New research shows how rapidly ice sheets can retreat in the face of climate change

A photo from 2014 of the unstable Thwaites Glacier of West Antarctica. The Thwaites drainage basin contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by approximately 65cm if it melts. — jpl.nasa.gov/Wikimedia Commons

The Antarctic Ice Sheet, which covers an area greater than the United States and Mexico combined, holds enough water to raise the global sea level by more than 57m if it melted completely.

This would flood hundreds of cities worldwide. And evidence suggests it is melting fast.