<
https://www.sciencealert.com/what-happens-to-greenland-if-we-miss-climate-targets-you-likely-dont-want-to-know>
'It's hard to overstate how crucial Greenland, and its kilometres-thick ice
layer, is to climate change. If all that ice melted, the sea would rise by
about seven metres – the height of a house.
But what happens if we fail to limit warming to 1.5 °C (as looks increasingly
likely)? And what happens if we do subsequently manage to rectify that
"overshoot" and bring temperatures back down? A team of researchers writing in
the journal
Nature have now published a study exploring these questions.
In a nutshell, their work shows the worst case scenario of ice sheet collapse
and consequent sea-level rise can be avoided – and even partly reversed – if we
manage to reduce the global temperatures projected for after 2100.
Moreover, the lower and sooner those temperatures fall, the more chance there
is of minimising that ice melt and sea-level rise.
We already know that the Greenland ice sheet is losing more than 300 billion
cubic metres of ice per year, currently driving global sea levels up by a
little less than a millimetre per year.
One major worry is that further warming could cross critical thresholds,
sometimes referred to as "tipping points".
For example, as the air warms more ice will melt, lowering the elevation of the
ice surface and hence exposing it to warmer air temperatures and more melting –
even without continued atmospheric warming.
Although far more complex and nuanced in reality, it is feedback processes such
as this which dictate that global warming be limited to 1.5 °C above
pre-industrial levels in order to avoid catastrophes, such as wholescale
ice-sheet collapse.'
Via Rixty Dixet.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
