Rob Larter on The changing West Antarctic Ice Sheet and its implications for East Anglia

We were pleased to host Rob Larter on May 21st 2025, who spoke about how the West Antarctic Ice Sheet change is the largest source of uncertainty in future sea-level rise predictions and how accelerating sea-level rise impacts coastal erosion and the risk of coastal flooding events around East Anglia.  A copy of Rob's slides can be found here. He highlighted how a relatively small rise in sea level has a disproportionate effect on the recurrence interval of extreme high water events. This has major implications for the unsustainable growth plans for Cambridge and the surrounding region.

Dr Rob Larter is a marine geoscientist who has worked at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) since the late 1980s and has participated in more than two dozen polar research cruises. He is interim Science Leader of the Palaeoenvironments, Ice Sheets and Climate Change team at BAS and UK Science Lead in the Science Coordination Office of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration.