If Greenland's ice sheet ever melts entirely, the results would be catastrophic. The water unleashed into the ocean would be enough to raise sea level 6.5 meters (21.3 feet), jeopardizing the homes and lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. That's not likely to happen any time soon. But Greenland is already starting to look slushy, and an additional degree or two of warming could be dangerous. "We've said [in a previous study] that if you sustain between 2 and 7 degrees (3.6 to 12.6 Fahrenheit) of warming, Greenland's ice will be gone," Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University said. "It's already warmed a good chunk of one degree, so if you add another 1-1.5 on top of that, you're at the low end of really worry, and a lot closer to the upper end, too." Related Links: NASA Earth Observatory: Greenland Ice Sheet Losing Mass Global Warming: What You Need to Know HowStuffWorks.com: If the polar ice caps melted, how much would the oceans rise? |
advertisement
Put Discovery News on Your Site!
|
-
our sites
-
video
mobile
-
shop
-
stay connected
-
corporate
