Contrary to what you might read and hear everywhere else, serious research suggests that Antarctica has not lost significant ice mass and that what it has lost is within the bounds of natural variability. The authors describe new measuring instruments and techniques. While there is ice mass lost every year to melting, it isn’t even clear to me that this has increased beyond the bounds of natural variability. And accumulation through snowfall according to this research is higher than previously believed and in a heavy snowfall year more than makes up for any ice mass lost via melting. The last couple of years in particular have seen very significant ice mass accumulation. So, yep, the Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers experience melting every year, but they also experience snow fall and eventual ice accumulation every year. Been that way for millions of years as far as we can tell. Antarctica once had extensive plant life on it, might have been a bit warmer then than it is now. But don’t tell the hysterics, they prefer to live in delusion land and think they are so important and righteous because they are concerned about non-existent human-caused global warming. (EGU Paper)
