The scale and speed of ice loss is much higher than was predicted in the comprehensive studies of global climate science by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise, a consortium of nearly 100 polar scientists who reviewed all satellite observations of the ice sheet from 1992 to 2018.
With the ice sheet melting at a much faster rate than previously thought, hundreds of millions of people living along coastal areas are now at risk for inundation and the irreversible impacts of the climate crisis.
The new data means that sea level rises are likely to reach 67 centimeters (26.4 inches) by 2100. That is about 7 centimeters more than the IPPC prediction. This also means that 400 million people will be at risk of flooding every year instead of the 370 million predicted by the IPPC.
Sea level rise will also make storm surges worse, especially with the increasing number and intensity of these weather events. “These impacts are likely to strike coastal areas all around the world,” according to The Guardian.
“These are not unlikely events or small impacts,” said Andrew Shepherd, professor of earth observation at the University of Leeds, one of the lead authors of the study. “[These impacts] are happening and will be devastating for coastal communities.”
According to the study published in the journal Nature on December 10, 2019, “Greenland lost close to 3.8 trillion tons of ice between 1992 and 2018. In the 1990s, the rate of loss was about 33 billion tons per year, though it now sits at 254 billion tons per year.
There is a great deal of concern over the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. This is because Greenland is an island nation and all that ice rests on the landmass. This is totally different from the floating sea ice that makes up much of the rest of the Arctic ice cap. When an ice sheet that is on land melts and goes into the sea, there will be a rise in sea level.
