Scientists have discovered that a significant sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice sheet is now unavoidable, even if the fossil fuel burning causing the climate catastrophe were to stop tomorrow somehow.
As concerning as that could be, there’s more than meets the eye. Read out below for all the chilling facts.
Greenland’s Future is Bleak
According to a recent study, melting 110 trillion tonnes of ice in Greenland alone will result in a cold hell on Earth, with a minimum sea-level increase of 27cm. And that’s all due to global warming.
However, a sea level increase of many meters seems expected due to ongoing carbon emissions, ocean thermal expansion, and additional ice caps melting.
Realistically, we will see this figure more than double within this century, stated Prof Jason Box (the National Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland), who led the research team.
Study insights
Furthermore, researchers examined satellite data on ice cap morphology and ice losses from Greenland between 1999 and 2000. Such a thing allowed them to determine how far the ice sheet has been pushed away from an equilibrium where precipitation equals the amount of ice lost due to global warming.
That was also necessary to find out how much more ice would need to melt to recover stability.
Moreover, that 27cm projection is a minimum since it only sees global warming up to this point and because some of the methods glacier ice is lost at the ice sheet’s borders aren’t considered. Hence, why there’s more than meets the eye.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop here. Some experts believe that the west Antarctic has already lost the battle, and the losses are now unavoidable. For instance, the Alps and the Himalayas will soon lose a third and a half of their ice.
Sea levels are also concerning because they increase more as a result of expanding oceans, caused, of course, by global warming.
Where will all of these take us?