WALSE, the West Antarctic Links to Sea-Level Estimation international workshop, is a joint effort by some of the world's leading polar ice experts to forge greater consensus on the potentially devastating impact that the melting of West Antarctic ice could have on future sea-level rise. Scientists working on polar ice are wrestling with questions of critical importance to society:

• Is the West Antarctic ice sheet shrinking?
• How likely is a global sea level rise of several meters?
• Might flooding be a consequence for millions of people worldwide?
• What does the science tell us?

The scientific community expressed a consensus view in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change summary report for policy makers that climate change is a serious global threat. Climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world—access to water, food production, health and the environment. Hundreds of millions of people could suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as the world warms and sea levels rise.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the world's major reservoirs of fresh water and a potentially devastating contributor to future sea-level rise. The scientific community remains unable to reach consensus, however, over a host of issues that need to be understood in order to forge a consensus statement on projections of the ice sheet's contribution to future sea-level rise. The authors of the recent IPCC assessment acknowledged that scientific effort is required to resolve these uncertainties, and for this reason they specifically did not include the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in their projections of future sea-level rise.

More than 20 of the World’s leading polar ice experts will meet in Austin March 26-27, 2007, to seek greater scientific consensus on the fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

The scientists will issue a statement with their conclusions at 1:30 p.m. March 28. The statement will be followed by a public panel from 3-5 p.m. in Welch Hall on the university campus.

The event takes place under the auspices of the International Polar Year 2007–2008, with financial support from the British Consulate-General in Houston and the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, and additional support from the British Antarctic Survey.