No amount of human action will be enough to stop Greenland from melting:
consequences of the climate crisis are inevitable, according to a new study.
Research published by the journal
Nature Climate Change
shows that the water level will rise by up to 10.8 inches (30 centimeters) following the melting of 110 billion tons of ice on the island.
The time in which this will occur is not yet clear, but according to the researchers, much of this phenomenon can occur between now and the year 2100.
Ice floating in Baffin Bay in the Arctic Ocean on July 18, 2022 near Pituffik, Greenland.Getty Images
"The thing is, we have to see that ice as if it weren't there in the near future, a century or so from now," study co-author William Colgan told The Washington Post.
If the rate of melting continues as it is, Greenland's ice would contribute to a two-foot (60-centimeter) rise in sea level over the course of the century, and this could not be prevented even by stopping the burning of fossil fuels right now. .
What are the consequences?
The rise in sea level brings catastrophic effects, according to a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cited by The Washington Post.
If the water level reaches a 10-inch rise in the year 2050, destructive floods will be five times more frequent and moderate floods 10 times more common.
Although several countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 to contain greenhouse gas emissions and control the increase in global temperature, it will be decades before emissions are zero.
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The researchers said they wouldn't be surprised if sea levels rise beyond that projection.
It is "fully likely that sea level could rise by a foot, a projection that is not out of line with previous forecasts," David Bahr, one of the study's co-authors, told USA Today.
“It is a very bad scenario.
We are talking about the disappearance of large parts of places like New York, Miami and Bangladesh”, added the scientist.
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Greenland is the largest island in the world and if all the ice that covers it were to melt the sea level would rise 20 feet (six meters).
Although the Earth has experienced periods of melting, the speed with which temperatures are increasing today warns of the effects it could have on humanity.
The researchers used satellite measurements and personal observations instead of the computer modeling typically used to make projections of sea level rise, according to The Washington Post.
