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Greenland is known as the major contributor to sea level rise. However, a recent report investigates how it could lose more ice to the island’s glaciers than traditionally predicted.
According to a report published Tuesday in Nature, Greenland’s three major glaciers are responsible for about 12% of the global ice sheet and contain enough ice to raise sea level by about 1.3 meters, or about 4.3 meters.
Together between 1880 and 2012, the three glaciers already added about 8.1 millimeters or 0.32 inches to global sea level, the study authors said. To measure the volume of melted ice during that period, they used historical photos of Jakobshavn Isbræ, Kangerlussuaq and Helheim.
Unless substantial measures are taken to curb global greenhouse gas pollution by the end of the century, climate change predictions estimate that the Earth’s temperature will rise 3.7 degrees Celsius from the temperatures of the pre-industrial revolution.
Some countries fail to follow the Paris Agreement
According to NASA, the world average temperature has risen by just over 1 degree Celsius since 1880. The Paris Agreement aims to keep the increase below 2 degrees Celsius. However, ABC News reported that the scientists calculated that the combination of commitments from each participating country is insufficient to minimize the temperature spike.
According to the report, the pace of ice loss in Greenland has increased over the past decade. The simulations predict further acceleration in the coming decades. The study said the Jakobshavn Isbræ and Kangerlussuaq glaciers have gone through “periods of complex volatility” and are vulnerable to minor atmospheric changes or ocean warming. Scientists expect them to continue to shrink and lose mass.
According to the report, sea levels worldwide increased by an average of 17 centimeters or about 6.7 inches in the 20th century due to the melting of the Earth’s ice mass, thermal expansion of the ocean and changes in terrestrial water storage. By 2100, the amount could rise up to 2 meters or 6.56 feet.
A significant contributor to sea level rise is the Greenland ice sheet, ABC News wrote in another report. The melting could potentially expose up to 400 million citizens to flooding by the end of the century, according to a report funded by NASA and the European Space Agency and reported in Nature last year.
As unprecedented warming trends caused the Greenland ice sheet to melt at near record rates, climate scientists told ABC News last year that warming events are becoming even more common. In September, in the deep northeastern Arctic, a plate of the Greenland ice sheet covering 42.3 square miles fell, providing scientists with further evidence of the accelerated rate at which Earth’s temperature is rising.
Since 1999, the Associated Press has estimated that the ice shelf has lost about 62 square miles, or twice the size of Manhattan.
Such a rhythm could undermine the amount of melting ice
While air and ocean temperatures were lower, glaciers have already experienced a significant drop in ice, the scientists say their findings could mean the simulations used to predict future ice loss in Greenland underestimate how much it could be. lost by the end of the century.
This could also affect current forecasts of sea level rise, according to a CNN report.
In some low-lying coastal regions, rising waters are still creating problems. And for places like New York and Shanghai, a sea level rise of 1 meter or more could spell catastrophe. Another recent analysis found that rising waters by the end of the century could cost the global economy $ 14.2 trillion in missing or destroyed property and expose up to 287 million citizens, up from 171 million today. to episodic floods.
In the report, the researchers said it is likely that the potential underestimation of ice loss is not limited to just these three glaciers. Current models needed to capture the rapid glacial retreat due to human-induced atmospheric and ocean warming, “as they are the main cause of mass loss.”
The team hopes their findings on how glaciers are sensitive to climate change will help increase the reliability of future ice loss projections.
READ ALSO: Ireland will plant over 400 million trees by 2040
Find out more news and information about Climate change in Science Times.
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