Tag Archives: Greenland Ice

Ice sheet decay spells danger from sea level rise

think-progress_0-byvq9xmd8g3r6qzl_230In the post Scoping long-term sea level rise I indicated the possibility of 25 metres (±5) of SLR with emissions of 380 (360-400)ppm and a temperature variance of 2.7 to 3.7°C. The question was really how long it would take, and what were the prospects for the next century or three.

The received wisdom seemed to be that we could expect about a metre, by 2100, and some studies limited SLR to about two metres in the next millennium. A new study suggests we could get close to two meters in total by 2100. Moreover the melting of ice on Antarctica alone could cause seas to rise more than 15 meters by 2500. Continue reading Ice sheet decay spells danger from sea level rise

Greenland melt

You may have seen images like this before, demonstrating the progressive summer melting of the Greenland ice sheet:

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Then in July 2012 this happened:

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The image on the left represents melting on 8 July. By 12 July some 97% of the ice sheet surface was melting. The Carbon Brief (a quality blog) has the story. Continue reading Greenland melt