Experts row over Antarctic climate change
Serious disagreement has broken out among scientists over a United Nations climate report's contention that the world's greatest wilderness Antarctica will be largely unaffected by rising world temperatures.
The report, to be published on Friday, will be one of the most comprehensive on climate change to date, and will paint a grim picture of future changes to the planet's weather patterns.
However, many researchers believe it does not go far enough. In particular, they say it fails to stress that climate change is already having a severe impact on the continent and will continue to do so for the rest of the century. At least a quarter of the sea ice around Antarctica will disappear in that time, say the critics, though this forecast is not mentioned in the study.
