A new study published in the journal Geophysical research letters found that a third of the ice shelf around Antarctica could collapse if the temperature hit 4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, resulting in ‘unimaginable amounts’ of water released into the sea.
Antarctica largely surrounds ice shelves, which are expansive floating sheets of ice that connect to the land.
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“Ice shelves are important buffers that prevent glaciers on land from flowing freely in the ocean and contribute to rising sea levels,” Ella Gilberta researcher from the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, who co-authored the study, said. “When it collapses, it’s like a giant cork pulled out of a bottle, which can dump unimaginable amounts of water from glaciers into the sea.”
One third of these ice racks are about half a million square kilometers. The increase in water due to their collapse would cause sea levels to rise.
The study does not mention an estimate of the increase that could cause, but Gilbert said, “My gut feeling is that 4C could possibly contribute ten centimeters if they collapse. ”
To put this in perspective, NASA calculates the average sea level rises to 3.3 millimeters per year, which is only 0.33 centimeters, which increases even a 10 centimeters.
A rise in sea levels contributes to the erosion of coastlines, more powerful storms and floods, and the destruction of ecosystems and habitats for animals on land and in the sea.
The study is intended to highlight the need to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, as set out in the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.
Former President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement on June 1, 2017. President Biden signed an executive order that the US would rejoin the Paris Agreement on its first day in office.
“If the temperature continues to rise at the current rate, we could lose more Antarctic ice racks in the coming decades,” Gilbert said. “Limiting global warming will not only be good for Antarctica; maintaining ice shelves means less global sea level rise, and that’s good for all of us.”
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