For Immediate Release
FRIDAY 18 JANUARY 2019
Latest research shows Antarctica now losing 252 billion tonnes of ice a year - Māori Climate Commissioner calls for
urgent climate action now!
Māori Climate Commissioner, Donna Awatere Huata, has said the latest research from the U.S. journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows we need urgent climate action now.
" The East Antarctic ice sheet is now melting adding to the increased losses we are seeing on the Western side. Between
1979-90 we were seeing an average net ice loss of 40 billion tonnes per year, that has rapidly accelerated to 252
billion per year on average between 2009-17."
"The climate crisis is here and it is now. Antarctica is a crucial link in that chain of events. As we see record heat
waves striking Australia, recent wild fires in California and New Zealands hottest year on record, we must force our
political system to push our economy, culture and communities into adaptation resilience."
“Our political system, like those of most of the rest of the signatories to the Paris agreement has the reaction time of
the Titanic - ."