Greenland ice sheet on brink of major tipping point, says study

[nitpicker]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/17/greenland-ice-sheet-on-brink-of-major-tipping-point-says-study

Greenland ice sheet on brink of major tipping point, says study

Damian Carrington Environment editor

Mon 17 May 2021 20.00 BST

A significant part of the Greenland ice sheet is on the brink of a tipping point, after which accelerated melting would become inevitable even if global heating was halted, according to new research.

Rising temperatures caused by the climate crisis have already seen trillions of tonnes of Greenland’s ice pour into the ocean. Melting its ice sheet completely would eventually raise global sea level by 7 metres.

The new analysis detected the warning signals of a tipping point in a 140-year record of ice-sheet height and melting rates in the Jakobshavn basin, one of the five biggest basins in Greenland and the fastest-melting. The prime suspect for a surge in melting is a vicious circle in which melting reduces the height of the ice sheet, exposing it to the warmer air found at lower altitudes, which causes further melting.

The research meant it might already be at the point of no return, or be about to cross it in the coming decades, the scientists said. However, even if the tipping point was crossed, it did not mean that the entire ice sheet was doomed, they said, because there might be a stable state for a smaller ice sheet.
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[CrispyQ]

1. Just think if we'd taken serious action back at the first Earth Day.

[multigraincracker]

2. 2 meters would be bad enough.

7 would be hard to survive.

[hatrack]

3. Gosh, if only we'd known that something was wrong!