- A group of UK scientists has found that a “scorching” 28 trillion tonnes of ice has disappeared from the earth’s surface since 1994.
- By analyzing satellite studies, the group found that melting glaciers and ice sheets could dramatically kill sea levels, possibly reaching one meter (3 feet) by the end of the century.
- The findings are consistent with the predictions of the worst-case scenario, written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations (IPCC), the scientists have confirmed.
- They come a week after Ohio State University researchers discovered that Greenland’s ice sheet – the second largest ice body in the world – may have passed a point of no return.
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A “staggering” 28 trillion tonnes of ice has disappeared from the earth’s surface since 1994, a group of UK scientists have found.
Scientists from Leeds and Edinburgh and University College London analyzed satellite studies of glaciers, mountains and ice sheets between 1994 and 2017 to identify the effects of global warming. Their review paper was published in the journal Cryosphere Discussions.
Describing the ice loss as “staggering”, the group found that melting glaciers and ice sheets could cause sea levels to rise dramatically, possibly reaching one meter (3 feet) by the end of the century.
“To put that in context, every inch of sea level rise means about a million people are displaced from their low-lying homelands,” Professor Andy Shepherd, director of Leeds University’s Center for Polar Observation and Modeling, told the Guardian.
The dramatic loss of ice could have other serious consequences, including major disruption to the biological health of Arctic and Antarctic waters and diminishing the planet’s ability to reflect solar radiation back into space.
The findings are consistent with the predictions of the worst-case scenario, written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations (IPCC), the scientists have confirmed.
“In the past, researchers have studied individual areas – such as the Antarctic or Greenland – where ice melts. But this is the first time anyone has looked at all the ice that is disappearing from the entire planet,” Shepherd said, according to the Fad. “What we found surprised us.”
“There can be little doubt that the vast majority of Earth’s ice loss is a direct result of global warming,” the group wrote.
The findings come a week after Ohio State University researchers discovered that Greenland’s ice sheet may have passed a point of no return.
According to the researchers, snowfall that fills the glaciers of the country every year can no longer stop the rate of ice melting, which means that the Greenland ice sheet continues to lose ice, even if global temperatures stop rising.
The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest ice body in the world.
“What we have found is that the ice that is extracted in the ocean overcomes the snow that collects on the surface of the ice sheet,” said Michalea King, lead author and researcher at Byrd Polar and Ohio Climate Research Center State, said in a press release.
According to a NASA study, 2010-2019 was the hottest decade ever recorded.
