Researchers from the Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey have discovered that vast ice blocks are slowly collapsing into the sea. This is increasing the threat of the world's oceans rising. Researchers suspect that the breaking-up of the massive ice sheet is due to global warming. Their findings were released in February 2005.

Much of the same is happening north in the Arctic. There, climate change is happening quickly. Scientists taking part in the eight-nation "Arctic Climate Impact Assessment" have discovered that the annual temperature in that part of the world has increased at almost twice the rate as that of the rest of the world over the past few decades. Also, the permanent sea ice has declined by 9 percent per decade since the late 1970s, endangering the habitat for animals like polar bears.

If this rate of melting continues, the world's oceans could rise by about a meter (3 feet) by 2100, swamping homes from Bangladesh to Florida, according to Robert Corell, who is the chair of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment which was published in late 2004. More than a hundred million people live within a meter and a half of sea level.