Environmental Engineering Reference
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FIGURE 6.2 Future evolution of the Greenland Ice Sheet calculated from a 3D ice-sheet model forced by three greenhouse gas stabilization
scenarios. The warming scenarios correspond to the average of seven IPCC models in which the atmospheric CO 2 concentration stabilizes at
levels between 550 and 1,000 ppm after a few centuries (Gregory et al., 2004) and is kept constant after that. For a sustained average summer
warming of 7.3°C (1,000 ppm), the Greenland Ice Sheet is shown to disappear within 3,000 years, raising sea level by about 7.5 m. For lower
CO 2 concentrations, melting proceeds at a slower rate, but even in a world with twice as much CO 2 (550 ppm or a 3.7°C summer warming)
the ice sheet will eventually melt away apart from some residual glaciation over the eastern mountains. The figure is based on the models
discussed in Huybrechts and de Wolde (1999). Source: Alley et al. (2005).
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