting, raising sea levels.
Scientists from more than 60 countries took part in more than 160 projects looking at the polar regions as part of the International Polar Year - a two-year program of research.
A report summarising the work said: "These assessments continue to be refined, but it now appears certain that both the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets are losing mass and thus raising sea level.
"New data also confirm warming in the Antarctic is much more widespread than was thought prior to International Polar Year."
Research vessels found that bottom water formed in the southern oceans had freshened and warmed in some places, signalling melting from ice shelves and sheets.
"These changes are signs that global warming is affecting the Antarctic in ways not previously suspected," the report said.
Dr Tony Press, CEO of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, said at one point there were 19 research vessels from 17 different nations working in Antarctic waters.
He said: "What the IPY did was confirm that climate change is happening - and it's probably happening much quicker than we would have predicted five years ago."
The polar report comes as new data from the US Government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide had risen by 2.2 parts per million in the atmosphere in the last year.
Levels now stood at almost 385 ppm, compared to 339 in 1980.