The world’s ice sheets just got a dire prognosis, and coastlines are going to pay the price

Glaciers in Antarctica on February 7, 2022. A new study suggests even if the world meets its climate targets it may not be enough to save the planet's ice sheets. 

The world’s ice sheets are on course for runaway melting, leading to multiple feet of sea level rise and “catastrophic” migration away from coastlines, even if the world pulls off the miraculous and keeps global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to new research.

A group of international scientists set out to establish what a “safe limit” of warming would be for the survival of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. They pored over studies that took data from satellites, climate models and evidence from the past, from things like ice cores, deep-sea sediments and even octopus DNA.

Record January 2025 warmth puzzles climate scientists

Last month was the world's warmest January on record raising further questions about the pace of climate change, scientists say.

January 2025 had been expected to be slightly cooler than January 2024 because of a shift away from a natural weather pattern in the Pacific known as El Niño.

Glaciers are not easy targets for any type of satellite to measure mass loss over time

Scientists have obtained their best satellite assessment yet of the status of the world's glaciers.

Europe's Cryosat satellite tracked the 200,000 or so glaciers on Earth and found they have lost 2,720bn tonnes of ice in 10 years due to climate change.

That's equivalent to losing 2% of their bulk in a decade.

Monitoring how quickly glaciers are changing is important because millions of people rely on them for water and farming.

Methane accounts for more than one-quarter of the anthropogenic radiative imbalance since the pre-industrial age. Its largest sources include both natural and human-mediated pathways: wetlands, fossil fuels (oil/gas and coal), agriculture (livestock and rice cultivation), landfills, and fires. The dominant loss of methane is through oxidation in the atmosphere via the hydroxyl radical (OH). Apart from its radiative effects, methane impacts background tropospheric ozone levels, the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere, and stratospheric water vapor. As such, changes in the abundance of atmospheric methane can have profound impacts on the future state of our climate.