00:00Science Alert has reiterated the significance Greenland has to climate change.
00:04If its thick ice layer melted, the sea would rise by approximately 7 meters,
00:09the equivalent height to a house.
00:11According to a recent study published in the journal Nature,
00:14the lower and sooner global temperatures fall,
00:17the more chance there is to minimize the ice melt and sea level rise.
00:21It is widely reported that the Greenland ice sheet is losing more than 300 billion cubic meters of ice per
00:27year,
00:27driving sea levels up by just under a millimeter per year.
00:31If and likely when warming furthers,
00:34the major concern becomes tipping points defined by the site.
00:38The more the air heats, the more the ice will melt,
00:41lowering the elevation of the ice surface and furthermore exposing it to warmer air temperatures and more melting.
00:48The study contemplates whether the worst-case scenario of ice sheet collapse
00:51and sea level rise can be avoided or even partially reversed.
00:55This depends on whether we are able to reduce the global temperatures forecast for after 2100.
01:01The conclusion is complex and nuanced,
01:03but indicates that global warming be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius
01:07above pre-industrial levels in order to avoid catastrophes.
