An international team of scientists has proven that sustained greenhouse gas emissions can lead to a catastrophic rise in sea levels of almost 40 centimeters due to the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. This is reported in an article published in The Cryosphere.
Experts from over thirty research institutes have analyzed ocean temperature and salinity data to create climate models of ice loss from glaciers. They considered two scenarios: in one, humanity continues to pollute the environment at current levels, and in the other, carbon emissions are sharply reduced by 2100. It turned out that in the worst case, the loss of ice in Antarctica will lead to a rise in sea level by 30 centimeters, and the contribution of Greenland will be an additional 9 centimeters.
Such growth will have devastating consequences around the world, including increased storm surges and increased flooding in regions where hundreds of millions of people live. In the lower emissions scenario, the sea level rise will be three centimeters in addition to the already inevitable rise.
Until the early 21st century, ice sheets in West Antarctica and Greenland generally accumulated as much mass as they lost, as runoff was compensated by fresh snowfall. However, over the past two decades, the increasing rate of global warming has upset this balance. Thus, last year Greenland lost a record 532 billion tons of ice.
