The University of Earth, Urgent Action Series: COP 21 Paris 2015: Dr. Anders Levermann
Greenland:
There have been a number of studies showing what the long-term sea level rise from Greenland will be, and it turns out that there is a threshold in the Greenland ice dynamics and the Greenland ice melting, because of the surface elevation feedback. This threshold has been found to be about 1.5 Degrees. The threshold in Greenland has what it is called a critical slowing down, which means the closer you are to the threshold, the slower the melting of the ice occurs.
Antartica:
The ice on the Antarctic is worth 50 meters of sea level rise, and we’ve had 20 cm of sea level rise over the last 100 years, and we expect no more than 1.5 meters this century.
When the Antartic is discussed, relevant to global warming, it is the risk that is being discussed. The risk of destabilizing parts of Antarctica.
He goes into great detail with regards to the destabilization of the western and eastern Antarctic ice sheets. For every degree increase in temperature, we get a sea level increase of 2 to 3 meters.
