Bad news, everyone. A chunk of ice the size of New York City recently broke off of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica, creating thousands of miniature icebergs. This particular ice shelf has been reduced by a third of it's original size in the past few decades. We're talking ice so thick, it would take hundreds of years to re-form.
This doesn't confirm or deny that humans are the cause of global warming, a much-talked-about debate, but it does confirm that global warming is indeed a very real problem. This might seem obvious to many, but sometimes we need visuals to remind us just how big of an impact these changes in climate will have on us.
Before
After
Although the ocean levels didn't rise TOO much because of this particular breakage, it's still worth noting that this is the tenth shelf Antarctica has lost in the past 50 years. That isn't counting the ten additional shelves currently falling apart, mile by mile. The increased temperature of the Antarctic Peninsula, now 5.4 Farenheit, may have something to do with this.
As we were discussing this article in the SocialVibe office, a few questions were brought up. So we did some research and discovered some interesting facts about the Arctic and the Antarctic. Both are cold, dark and remote, but they have quite a few differences. Like, for example, did you know that polar bears only exist in the Arctic, and penguins only exist in the Antarctic? Learn more about the two endangered land masses here.
via TakePart
![kelly [no apologies]](http://media.socialvibe.com/user_photos/2281471/socialvibe_edited_thumb.jpg)
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