美国有线新闻 CNN 2015-11-08

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  Ice in the Antactica. There's a lot of it. That doesn't sound much like breaking news. But new information suggests it's increasing. That's puzzling scientists because research over the last ten years suggested that Antactica is losing  ice and the melting is contributing to rising sea levels. Last year NASA reported that Antactica's sea ice reached a new record size. Now it looks like the continent's ice sheet is growing.

  We know the sea levels around the world are rising and current thinking is that part of that sea level rise comes from melting ice in Antactica. But one recent study from NASA scientists says that may not be the case. Antarctica is a big place, roughtly the size of the US and Mexico combined. So as you might expect, changes in its ice are not uniform across the entire continent. Nearly all scientists agree that ice is being lost from the western part of Antarctica and along its peninsula⁸. On the eastern side ices are actually being gained. But where the study is different is they measured the gaining of ice along eastern Antarctica is outpacing the loss on the western side. What's behind this addition of ice is snowfalls that started becoming heavier around ten thousand years ago. The scientists noticed this by looking into the ice core⁹ data. Why is this important? It would mean that Antarctica is not contributing to sea level rise. Bottom line: There is still a lot we need to learn about how Antarctica is reacting to climate change.

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