Whatever happens, the sea level will rise by at least 27 centimeters

The study, published in the journal Natural climate changeshows that due to global warming, part of the Greenland ice sheet will melt anyway, causing sea levels to rise by at least 27 centimeters.

“Unbalanced Ice Cap”

To reach this conclusion, satellite images of the Greenland Ice Sheet were examined, among other things. This ice sheet is now losing more ice than it adds to snowfall and is therefore out of balance. To return to equilibrium, the ice cap will have to adapt to the current climate. To do this, more ice will have to melt and, according to the scientists’ calculations, this is accompanied by at least 27 centimeters of sea level rise. This is irreversible.

RTL Nieuws climate specialist Bart Verheggen has read the research and explains that we can compare the conclusion with a very large ship. “If you want to change course for such a big ship, you can’t do it all at once. It has a certain inertia to turn a ship around, so it keeps going for a while.” So even if we meet all climate targets now, the ice sheet will still melt for some time.

The study focused only on the Greenland ice sheet. Verheggen: “Of course you also have Antarctica, mountain glaciers and sea water which is expanding due to global warming. So you really have to talk about a minimum rise of 27 centimeters which has become irreversible, but it will almost certainly be much higher.”

Prevent further damage

So irreversible. However, this does not mean that any further action is in vain. “You should of course prevent this news from leading to an apathetic reaction. According to this research, nothing can be done about these 27 centimeters, but further damage can be avoided. The research highlights the importance of reducing emissions to limit an even higher increase. . But it also shows that we need to protect ourselves better against rising waters.”