A new study reveals that the Earth’s two gigantic ice sheets are in greater peril from global warming than previously thought. The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are losing mass at an alarming rate, raising concerns about “catastrophic consequences for humanity.”
The study focuses on the melting of these massive ice masses, which can cause sea levels to rise dozens of feet. Researchers warn that this is happening even faster than expected.
Ice sheets are large areas of glacial land ice covering over 20,000 square miles. Currently, Earth has just two ice sheets: one covers most of Greenland and the other spans across Antarctica.
These ice sheets contain more than 99% of the land ice and over 68% of the fresh water on Earth. However, if global greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate, the Earth’s ice sheets are vulnerable to even more massive rapid ice loss that could substantially raise sea levels.
The study found that the mass of ice lost from these ice sheets has quadrupled since the 1990s and they are currently losing around 370 billion metric tons of ice per year. Even if the Earth returns to its preindustrial temperature, it will still take hundreds to thousands of years for the ice sheets to recover.
Researchers suggest that global leaders should aim for a 1-degree C reduction in warming to avoid significant losses from the ice sheets and prevent further acceleration in sea-level rise. However, achieving this goal is considered challenging, with many experts believing that even a 1.5-degree increase could have catastrophic consequences for humanity.
Source: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/05/21/greenland-and-antarctic-ice-sheet-melt-study/83767629007