Ice sheets covering three-quarters of Greenland, the world’s largest island, are melting so rapidly that global sea level could rise as much as 10 to 12.5 centimeters by the end of this century, according to new study, reports Xinhua.
A prediction was made from the findings of an international team of researchers, including representatives from the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI).
The results are published in the International Journal of Climatology.
“If global warming continues as before — what we call the high emission scenario, then the temperature is likely to rise by a further 4.0 to 6.6 degrees Celsius by the year 2100,“ climate researcher Ruth Mottram said in a DMI press release on Tuesday.
“Such a rise in temperature is significantly greater than we expect for the overall global temperature rise over the same time period, reflecting the fact that the polar regions are very vulnerable to climate change,” he said.
Researchers used the latest available global and regional climate modeling tools to calculate the extent the melting of Greenland’s inland ice would contribute to the global sea level, by examining the precarious relationship between the change in summer temperatures in Greenland and the ice’s surface mass-balance over the last 30 years.
“Our research shows that we should expect an increase of 10 to 12.5 centimeters in global sea level by the year 2100 as a direct result of increased ice melting and loss of surface mass from the Greenland ice sheet alone,” said Mottram.
John Cappelen, senior climatologist at DMI and member of the research team, stressed the seriousness of the team’s findings and advocated compliance with the Paris Agreement as a way to limit the warming of Greenland.
“Something must happen to our behavior if we are to limit warming,” he said.
The Paris Agreement was agreed by the 195 member economies in Paris in 2015, with the goal of reducing global warming. However, US President Donald Trump announced in June 2017 that his country would leave the agreement.
In November 2019, the Trump administration formally notified the United Nations that it began the process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, making the U.S. the only country that abandoned the pact.
