At global average temperature of 2 degrees, Earth likely to see disastrous 40 feet of sea level rise

Scientists have warned that the ice sheets in the world have been melting at a faster pace than estimated, and the climate ambitions of the world need to be reconstructed to avoid any catastrophic increase in sea levels.

The report was published on Thursday (Nov 16) by the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI), a network of policy experts and researchers. They appealed the world leaders to pay attention to their warnings when they gather to attend the United Nations’ COP28 climate conference later this month.

The report stated that if global average temperatures reach 2 degrees Celsius beyond the preindustrial baseline, Earth can see more than 40 feet of sea-level rise – a melt which will take centuries and reshape societies across the world.

In the climate science community, the collapse of ice shelves and ice sheets has been a major point of uncertainty.

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However, the new research suggests that dangerous tipping points are closer than expected, and there is less room in the carbon budget of the Earth.

“We might be reaching these temperature thresholds that we’ve been talking about for a long time sooner than we were thinking about years ago,” stated Rob DeConto, the director of the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Earth & Sustainability and an author of the report.

“And it may be that the thresholds for some of these processes that can drive really rapid ice loss are lower than we were thinking just a few years ago,” he added, as reported by NBC News.

People will be forced to escape coastal communities: Scientists

If there is no dramatic change in the speed of climate action, such factors can leave humanity “facing rates of sea-level rise way outside the range of adaptability,” DeConto stated.

In the report, the scientists emphasised that an increase in global temperatures of 2 degrees Celsius will force many people to escape coastal communities.

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“We’re displacing millions of people with the decisions being made now,” stated report author Julie Brigham-Grette, who is a geosciences professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The report has recorded the contributions of more than 60 scientists. Many of these scientists are experts in their specialities, and some were involved in past reports for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is the leading body that assesses the climate crisis in the world.

“Many ice sheet scientists now believe that by 2°C, nearly all of Greenland, much of West Antarctica, and even vulnerable portions of East Antarctica will be triggered to very long-term, inexorable sea-level rise, even if air temperatures later decrease,” the new ICCI report stated.

(With inputs from agencies)