Greenland's Ice Sheet Nearing Point of No Return

A new study has identified two tipping points in relation to the Greenland ice sheet (GIS), which is melting rapidly. Releasing 1,000 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere will completely melt the southern region of the ice sheet, and almost the entire ice sheet would be wiped away permanently with 2,500 gigatons. We've already put 500 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere, so we're already halfway to losing a large chunk of the GIS. The study suggests that even sticking to the 1.5 °C temperature rise above pre-industrial levels mandated in the Paris climate agreement won't be enough to stop the GIS from going past the point where it can't fully recover.