Living in Bomb Time — 42

“If the Greenland ice sheet were to thaw today, it would raise sea levels by more than 20 feet over the coming centuries.” — Paul R. Bierman

Results of an ice sheet model show how much of Greenland’s ice sheet survives when the ice is gone from the Camp Century (white dot), GISP2 (red dot) and DYE-3 (black dot) ice coring sites. Modified from Schaefer et al., 2016, Nature

It should read, “As the Greenland ice sheet melts, it will probably rise sea level +10 feet by 2100.

Because it means that the Greenland ice sheet isn’t very old. That’s VERY BAD news for us. It means sea level rise could be a LOT, “faster than expected”

SO.

This is how “Climate News” typically gets reported. First comes the “science part”, a paper on an accredited site or in an accredited publication.

AUGUST 5th.

Plant, insect, and fungi fossils under the center of Greenland’s ice sheet are evidence of ice-free times. — August 5, 2024 PNAS

ABSTRACT:

The persistence and size of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) through the Pleistocene is uncertain. This is important because reconstructing changes in the GrIS determines its contribution to sea level rise during prior warm climate periods and informs future projections.

To understand better the history of Greenland’s ice, we analyzed glacial till collected…