The temperature of the seawater around Antarctica is rising according to new research from the University of East Anglia. New research published today in the journal Science shows how shallow shelf seas of West Antarctica have warmed over the last 50 years.

For two decades, scientists have kept a close watch on a vast, icebound corner of West Antarctica that is undergoing a historic thaw. Climate experts have predicted that, centuries from now, the region's mile-thick ice sheet could collapse and raise sea levels as much as 3.3 metres.

Glaciers in west Antarctica are melting so quickly they are losing the equivalent of a Mount Everest of ice every two years, a peer reviewed study has found. The increasing pace of melting means the glaciers have haemorrhaged an average 83 billion tonnes into the Amundsen Sea annually over the past 21 years, the Sydney Morning Herald reports quoting the study.

Britain’s children face life-threatening heatwaves that could leave thousands dead by the close of the century, the Royal Society has warned. If governments fail to tackle climate change by the year 2100, Britain’s heatwaves will increase three-fold. At present, approximately 2,000 people perish annually in the UK as a result of high temperatures, with the nation’s elderly population most at risk.

A sea level rise of 30cm by 2050 in New Zealand is "inevitable" and the country needs to prepare for it, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment says. In the first of two reports on the impact of climate change, Dr Jan Wright issues a grim warning about the rising sea levels.