Current international climate policies do not take into account full effects on global climate.
The weather these days is wild and will be wilder still within a century. In part, because the water from melting ice sheets off Greenland and in the Antarctic will cause extreme weather and unpredictable temperatures around the globe. A study published today in Nature is the first to simulate the effects, under current climate policies, that the two melting ice sheets will have on ocean temperatures and circulation patterns as well as on air temperatures by the year 2100.
“Under current global government policies, we are heading towards 3 or 4 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels, causing a significant amount of melt water from the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets to enter Earth’s oceans. According to our models, this melt water will cause significant disruptions to ocean currents and change levels of warming around the world,” says Associate Professor Nick Golledge from Victoria University of Wellington’s Antarctic Research Centre in New Zealand. He led the international research team made up of scientists from Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Germany and the USA.
The research team combined highly detailed simulations of the complex climate effects of the melting with satellite observations of recent changes to the ice sheets. As a result, the researchers have been able to create more reliable and accurate predictions of what will occur under current climate policies.
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