Shocking study shows sea level rise of 27 centimeters is no longer avoidable
Created: 08/31/2022, 19:27
By: Nadja Zinsmeister
A new study in Greenland has now made it clear how concrete the consequences of climate change will be.
The ice will melt significantly - and raise the sea.
Nuuk - Scientists have been warning for some time that global warming is already having and will continue to have significant consequences for the earth.
Now one of those consequences is becoming increasingly sad certainty: As a new study from Greenland shows, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet will lead to a significant rise in sea levels.
The ice in Greenland is melting - sea will rise by over 27 centimeters
The results of the study were published on Monday (29 August) in the journal
Nature Climate Change
.
According to the scientists, the climate caused a decrease of about 3.3 percent of the ice volume in Greenland from the years 2000 to 2019.
Converted, that means a rise in sea level of about 27.4 centimeters.
This is a consequence of the "increasing mass turnover through precipitation, ice runoff and melt water runoff".
Climate change is having a significant effect on Greenland.
© IMAGO/Ulrik Pedersen
While the scientists' approach does not determine when exactly the ice will melt, their calculations are in line with experts' estimates, which predict a similar contribution from Greenland to sea-level rise by the year 2100.
However, this is still a kind of "minimum value", because future values of global warming have not yet been included in this calculation.
This means that the effect could be greatly amplified with further global warming.
Meanwhile, other countries are struggling with drought due to climate change.
So does the US state of California, which now wants to take action against drought and water shortages with a pilot project.
Greenland: Rising sea levels will cause homelessness
2012 was a particularly “difficult” year for the melting effect in Greenland. Should such effects occur again in the future, this could lead to a rise in the water level of around 78 centimetres.
For people, this would primarily mean loss of land: According to a report by the world climate organization IPCC from 2013, if global sea levels rose by 0.5 to 2 meters by 2100 without coastal protection, around 72 to 187 million people would lose land affected.
(
nz
)