Multiple Impacts to Oceans and Ice Sheets from Global Warming
The Art
The Science
What’s Alarming
Certain Negative Impacts to Our Oceans and Ice Sheets are Inevitable – Future Impacts Depend on What We Do Next
“SPM.8 shows key indicators of climate change in the atmosphere, ocean and cryosphere (i.e., frozen parts of earth). Surface temperatures (panel a), Arctic sea ice during September (panel b; the month with the least ice), and surface ocean pH (panel c; a marker of ocean uptake of carbon dioxide, which acidifies the oceans) respond rapidly to accumulating atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Sea level (panel d), on the other hand, responds more slowly as the deep ocean and distant ice sheets catch up to past levels of warming. Thus, sea level rise by year 2050 is almost independent of emissions reductions, while year 2100 shows a spread. By year 2300 (panel e), the sea level rise is over five times higher, centuries after emissions have reached net zero. A dashed line shows the potential changes to sea level from the ice sheets that cannot be ruled out under high emissions, bringing large rises sooner than expected.”
Baylor Fox-Kemper, Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University
