The almost immediate consequences would include the loss of reliable water resources for millions of people, and the start of a process leading to ultimate sea level rise of 4-10 metres or more.
The warning comes in a report by the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI), a group of scientists, diplomats and others who say climate change “is happening in the cryosphere faster and more dramatically than anywhere else on earth”.
The report says that unless the negotiators at the COP21 climate change summit in Paris show far more ambition than they have so far, the verdict on this conference will be “too little, too late”.
Cryosphere dynamics
Pam Pearson, ICCI’s founder and director, introduced the report on the risks of irreversible climate change in the cryosphere − the scientific name for the parts of the world that are covered in ice and snow for part or all of the year – by saying: “We are worried by the disconnect between cryosphere dynamics and the policy response.”
The report warns of “the very great risks posed by the irreversible cryosphere thresholds”, and says that current Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs − plans detailing the greenhouse gas emissions cuts countries agree to make – ”will not prevent our crossing into this zone of irreversibility”
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“Never has a single generation held the future of so many coming generations, species and ecosystems in its hands”
The ICCI’s report says there is little time to act as thresholds are drawing closer. “Unless governments move quickly and effectively in Paris towards larger, earlier commitments to keep peak temperatures in the cryosphere as low as possible, the windows to prevent some of these changes may close during the 2020-2030 commitment period. And some of these thresholds . . . cannot be reversed at all.”
Read more at Climate Heads for Irreversible Change
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