Lai See | Antarctic mystery heats up with ships trapped in ice

We have been following recent events in the Antarctic with some interest. Readers will be aware that the good ship Shokalskiy set off with a team of scientists, paying tourists, and a few journalists to investigate the impact of global warming on the region. It is not without irony, as others have observed, that the vessel then became trapped in the ice along with the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long. Its helicopter transferred the 52 scientists and passengers to an Australian icebreaker, the Aurora Australis.

The event has caused many to wonder what is happening in Antarctica, since reports by some climate scientists, those that believe that man's activities are causing global warming, had led us to believe that Antarctica was undergoing unprecedented melting. Yet at the same time we are told there is more ice than ever before in the area. But then we are told this is because Antarctica is losing continental ice, while sea ice has been increasing by about 1 per cent per decade.

Last week, the British Antarctic Survey announced that the melting of the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf, in Antarctica, had suddenly slowed in the past few years, confirming earlier research which suggested its earlier melting was not due so much to man-induced global warming but to "particular climatic conditions".

Dr Pierre Dutrieux, from British Antarctic Survey, said: "We found ocean melting of the glacier was the lowest ever recorded, and less than half of that observed in 2010. This enormous, and unexpected, variability contradicts the widespread view that a simple and steady ocean warming in the region is eroding the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. These results demonstrate that the sea-level contribution of the ice sheet is influenced by climatic variability over a wide range of time scales."

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