There is no quick way to reverse this year’s record sea ice loss in Antarctica, scientists said on Tuesday in a new study on the impact of climate change on the continent, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

The continent’s minimum summer ice cover, which last year fell below 2 million square kilometers for the first time since satellite monitoring began in 1978, continued to shrink, reaching a new low in February, according to a study published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Environmental. Science.

“It will take decades, if not centuries, for these things to recover. There is no quick fix to replace this ice,” said Anna Hogg of the University of Leeds, UK, who co-authored the study.

“Even if it is possible, it will certainly take a long time,” she added during a press briefing.

This year’s minimum sea ice extent is 20% smaller than the 40-year average, nearly ten times the size of New Zealand, said Tim Naish, director of the Antarctic Research Center at Victoria University of Wellington, who was not involved in the study. .

“In some cases, we are approaching tipping points, and once they are passed, irreversible changes will be achieved with some unstoppable consequences for future generations,” Naish said.

As a result of global warming “driven by the burning of fossil fuels”, Antarctica has become more vulnerable to extreme events and the effects are “almost certain” to worsen, the study said.

New gloomy news about the consequences of global warming in Antarctica

Climate change “will lead to an increase in the scale and frequency of heat waves, the collapse of ice caps and the reduction of ice sheets”, according to the study, based on the latest data from scientific studies of the Antarctic ocean, atmosphere, cryosphere. and biosphere in this region.

The exact impact of climate change on Antarctica and the ocean remains uncertain, and scientists are working to quantify the impact of global warming on Antarctic ice thickness.

But given phenomena such as rapidly shrinking sea ice, it is “scientifically reasonable” to assume that extreme events will increase as global temperatures rise, said Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at the University of Exeter who is also one of the authors of the study. .

Last year, an “atmospheric river” originating in Australia brought a wave of subtropical heat and humidity to the continent, resulting in unprecedented temperatures of 38.5 degrees Celsius above normal, the largest temperature deviation ever recorded. was observed. in the world – Reuters notes.

Siegert described the increase in temperature as “absolutely amazing,” adding that if the episode had occurred during the Antarctic summer instead of winter, it would have triggered the melting of the surface of the East Antarctic ice sheet, which has so far been exempt from melting. .

“Antarctica is a fragile environment, but extreme events test that fragility,” he said. “What worries us deeply is the increase in intensity and frequency of extreme events and their cascading effects on other areas,” the researcher added.