An ice core taken from beneath Greenland’s ice sheet has revealed that a large part of the country was ice-free around 400,000 years ago when temperatures were similar to those we’re approaching now, an alarming finding with possible disastrous implications for sea level rise. If Greenland’s ice sheet saw rapid melting during a period of moderate warming, it may be more sensitive to human-caused climate change than previously understood and will be vulnerable to irreversible, rapid melting in coming centuries. If the ice sheet were to melt completely, sea levels would rise by about 7 meters (23 feet) causing devastation to billions living along the world’s coasts. Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are 1.5 times higher now than they were 400,000 years ago, with global temperatures climbing.
www.uvm.edu/news/story/greenland-melted-recently-shows-higher-risk-sea-level-rise