One-metre sea-level rise this century, scientists say?

So says Schellnhuber (ht ht). I imagine he really did say it, because its in quotes. But the same page says "Schnellhuber charged that 20 per cent of the loss of the ice sheet on Greenland could be directly linked to the added carbon dioxide emissions from new Chinese coal-fired power stations." This I find rather hard to believe. The Chinese produce produce about 20% of global emissions, true, but not all of that is from power stations; and besides which its the atmos concentrations that matter, not the instantaneous emissions, and they have a long way to go before they catch up with a West on that score. So I imagine they have garbled that bit.

There is some RC stuff on SLR; but the basic answer is "no-one really knows yet".

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Schellnhuber and Marotzke are also said to have said that ice loss in the Arctic has "doubled or even tripled" since 2005. Can that be true? I assume they are talking about the rate of ice loss from Greenland, which is said to have doubled between 1996 and 2005. Can it really have doubled again in the last three years?

By Vinny Burgoo (not verified) on 19 Oct 2008 #permalink