Scientists worry that ice sheets may be melting faster than expected

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A group of Glaciologists have estimated that sea levels may rise by one meter or more from the melting ice sheet around Greenland and Antarctica by the year 2100, which covers about 99.5 percent of the Earth’s glacier ice. This could raise sea levels by 65 meters if they melted completely and this is occurring as a result of dramatic climate change.

polar ice sheets melting

A survey was conducted by the world’s top 26 glaciologists who estimated that the melting of the ice sheets could be more rapid and severe than previously estimated. This group already found that the average global sea level has risen by 29 cm.

Professor Jonathan Bamber of Bristol University, who is the lead author of the study published in the popular journal Nature Climate Change, said that ice sheet contribution to increase sea level is most uncertain. Bamber went on to say, “There is one-in-20 chance of sea levels rising by a meter or more by 2100, and a meter rise in sea level is really very serious”.

Professor Bamber also said that research is currently being conducted into how much of an effect man-made greenhouse gas is having on the ice sheets around Greenland and Antarctica.