New research has demonstrated how climate change could lead to irreversible sea level rise as temperatures continue to rise and the Greenland ice sheet continues to decline.
In the most detailed ever study of the Greenland ice sheet, published this week in The Cryosphere, researchers from the University of Reading and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) showed how the massive Greenland ice sheet faces a point of no return, beyond which it will no longer fully regrow, permanently changing sea levels around the world.
Under scenarios in which global warming goes beyond 2°C, the Paris Agreement target, the new research shows significant ice loss is expected, with several metres of global sea level rise persisting for tens of thousands of years. The warmer the climate, the greater the sea-level rise.
In addition, even if temperatures later return to current levels, scientists have shown that the Greenland ice sheet will never fully regrow once it melts beyond a critical point. After that point, sea levels would permanently remain two meters higher than now, regardless of other factors contributing to sea level rise.
Read more at University of Reading
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