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Some of the "doomed ice" in Greenland. PA

‘Zombie ice’ from Greenland will raise sea level by 10 inches, study suggests

Zombie or doomed ice is ice that is still attached to thicker areas of ice, but is no longer getting fed by those larger glaciers.

ZOMBIE ICE FROM a massive Greenland ice sheet will eventually raise the global sea level by at least 10in (27 centimetres) on its own, according to a study.

Zombie or doomed ice is ice that is still attached to thicker areas of ice, but is no longer getting fed by those larger glaciers.

That is because the parent glaciers are getting less replenishing snow.

Meanwhile the doomed ice is melting from climate change, said study co-author William Colgan, a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

“It’s dead ice. It’s just going to melt and disappear from the ice sheet,” Mr Colgan said in an interview.

“This ice has been consigned to the ocean, regardless of what climate (emissions) scenario we take now.”

Study lead author Jason Box, a glaciologist at the Greenland survey, said it is “more like one foot in the grave”.

The unavoidable 10in in the study is more than twice as much sea level rise as scientists had previously expected from the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet.

The study in the journal Nature Climate Change said it could reach as much as 30in (78 centimetres).

By contrast, last year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report projected a range of two to five inches (six to 13 centimetres) for likely sea level rise from Greenland ice melt by the year 2100.

What scientists did for the study was look at the ice in balance.

In perfect equilibrium, snowfall in the mountains in Greenland flows down and recharges and thickens the sides of glaciers, balancing out what is melting on the edges.

But in the last few decades there has been less replenishment and more melting, creating imbalance.

‘Starving’

Study authors looked at the ratio of what is being added to what is being lost and calculated that 3.3% of Greenland’s total ice volume will melt no matter what happens with the world cutting carbon pollution, Mr Colgan said.

“I think starving would be a good phrase” for what is happening to the ice, Mr Colgan said.

One of the study authors said that more than 120 trillion tons (110 trillion metric tons) of ice is already doomed to melt from the warming ice sheet’s inability to replenish its edges.

When that ice melts into water, if it were concentrated only over the United States, it would be 37ft (11 metres) deep.

This is the first time scientists calculated a minimum ice loss – and accompanying sea level rise – for Greenland, one of Earth’s two massive ice sheets that are slowly shrinking because of climate change from burning coal, oil and natural gas.

Scientists used an accepted technique for calculating minimum committed ice loss, the one used on mountain glaciers for the entire giant frozen island.

Pennsylvania State University glaciologist Richard Alley, who was not part of the study but said it made sense, said the committed melting and sea level rise is like an ice cube put in a cup of hot tea in a warm room.

“You have committed mass loss from the ice,” Mr Alley said in an email.

“In the same way most of the world’s mountain glaciers and the edges of Greenland would continue losing mass if temperatures were stabilised at modern levels because they have been put into warmer air just as your ice cube was put in warmer tea.”

Although 10in does not sound like much, that is a global average.

Some coastal areas will be hit with more, and high tides and storms on top of that could be even worse, so this much sea level rise “will have huge societal, economic and environmental impacts”, said Ellyn Enderlin, a geosciences professor at Boise State University.

Time is the key unknown here and a bit of a problem with the study, said two outside ice scientists, Leigh Stearns of the University of Kansas and Sophie Nowicki of the University of Buffalo.

The researchers in the study said they could not estimate the timing of the committed melting, yet in the last sentence they mention “within this century”, without supporting it, Stearns said.

Mr Colgan responded that the team does not know how long it will take for all the doomed ice to melt, but making an educated guess, it would probably be by the end of this century or at least by 2150.

Mr Colgan said this is actually all a best case scenario.

The year 2012 (and to a different degree 2019 ) was a huge melt year, when the equilibrium between adding and subtracting ice was most out of balance.

If Earth starts to undergo more years like 2012, Greenland melt could trigger 30in (78 centimetres) of sea level rise, he said.

Those two years seem extreme now, but years that look normal now would have been extreme 50 years ago, he said.

“That’s how climate change works,” Mr Colgan said.

“Today’s outliers become tomorrow’s averages.”

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    Mute Rear Admiral
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 5:29 PM

    I’ll be sending back that “Huberman’s Haemerrhoid Cream” so

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    Aug 22nd 2018, 5:36 PM

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    Mute iohanx
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 5:37 PM

    @Rear Admiral: does it work?

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    Mute Shelly Levine
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 5:49 PM

    @iohanx: I’m squeaky clean. Thanks Amy!

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    Mute Declan Tooher
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 6:37 PM

    Unfortunately, this is not the first scam she has been involved in. All those awful tv shows that demand you to pay a licence fee spring to mind.

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    Mute MarkS
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 6:31 PM

    Nice to see she is branching out from the weekly Irish independent mouthpiece articles that nobody cares about.

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    Mute chinaski
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    Aug 23rd 2018, 1:41 AM

    @MarkS: You beat me to it. What is it with the indos obsession with her and him?

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    Mute David Quigley
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    Aug 23rd 2018, 6:35 AM

    @chinaski: The indo is a celebrity rag masquerading as a broadsheet

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    Mute Seriously stunned
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    Aug 23rd 2018, 9:00 AM

    @David Quigley: yea we love the journal.ie woo hoooo

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    Mute MarkS
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    Aug 23rd 2018, 9:30 AM

    @chinaski: she’s on some kind of weekly nonsense rotation with Vogue William’s, Amanda Brunker & Roz Purcell. Twink lost her place in the rotation last year unfortunately.

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    Mute Brian McDonnell
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 5:36 PM

    Beauty cream warns users to beware of the sham that is…….

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    Mute Tyler Williams
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 6:12 PM

    I’m not from these parts so I have absolutely no idea who she is. What is IFTA?

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    Mute TellingItAsItIs
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 6:32 PM

    @Tyler Williams: She’s a very popular average actress and also wife to a famous ex rugby player called Brian O’Driscoll. She’s also pretty and could sell ice cream to the Eskimos.

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    Mute David Grey
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 11:47 PM

    Tyler . Google

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    Mute Margate
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    Aug 23rd 2018, 12:34 AM

    @TellingItAsItIs: Very popular? Eh? Not with that many…she wings her way simply based on looks, fame, hubby etc, otherwise limited..

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    Mute Rhona Byrne
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    Aug 23rd 2018, 8:20 AM

    @Tyler Williams: Irish Film and Television Awards

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    Mute TellingItAsItIs
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    Aug 24th 2018, 5:52 PM

    @Margate: she’s also popular because she’s a very nice lady

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    Mute Tony Maguire
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 7:06 PM

    Ya can’t beat a bit of free advertising!!!

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    Mute James O'Brien
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 11:53 PM

    This is product of RTE. Labeling people as influencers. Vogue Williams will be next or Brunker

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    Mute Jaci Black
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 10:02 PM

    Stay away from the sun and eat healthily. Water is not your enemy.

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    Mute Maggie O'Sullivan
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 10:04 PM

    Total waste of money. Margarine does the same job as any of these expensive creams.

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 9:48 PM

    Don’t waste your money on any of them, soap & water then some E45 cream ( 400 ml ) for under €10

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    Aug 23rd 2018, 9:31 AM

    She has fans?

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    Mute Derek Walsh Ⓥ
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 8:41 PM

    What sort of idiot would be fooled by “anti-aging cream?”

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    Mute Ann Basquille Smith
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    Aug 22nd 2018, 11:49 PM

    Who are accepting these adverts

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