365NEWSX
365NEWSX
Subscribe

Welcome

Greenland is about to lose ice faster than any time since the last ice age - Ars Technica

Greenland is about to lose ice faster than any time since the last ice age - Ars Technica

Sep 30, 2020 1 min, 15 secs

While the GRACE satellites were active, their incredibly precise gravity measurements tracked a loss of about 280 billion tons of ice from Greenland each year.

Using the paleoclimate data from ice cores, the researchers drive the model with temperature and precipitation changes over the last 12,000 years.

Well, the rate of loss in this portion of Greenland from 2000 to 2018 is equivalent to about 6,100 billion tons per century.

The five centuries that saw that fastest retreat average out to 4,900 ±1,400 billion tons per century.

That means that the recent rate is already about equal to the fastest rate in the previous 12,000 years.

But Greenland is not stabilizing in a world that continues to warm, of course, and the rate of loss is expected to increase.

The researchers looked at a future scenario where climate change halts at about 2°C of total warming, comparing it to a scenario of much higher greenhouse gas emissions that produce 4°C or more.

Calculating the average rates of loss for the 21st century, they find a span of 8,800 to 35,900 billion tons lost per century for this area—far surpassing anything in the last 12,000 years.

The researchers conclude, "Our results suggest that the rate of mass loss from the GIS [Greenland ice sheet] this century will be unprecedented in the context of natural GIS variability over the past 12,000 years, unless a low-carbon-emission scenario is followed.".

Lower emissions even than the 2ºC warming scenario, that is.

For context, current emissions pledges would likely get us something around 3ºC warming this century.

Summarized by 365NEWSX ROBOTS

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED