“The data presented in this study clearly show that climate policy, and therefore the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions over the coming century, have an enormous control over the future fate of surface melting of Antarctic ice shelves, which we must consider when assessing their long-term stability and potential indirect contributions to sea level rise,” said Clark University associate professor of Geography Karen Frey, who contributed to the study along with researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research at Utrecht University, and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.

Luke Trusel, lead author and postdoctoral scholar at WHOI, added that the results “illustrate just how rapidly melting in Antarctica can intensify in a warming climate.”

As WHOI explains, ice shelves have a “door stop” effect on sea level rise, as they slow the flow of ice from glaciers and ice sheets into the ocean, where it melts.

The study follows a report last month which found that the Antarctic ice sheet would melt completely if all of the world’s coal, oil, and gas reserves were extracted and burned. Another, put forth by former NASA scientist James Hansen this summer, argued that glacial melting will “likely” occur this century and could cause as much as a ten foot sea-level rise in as little as fifty years.

All of this comes in the lead-up to the United Nations climate talks in Paris beginning November 30, during which international delegates are expected to cement an international climate agreement. However, countries on the front-lines of the most pressing climate impacts, such as sea level rise, are concerned that the pact will not go far enough to stem the worst effects of global warming.

Click Here: geelong cats guernsey 2019

Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.