Greenland Ice Sheet projected to lose ice at the fastest rate since the end of the last Ice Age - CBS News

New research highlights just how extreme projected losses for this century could be — and refutes the idea that the current melting is part of a natural cycle. .

"Basically, we've altered our planet so much that the rates of ice sheet melt this century are on pace to be greater than anything we've seen under natural variability of the ice sheet over the past 12,000 years," lead author Dr.

According to the study, ice mass loss rates during the end of the last ice age are comparable to the loss that occurred between 2000 and 2018: about 6.1 billion metric tons per century.

Briner said that, in a best-case-scenario with massively reduced emissions, the ice loss will only be slightly higher than any of the past 12 millennia.

But at the current rate of emissions, it's likely to be about four times higher — a projection the researchers called "sobering.".

Researchers said the current rate of melting from the Ice Sheet is on par with that experienced at the collapse of the most recent ice age — when a very fast melt rate would be expected.

"It is no secret that the Greenland Ice Sheet is in rough shape and is losing ice at an increasing rate," said co-author Dr.

"But if someone wants to poke holes in this, they could simply ask, 'how do you know this isn't just part of the ice sheet's natural variability?' Well, what our study suggests is that the rate of ice loss for this century will exceed the rate of ice loss for any single century over the last 12,000 years.

The researchers reiterated their ongoing call to world leaders to reduce emissions in order to slow ice sheet melting and reduce sea level rise.