ARCTIC MELTING PREDICTS HIGH SEA-LEVELS

A new report on ScienceDaily says, once again, that the Arctic is heating up faster than other places in the Northern Hemisphere. The US Geological Survey led the new assessment, which is a synthesis of published science literature and authored by a team of climate scientists from academia and government. The US Climate Change Science Program commissioned the report, which has contributions from 37 scientists from the United States, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom and Denmark.

The new report also makes several conclusions about the Arctic:

The size and speed of the summer sea-ice loss over the last few decades is highly unusual compared to events from previous millennia, especially considering that changes in Earth's orbit over this time have made sea-ice melting less, not more, likely.

The entire Greenland icesheet will vanish if there is sustained warming as little as 2 degrees Celsius above twentieth century values. That would raise sea-levels about 7 metres.