Scientists have claimed that it is now inevitable that the melting of Greenland’s ice cap will cause a significant rise in the sea-level, regardless of efforts to limit the climate crisis.
According to research conducted by scientists, Greenland’s ice cap will cause a rise in sea-level by at least 27cm (10.6in) as around 110tn tonnes of ice will have melted off the ice cap due to global heating.
2012 saw a record melting year for Greenland, which is now becoming a routine occurrence. The ice cap will eventually add to 78cm of a rise in the sea-level. As billions of people worldwide live by the coast, flooding due to rising sea levels will become one of the greatest long-term impacts of the climate crisis.
Leading the research, Prof Jason Box from the National Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (Geus) stated, “It is a very conservative rock-bottom minimum…Realistically, we will see this figure more than double within this century.”
The study provides a reliable estimate of inevitable sea-level rise yet doesn’t give a full timescale of when the ice will be lost.