As the world ’s glass tabloid have beencracking upandmelting down , climatologist have warned that further decimation could cause annihilative levels of sea point rise . Now , a recent written report shows that ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting at a pace on par with the bad - case clime scenario scientists have augur , putting coastal communities where million of the great unwashed reside at risk .
In thestudypublished in Nature Climate Change last workweek , researchers compared satellite observations of ice melt at the pole with calculations from the models in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ’s ( IPCC ) 2015fifth assessment account . The account is see the gilded criterion , synthesizing studies from the around the world .
They find out that from when satellite record keeping begin in the former 1990s to 2017 , Greenland and Antarctica lost a mix lost6.4 trillion metrical piles of ice . As a result , worldwide ocean levels have rear by 0.7 inches ( 1.8 centimeter ) .
View of a glacier at Chiriguano Bay in South Shetland Islands, Antarctica on 6 January 2025.Photo: Johan Ordonez (Getty Images)
But the charge per unit of ice passing has not quell consistent — it ’s been speed up in recent year . some 0.5 column inch ( 1.2 centimeter ) of that sea degree rise come between 2007 and 2017 . The charge per unit seen in that one decennium geological period , the research worker found , lines up almost dead with the IPCC ’s 2014 report ’s worst - case scenario .
“ Although we anticipated the glass sheets would lose increasing total of ice in response to the thawing of the oceans and atmosphere , the charge per unit at which they are melt has accelerated faster than we could have imagined , ” say Tom Slater , lead writer of the study and mood researcher at the Center for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds , in a statement .
If ice loss continues at that rate , the 2014 report ’s climate models show that by 2100 , ice melt from the two sheets could raise sea tier by close to another 6.7 in ( 17 centimeters ) . That would double the frequency of dangerous storm - rush flooding in many of the domain ’s braggart coastal metropolis , and expose an additional 16 million the great unwashed to grave one-year coastal flooding .
“ That ’s enough to double the oftenness of storm - surge flooding in many of the world ’s big coastal cities , ” Anna Hogg , study atomic number 27 - source and climate researcher in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds , said in a statement .
Until recently , the main campaign of global sea level rise has been thermal expansion — brine expanding as it heats up . But over the past five year , the researcher say , ice melt has become the main affair pushing up the world ’s ocean . The new enquiry follows anAugust studywhich establish Antarctica ’s ice piece of paper is becoming vulnerable to quick end by melt water system seeping into its fractures . And on the other side of the creation , research issue before this twelvemonth found thatsunny skiesadded to the woe of last year ’s disk Greenland thaw . Plenty of smaller sources of frosting are also becoming problematical , from disappearing glaciers in theAlpstoIceland .
Alarmingly , the discipline authors say that since ocean stage rise is already match scientists ’ tough - typeface projections , the actual worst face could be even more stark . It may necessitate completely reimagining the clime model used to estimate ocean point rise .
“ Although we call the Methedrine sheets would fall back increase amounts of methamphetamine in reply to the warming of the ocean and atmosphere , the rate at which they are melting has speed quicker than we could have ideate , ” say Slater . “ The melting is overtake the climate models we use to steer us , and we are in danger of being unprepared for the risks posed by ocean level ascent . ”
Antarcticaice frappe maybeice on thin ice
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