Big impact by NZ ice

Glaciers in places like New Zealand will have a bigger impact on sea-level change in the next century than the ice-sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, new research into global warming shows.

The fate of the polar ice sheets, home of 90 per cent of the world's fresh water and with the potential to increase sea levels by up to 60m, has dominated attention on the impact of climate change.

However, Associate Professor Wendy Lawson, head of geography at Canterbury University, said glaciers in the Southern Alps and similar places would have a much bigger effect in the short term.

Research by New Zealand academics suggests many of the more than 3000 glaciers in the Southern Alps will disappear over the next century, including some within a decade, and the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers will retreat dramatically.

"Small bits of ice, like we have in New Zealand, will be the main contributors to the rise in sea levels due to ice over the next 100 years," she said.

"Although the total amount we've got is small, the importance comes in the next century, as opposed to places like Antarctica, where the total amount is huge but in terms of the next century it's not going to be a pressing issue."

The research bolsters the findings released by the University of Colorado in the United States this month showing that the biggest threat to global sea levels will come from temperate glaciers and ice-caps rather than polar ones.

The study showed 60% of the water from retreating glaciers and ice-caps was from outside the polar regions, amounting to more than 400 cubic kilometres a year.
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