Alarm bells ringing about Antarctic thaw - Norway PM

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

TROLL STATION, Antarctica (Reuters) - Alarm bells are ringing about risks of a quickening thaw of Antarctica that would drive up world sea levels, Norway's Prime Minister said on Sunday after a visit to the icy continent.

Scientists say there are hard-to-quantify chances that newly detected lakes under Antarctica's ice sheets might lubricate a slide towards the oceans, or that climate change could warm southern seas and melt floating sea ice holding back glaciers.

"It is alarming. Alarm bells are ringing. It is irresponsible for decision-makers to ignore these signals," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters at the end of a two-day visit to Norway's Troll station in east Antarctica.

Norway set an ambitious goal last week of becoming "carbon neutral" by 2030 -- cutting its net emissions from burning fossil fuels to zero.

However, its plan includes a measure to include big forests that soak up greenhouse gases, although it is controversial because current U.N. rules do not allow states to count forests as part of carbon neutral plans.

"We need more exact knowledge. Scientists don't say that they know what is happening (in Antarctica) but they fear...that the ice on land can slip out into the sea and melt," Stoltenberg said in the station, about 250 km (155 miles) inland.

Stoltenberg visited glaciers, opened a satellite monitoring station and was told about climate change research around Troll, where the mountains are home to thousands of birds such as snow petrels. Temperatures were around -10 Celsius (14.00F).

Antarctica, about 1.5 times the size of the United States, contains enough ice to raise world sea levels by almost 60 metres if ever all melted. If Greenland melted seas would rise by about seven metres.