§ Mr. CorbynTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what reports she has received from the British Antarctic Survey on the rate of temperature rises and the effect on ice melting. [6345]
§ Mr. Battleholding answer 3 July 1997]: All of the climatically sensitive ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula have suffered major disintegration, which is significant and unique within recorded history and results from the fact that summer temperatures now regularly exceed 0°C. Given a continued warming, the ice shelves are predicted to disintegrate further in the coming decades.
The British Antarctic Survey has continuous records which begin in the 1940s and show a warming of 0.5°C per decade in the Antarctic Peninsula. This is interpreted to be a regional effect, and has not been observed to the same extent elsewhere in Antarctica. It will he some time before it can he established whether these observed trends are part of a wider manifestation of global warming.