LARGE CRACKS THREATEN COLLAPSE OF ANTARTIC ICE SHELF

Antarctic Peninsula - 5 February 1997

Further indications that global warming may be impacting on the Antarctic emerged today when Greenpeace found large cracks in the Larsen B Ice Shelf, suggesting its collapse is imminent.

Scientists blamed a recent steady warming of the Antarctic Peninsula region when the 4,200 sq km northern most part of the Larsen Ice Shelf, known as Larsen A, collapsed suddenly in January 1995.

The rapid disintegration of this and other ice shelves around the Antarctic Peninsula is considered by some scientists as a sign that dangerous warming is beginning in Antarctica.

British Antarctic Survey glaciologists argue that the behaviour of ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula indicates the existence of an abrupt thermal limit on ice-shelf viability which has been driven progressively southwards by the regional atmospheric warming. They conclude that "ice shelves appear to be sensitive indicators of climate change."

Greenpeace climate change specialist Erwin Jackson, on board the MV Arctic Sunrise said: "It has taken centuries to millennia for these ice shelves to form and in a few short decades they are crumbling into nothing. From these sudden collapses, which are induced by local warming, it is clear that the vast bastions of floating ice around the edges of Antarctica are very fragile if human activities lead to more warming the climate.

The Greenpeace vessel the MV Arctic Sunrise is in the Antarctic Peninsula region for a month to document signs of climate change in the region. Over the last 50 years, the Antarctic Peninsula the climate has warmed by 2.5oC, the fastest observed anywhere in the world.

The MV Arctic Sunrise on Sunday successfully circumnavigated James Ross Island, a passage previously impossible due to an 200 metre thick ice shelf that joined the island to the Antarctic continent until 1995. It is believed this is the first time that the island has ever been circumnavigated.

The ship's captain, Arne Sorensen: "For sailors, steaming in uncharted waters is an exciting challenge. However, my excitement is tainted with the belief that it is human interference with the climate that has allowed us to make this passage."

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NB:For aerial footage and photographs of the cracks in the ice-shelf contact:
GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL VIDEO EDITOR ANKE SCHEIB IN LONDON ON +00-44-(0)171-865 8168