AS THE Earth warms, so its surface ice melts into the sea: true in the past, and true in the future. How far, and how fast, the melting goes will affect millions who live in low-lying cities or rely on crops from coastal plains.
Peter Ward, prolific writer on Earth history, is a sure-footed guide to the state of play. He relates how projections of this century’s sea-level rise are going up, but still nowhere near the 60-metre leap that would follow if the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets go. And he highlights geological evidence which suggests the sheets could…
