Antarctica: beyond predictive value

The primary public concern regarding ice sheet retreat is sea level rise. Predictions of sea level rise would be incredibly useful to communities on the coast so that they can accommodate flooding and higher storm surges without catastrophic loss of life and property.  On May 12, 2014, scientists reaffirmed that ice loss can be expected from a particularly vulnerable region of West Antarctica, the Amundsen Sea sector.  The timescale of the loss of the entirety of these ice streams was predicted to be 200 to 1100 years.  This range does not allow us to offer very precise predictions, for the total sea level rise over this interval amounts to 1.2 m.  But this is only a small portion of the global ice volume.  The entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet is sensitive to climate change.  Now we're talking about 4.6 m of sea level rise.