It is "now inevitable" that the Greenland ice cover will melt significantly, raising sea levels. Despite any climate intervention, experts find that loss will cause a minimum increase of 27 cm. More than twice as much sea level rise than anticipated is due to zombie ice.
ELLESMERE ISLAND, CANADA - MARCH 30: Sea ice is seen from NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft on March 30, 2017 above Ellesmere Island, Canada. The ice fields of Ellesmere Island are retreating due to warming temperatures. NASA's Operation IceBridge has been studying how polar ice has evolved over the past nine years and is currently flying a set of eight-hour research flights over ice sheets and the Arctic Ocean to monitor Arctic ice loss aboard a retrofitted 1966 Lockheed P-3 aircraft. According to NASA scientists and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), sea ice in the Arctic appears to have reached its lowest maximum wintertime extent ever recorded on March 7.Scientists have said the Arctic has been one of the regions hardest hit by climate change.Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images
Zombie Ice
According to a research released on Monday, Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet will eventually cause the global sea level to rise by at least 10.6 inches (27 cm) - more than twice as much as predicted.
That is due to something that may be referred to as zombie ice. That is doomed ice that is no longer being replenished by parent glaciers now receiving less snow, although still being tied to thicker sections of ice. Without replenishment, the climate change-induced melting of the fatal ice would raise sea levels, according to research co-author and glaciologist William Colgan of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.
In an interview, Colgan remarked, "It's dead ice. It will just melt and disappear off the ice sheet." "Regardless of the climatic (emissions) scenario we choose at this time; this ice has been relegated to the ocean.
It is "more like one foot in the grave," according to the study's principal author, glaciologist Jason Box of the Greenland survey.
The study's estimate of an inevitable sea level increase of 10 inches is more than twice as great as what experts had previously predicted would result from the melting of Greenland's ice sheet. According to the research published in the journal Nature Climate Change, it might measure up to 30 inches (78 centimeters). In contrast, last year's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment predicted that the expected sea level increase due to Greenland ice melt by the year 2100 would range from 2 to 5 inches (6 to 13 cm).
For the investigation, researchers examined the equilibrium of the ice. In a state of perfect balance, snowfall in Greenland's highlands flows down, replenishes, and deepens glacier sides, balancing off what is melting on the margins. But over the past few decades, there has been an imbalance due to increased melting and less refilling. According to the study's authors, 3.3% of all the ice in Greenland would melt regardless of how much carbon pollution is reduced globally because of the ratio of what is being added to what is being lost, Colgan said.
Colgan remarked, "I believe starved would be a suitable description for what's happening to the ice.
No Turning Back
Some experts believe that the west Antarctic ice sheet has already passed the point at which significant losses are unavoidable and that mountain glaciers in the Himalayas and the Alps are already on track to lose a third and half of their ice, respectively. Sea levels increase as a result of expanding oceans caused by warming.
According to Colgan, "the scientific literature is increasingly in favor of rises of several meters during the next 100 to 200 years. If swift climate action is adopted, the enormous east Antarctic ice sheet might be saved from collapsing, preventing an increase in sea levels of 52 meters if it completely melted.
