Earth may already be too hot for the survival of polar ice sheets

2 comments

1. Ten years ago, policymakers and nation states set the world’s most important climate goal: [limiting planetary warming](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/02/09/countries-must-ramp-up-climate-pledges-by-80-percent-hit-key-paris-target-study-finds/) to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). If the Earth could stay below that threshold, a climate catastrophe and major rise in sea levels might be staved off.

   But a group of scientists have demonstrated that if the world stays on course to warm up to 1.5 degrees — or even stays at its current level of [1.2 degrees above preindustrial levels](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/25/climate-aerosols-shipping-global-cooling/) — polar ice sheets will probably continue to quickly melt, causing seas to rise and displacing coastal communities, according to a [study published Tuesday](https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02299-w) in Communications Earth and Environment.

   “There was a kind of misunderstanding that 1.5 was going to solve all our problems,” said Chris Stokes, a professor at Durham University in England who focuses on glaciers and ice sheets, and an author of the study. Now, the team surmised that limit is closer to around 1 degree Celsius, though more research is needed to come to an official conclusion.

   Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/05/20/global-warming-ice-sheets-sea-level-rise/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/05/20/global-warming-ice-sheets-sea-level-rise/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)

2. Well, coastal dudes, sell your houses while you still can.

Comments are closed.