00:00 It's the dead of winter in the southern hemisphere, but Antarctica's sea ice is no longer reaching
00:06 the great expanse it once did. This July the ice shelves were one and a half million square
00:12 kilometres short of their surface area the same month last year.
00:17 "Warm water is melting parts of the sea ice and there have been strong winds in some basins
00:25 reducing the formation of ice flows."
00:31 Research suggests that a major deep ocean current has been slowing down significantly
00:36 because of the melting ice. It could directly change the weather we're used to seeing.
00:43 "If the North Atlantic current called AMOC slows down, the Gulf Stream also slows down.
00:52 The Gulf Stream is what allows Bordeaux to have much warmer weather than Montreal, even
00:57 though they're the same latitude."
01:03 Some studies say temperatures have risen enough to trigger the collapse of the ice sheet in
01:07 West Antarctica already. The melting of this alone would lead to four metres of sea level
01:13 rise.
01:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]
