We have more alarming news when it comes to the state of the planet from a study in the journal Nature Climate Change.
According to the study, researchers from the University of Leeds in the UK and the Danish Meteorological Institute say that since ice sheets in Antarctica first started being monitored by satellite in the 1990s, the melting of these sheets has caused sea levels around the world to rise by 7.2 millimeters.
And melting ice sheets in Greenland has added an additional 10.6 millimeters to that figure.
Photo Credit: Unsplash,Agustín Lautaro
On top of that, there are other glaciers around the world that are melting, as well. Researchers say that global sea levels are rising 4 millimeters per year because of melting ice sheets on our planet.
In a statement, study co-author Dr. Anna Hogg said,
“If ice sheet losses continue to track our worst-case climate warming scenarios we should expect an additional 17 centimeters of sea-level rise from the ice sheets alone.
That’s enough to double the frequency of storm-surge flooding in many of the world’s largest coastal cities.”
Yeah. Wow.
Photo Credit: Unsplash,Asile Clairette
Dr. Tom Slater, lead author of the study, added,
“Although we anticipated the ice sheets would lose increasing amounts of ice in response to the warming of the oceans and atmosphere, the rate at which they are melting has accelerated faster than we could have imagined.
The melting is overtaking the climate models we use to guide us, and we are in danger of being unprepared for the risks posed by sea level rise.”
That is scary stuff, folks…
