Study: Critical time left to save Greenland’s melting ice sheet
- Ice shelves are extensions of glaciers that act like gatekeepers
- Time is running out but action would mitigate effects, study says
- Worst case scenario: Ocean levels could rise by 23 feet
Sea ice in a fjord, Eastern Greenland
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(NewsNation) — A study is warning that there is little time left to save Greenland’s ice sheet from a warming climate.
If the ice sheet were to melt completely, it would add about 23 feet to the world’s ocean level. While the study is alarming, it cautions there is still time to stabilize the ice sheet.
The findings, however, which were published Wednesday in the journal Nature, say that efforts to limit carbon emissions could avoid the worst-case scenario of exponentially rising ocean levels.
Ice shelves are floating extensions of glaciers that act “like the gatekeepers” and keep the larger glacier from flowing more quickly into the water.
Another study published in October found four dozen Antarctic ice shelves have shrunk by at least 30% since 1997, and 28 of those have lost more than half of their ice in that time. The study surveyed these crucial “gatekeepers’’ between the frozen continent’s massive glaciers and open ocean.
Of the continent’s 162 ice shelves, 68 show significant shrinking between 1997 and 2021, while 29 grew, 62 didn’t change and three lost mass but not in a way scientists can say shows a significant trend, according to a study in Science Advances.
That melted ice, which usually pens larger glaciers behind it, then goes into the sea. Scientists worry climate change-triggered melt from Antarctica and Greenland will cause dangerous and significant sea rise over many decades and centuries.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
