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Ricarda Winkelmann: The Melting of Antarctica

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Weekly Program

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Maria Gilardin Contact Contributor

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Oct. 27, 2015, 9:47 p.m.

Summary: A fairly unknown scientist - at least by US standards - took the lime light in major media in the US in September 2015. The New York Times - and also Democracy Now - quoted her this way:

âTo be blunt: If we burn it all, we melt it all,â said Ricarda Winkelmann, the lead author of a paper entitled: "Combustion of available fossil fuel resources sufficient to eliminate the Antarctic Ice Sheet." It was published on September 11, 2015, in the journal Science Advances.

Winkelmann is Juniorprofessor of Climate System Analysis at the prestigious Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Her research areas are Anthropogenic climate change; Tipping elements; Antarctic ice dynamics and Sea-level rise.

The New York Times summed up the article: "Burning all the worldâs deposits of coal, oil and natural gas would raise the temperature enough to melt the entire ice sheet covering Antarctica, driving the level of the sea up by more than 160 feet, scientists reported Friday."

This radio program is a summary of the September article as well as two presentations that Professor Winkelmann gave at the Our Common Future under Climate Change conference. She spoke in Paris on July 8, 2015, on: "Early Warning for Thresholds and Tipping Points in the Earth System" and "Landscapes of our Common Future"

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