People walk along Orne Harbour, Antarctica, on February 6. The melting of Antarctic ice is causing sea levels to rise 3mm a year, a process that will only speed up as the region records higher temperatures. Photo: Reuters People walk along Orne Harbour, Antarctica, on February 6. The melting of Antarctic ice is causing sea levels to rise 3mm a year, a process that will only speed up as the region records higher temperatures. Photo: Reuters
People walk along Orne Harbour, Antarctica, on February 6. The melting of Antarctic ice is causing sea levels to rise 3mm a year, a process that will only speed up as the region records higher temperatures. Photo: Reuters
David Dodwell
Opinion

Opinion

Inside Out by David Dodwell

Coronavirus might be the world’s immediate challenge, but Antarctic heat record should worry us more

  • With the temperature at an Antarctic research base hitting 18.3 degrees this month and evidence of ice melting faster in the ‘doomsday glacier’, predictions of a 2-metre rise in sea levels seem more real. Governments, including Hong Kong’s, seem callously ill prepared

David Dodwell
David Dodwell

Updated: 9:53pm, 9 Feb, 2020

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People walk along Orne Harbour, Antarctica, on February 6. The melting of Antarctic ice is causing sea levels to rise 3mm a year, a process that will only speed up as the region records higher temperatures. Photo: Reuters People walk along Orne Harbour, Antarctica, on February 6. The melting of Antarctic ice is causing sea levels to rise 3mm a year, a process that will only speed up as the region records higher temperatures. Photo: Reuters
People walk along Orne Harbour, Antarctica, on February 6. The melting of Antarctic ice is causing sea levels to rise 3mm a year, a process that will only speed up as the region records higher temperatures. Photo: Reuters
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David Dodwell

David Dodwell

David Dodwell is the executive director of the Hong Kong-APEC Trade Policy Study Group, a trade policy think tank.