00:00From record low levels of sea ice to heat waves 40 degrees above average, Antarctica
00:09has been undergoing rapid and extreme change in recent years.
00:13We throw around the word unprecedented quite a lot in climate science, but it really is
00:18true.
00:19We have seen shifts in the sea ice that were beyond our wildest imaginations.
00:23Over the past week, more than 450 polar researchers have gathered in Hobart for the first conference
00:30of its kind in Australia in more than a decade.
00:33I think one of the clear things from this conference was that we are approaching some
00:37tipping points that we're not sure whether we can reverse or not.
00:41Around two-thirds of attendees are early career researchers who've issued a statement warning
00:47of an impending crisis if urgent action isn't taken, saying runaway ice loss causing rapid
00:54and catastrophic sea level rise is possible within our lifetimes.
00:58Our societies must set and meet targets to bend the carbon curve as quickly as possible.
01:06Although there's lots of tipping points that we don't necessarily understand completely,
01:10we do know enough to say that we do need to protect, we do need to control our emissions.
01:19Global sea levels have risen 10 centimetres in the past 30 years, but scientists are increasingly
01:25concerned about the Antarctic ice sheet, which holds enough water to raise sea levels
01:30by about 50 metres if it completely melted.
01:35Scientists say research in the polar region needs to be prioritised to ensure we have
01:40a clear picture of the speed and severity of potential changes in store.
01:46So more funding into those areas is pretty crucial to understand how it's going to affect
01:50our planet.
01:51A call to arms from the next generation of Antarctic researchers.
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