The net contribution to sea level from the Antarctic Peninsula is more likely to be a direct result of the much greater atmospheric warming there.
If the two economists are even close to right, the costs of a successful global effort to control atmospheric warming would be daunting.
I started out in climatology in the early 1970's, looking at atmospheric warming and cooling.
The atmospheric warming has been directly linked to the recent mass losses in West Antarctica.
They report an atmospheric warming of about 0.13 of a degree Fahrenheit per decade.
Still, whatever the original energy source, there's no escaping the fact that gas reformation produces carbon dioxide, the culprit in atmospheric warming.
Today's Columns How much should be spent on a solution to atmospheric warming before it is certain there is a problem?
Ice sheets were thought to be extremely slow in reacting to atmospheric warming.
The rate of melt has increased because of exposure to atmospheric warming in the last few decades.
Since then, the glaciers have retreated further because of atmospheric warming.