Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
Bread and Circuses's posts Post Back to profile
Bread and Circuses

Not what we want to hear...
______________________________

"Greenland Ice Sheet is close to a melting point of no return, says new study"

The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 1.7 million square kilometers in the Arctic. If it melts entirely, global sea level would rise about 7 meters (23 feet), but scientists aren't sure how quickly the ice sheet could melt.

Based in part on carbon emissions, a new study using simulations identified two tipping points for the Greenland Ice Sheet: releasing 1000 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere will cause the southern portion of the ice sheet to melt; about 2500 gigatons of carbon means permanent loss of nearly the entire ice sheet.

Having emitted about 500 gigatons of carbon, we're about halfway to the first tipping point.

"The first tipping point is not far from today's climate conditions, so we're in danger of crossing it," said Dennis Höning, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research who led the study. "Once we start sliding, we will fall off this cliff and cannot climb back up."

The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
______________________________

FULL ARTICLE -- phys.org/news/2023-03-greenlan

#Emissions #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateEmergency
29 Mar 2023 at 14:30 | Open on climatejustice.social
9 comments
otto

@breadandcircuses for a second, this image of Greenland looked like a view upward from the bottom of a grave dug in the middle of a forest:( Or maybe it is that too.

29 Mar 2023 at 15:03 | Open on noc.social
BronMason

@breadandcircuses Our fossil fuel addiction reminds me of other addictions—we’re “bargaining” to try to hold the future at bay, but in reality just kicking the can down the road for future generations to cope with—notice I don’t say solve or remedy.

29 Mar 2023 at 15:47 | Open on sfba.social
Bread and Circuses

@bronakins The last real chance we had of "solving" this problem was probably back in the 1990s. Now, as you say, it's cope — and hope to survive.

29 Mar 2023 at 15:50 | Open on climatejustice.social
BronMason

@breadandcircuses @breadandcircuses I hear that “flyover country” has a lot of land for “coastal elites” to settle after the former coasts are flooded. (Talk about turning red states blue!)
Trouble is climate change also will have turned formerly lush land into dustbowls—people will be safe from rising seas but hungry! The only arable land in N. America will be in Canada & Greenland. #Emissions #climatechange #climatecrisis

29 Mar 2023 at 16:22 | Open on sfba.social
DeterioratedStucco

@bronakins @breadandcircuses Not clear there will be arable land. IIUC it takes about 200 years to make soil.

29 Mar 2023 at 21:22 | Open on mas.to
JustAFrog

@breadandcircuses 500 Gt is about 15 years at current emissions.

That's not exactly a safe margin when we have yet to see a consistent decline in global emissions.

29 Mar 2023 at 16:09 | Open on mstdn.social
Piousunyn

@breadandcircuses

23 feet would change beach front property immensely . Guess the good thing Is I will not need to drive as far to see the ocean?

29 Mar 2023 at 20:32 | Open on universeodon.com
DeterioratedStucco

@Piousunyn @breadandcircuses To see it, sure. But no beaches - they take time. No surf, either. Most of the wading birds will be extinct as well.

29 Mar 2023 at 21:23 | Open on mas.to
Piousunyn

@SoftwareTheron

This is so sad, ignore weapons for killing kids, climate change, and anything which makes profits for the few.

29 Mar 2023 at 21:25 | Open on universeodon.com
Go Up