By Janet Ekstract NEW YORK- U.N. chief Antonio Guterres is on a visit to Antarctica this week to witness climate change in the form of ice meltdown. Over the last five years, Antarctica has seen ice melts at “record rates” Guterres said which leaves sea levels rising too fast and could displace populations in the near future if it isn’t stopped. As Guterres remarked: “Fossil fuel pollution is heating our planet, unleashing climate anarchy in Antarctica.” He added that the Southern Ocean is receiving the brunt of the heat from global warming. In a tweet, earlier this week, Guterres said: “That directly endangers the lives and livelihoods of people in coastal communities across the globe. It means homes are no longer insurable. And it threatens the very existence of some small island States.”
Currently, statistics indicate that the Antarctic Sea is at its lowest sea level ever with new information showing that this past September it was 1.5 million square kilometers smaller than the average for that time of year. This is an area that is estimated to be the size of Portugal, Spain, France and Germany combined. Guterres warned that Greenland’s ice cover is melting at rapid rates and loses over 250 gigatons of ice annually. The U.N. leader sounded the alarm when he commented: “All of this spells catastrophe around the world. What happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay in Antarctica. And what happens thousands of miles away has a direct impact right here.” Guterres urged world leaders attending the upcoming COP28 climate change conference in Dubai to take action to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C. Several weeks ago, the earth’s temperature was officially recorded at close to 2 degrees C by scientists and Brazil recorded its highest temperature ever in November at 138 Fahrenheit. The U.N. secretary-general urged leaders to stop using fossil fuel, Guterres is set to visit a research base where he will be briefed by scientists.
