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New study shows Greenland's Ice Melt Locks In 10.8 inches of Sea Level Rise [1]

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Date: 2022-09-05

Greenland

In case you missed it the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting much faster than experts had expected until very recently, and by that I mean in the last week.

Significant sea-level rise from Greenland 'zombie ice' alone is now inevitable.

An ominous new study was released on August 29th.

What’s going on with the Greenland ice sheet? It’s losing ice faster than forecast and now irreversibly committed to at least 10 inches of sea level rise By Beth Daley As a field glaciologist, I’ve worked on ice sheets for more than 30 years. In that time, I have witnessed some gobsmacking changes. The past few years in particular have been unnerving for the sheer rate and magnitude of change underway. My revered textbooks taught me that ice sheets respond over millennial time scales, but that’s not what we’re seeing today. A study published Aug. 29, 2022, demonstrates – for the first time – that Greenland’s ice sheet is now so out of balance with prevailing Arctic climate that it no longer can sustain its current size. It is irreversibly committed to retreat by at least 59,000 square kilometers (22,780 square miles), an area considerably larger than Denmark, Greenland’s protectorate state. Even if all the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming ceased today, we find that Greenland’s ice loss under current temperatures will raise global sea level by at least 10.8 inches (27.4 centimeters). That’s more than current models forecast, and it’s a highly conservative estimate. If every year were like 2012, when Greenland experienced a heat wave, that irreversible commitment to sea level rise would triple. That’s an ominous portent given that these are climate conditions we have already seen, not a hypothetical future scenario.

The ocean around Greenland is warming as warmer currents like the Gulf Stream intrude into the regions around Greenland, and Greenland is getting more precipitation as rain instead of snow. The meltwater drains down to the base of the glacier warming the ice from below.

I don’t believe we’ve passed any doom-laden tipping point that irreversibly floods the planet’s coastlines. Of what I understand of the ice sheet and the insight our new study brings, it’s not too late to act. But fossil fuels and emissions must be curtailed now, because time is short and the water rises – faster than forecast.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/5/2120955/-New-study-shows-Greenland-s-Ice-Melt-Locks-In-10-8-inches-of-Sea-Level-Rise

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