Melting Antarctic ice will raise sea level by 2.5 metres – even if Paris climate goals are met, study finds – Paper in Nature
Research says melting will continue even if temperature rises are limited to 2C
Melting of the Antarctic ice sheet will cause sea level rises of about two and a half metres around the world, even if the goals of the Paris agreement are met, research has shown. The melting is likely to take place over a long period, beyond the end of this century, but is almost certain to be irreversible, because of the way in which the ice cap is likely to melt, the new model reveals. Even if temperatures were to fall again after rising by 2C (3.6F), the temperature limit set out in the Paris agreement, the ice would not regrow to its initial state, because of self-reinforcing mechanisms that destabilise the ice, according to the paper published in the journal Nature.
High-impact marine heatwaves attributable to human-induced global warming – paper in Science
Anthropogenic climate change is causing not only more episodes of historically high air temperatures but also more frequent spells of unusually increased ocean temperatures. Marine heatwaves, defined as periods of anonymously high regional surface ocean temperatures, have also become common in recent decades. Laufkötter et al. show that the frequency of these events has already increased more than 10-fold because of anthropogenic global warming, making marine heatwaves, which typically occurred once in hundreds to thousands of years in preindustrial times, likely to occur on an annual to decadal basis if the global average air temperature rises by 3°C. Click here to read the Science paper