A new study led by our Geography department shows that the worst effects of global warming on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) could be avoided.
That depends upon temperatures not rising by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels – the upper limit set by world leaders in 2015 under the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Staying below this limit would see the EAIS – which holds the vast majority of Earth’s glacier ice - contribute less than half a metre to sea level rise by the year 2500.
But continued warming beyond the 2°C limit could potentially see the EAIS contribute up to five metres to sea-level rise in just a few centuries.
Read more at: Durham University
Mountains protruding above the surface of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (Photo Credit: Jan Lenaerts)