According to a recent study, the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are still in danger of irreversible melting, even if we manage to stabilize Earth's temperatures by reaching a peak of 2°C.
This means that if we even “miss” this goal, the ice sheets will disintegrate more rapidly than ever, raising global sea levels catastrophically.
And things are already very bad: sea levels have risen by about 20 centimeters in the last century. In the coming years, one in 10 people will be at risk. For this reason the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, multiplies the requests for very urgent actions to limit greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding biblical exoduses and disasters on a global scale.
High seas
According to a study conducted by the Pusan National University and published in Nature Communications (I link it here), current models studying ice sheets are wrong. They do not take into account the influence of meltwater flowing into the ocean.
And that's a big problem, because the ongoing thaw is already increasing the concentration of melt water towards the ocean surface, preventing the depths from regulating the temperature. This increases underground heat, which can further melt ice caps. In summary: a chain reaction already triggered.
The data collected by the climatologist Jun YoungPark and colleagues say that this process can only be stopped if, with extremely aggressive policies, we manage to contain the increase in temperatures to within 1,5° C. Otherwise, starting from 1,8° C, the domino effect would be irreversible . Sea higher than one meter in the space of a century: planet completely transformed.
Melting ice caps, unimaginable consequences
A scenario in which the ice caps melt with this rapidity it would have a devastating impact on major cities around the world. Starting from the main megalopolises such as Cairo, Mumbai, Shanghai, London, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires and touching practically all the coastal cities of the world.
The stark summary is that we cannot afford to wait to discover the potential impact of melting ice sheets.
Calls that have fallen on deaf ears echo the metallic tolling of a death knell across the planet. How is it possible that we talk about war on the threshold of such a future?
