Greenland’s melting ice sheets, known as “Zombie Ice”, will soon cause average sea levels to rise to a stunning 10.6 inches. The Zombie Ice itself is made up of “doomed” ice that is still attached to very thick areas of already existing ice. The catch is that the ice is no longer receiving snow from its parent glacier. If the ice does not get snow or replenishment, it will soon melt from Climate Change. When the Zombie Ice has fully melted, it will be twice as high as what scientists initially expected; the maximum as stated could be 30 inches. 

While the environment will be heavily affected, this will also affect society. The rising water will have an effect on coastal cities as well as the soil around those areas. The erosion will cause trouble for farmers and threaten housing. The organization Sustainability For All wrote in the article “Sea level rise: causes and consequences” that not only would the latter be affected but, “The flooding of wetlands and pollution of aquifers also occur, affecting the flora and fauna of each place, causing the loss of habitat for fish, birds, plants and many other species.”

William Colgan, the scientist who published his findings on August 29 in Nature Climate Change, said, “It’s just going to melt and disappear from the ice sheet … this ice has been consigned to the ocean.” Since no huge action has been done, in Colgan’s eyes, no matter what other scientists or activists do, the rise is impending.

In 2021 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that the ocean would only rise 2-5 inches, when accounting for Greenland’s glaciers, by the year 2100. The scientists did not account for the now present system of Greenland’s glaciers, which includes: more melting and less replenishment. 

NPR’s associated press article “Zombie Ice will raise sea levels more than twice as much as previously forecast,” stated that, “3.3% of Greenland’s total ice volume will melt no matter what happens with the world cutting carbon pollution.” The article goes on to say, “More than 120 trillion tons of ice is already doomed to melt from the warming ice sheet’s inability to replenish its edges. When that ice melts into water, if it were concentrated only over the United States, it would be 37 feet deep.” 

The study also stated that 3.3 percent of Greenland’s ice sheet, which is one of the only ice sheets left on Earth other than the Antarctic Ice Sheet, will melt. The 3.3 percent in total would be 110 trillion tons of ice that scientists noted will melt within the 21st century. Colgan described what’s happening to ice, as that it’s starving from lack of replenishment, therefore lack of nutrients. 

According to Nature.com’s 2020 study “The hysteresis of the Antarctic Ice Sheet” reported on the melting ice sheet in the Antarctic. It showed that “The Antarctic Ice Sheet exhibits a multitude of temperature thresholds beyond which ice loss is irreversible … Antarctica is committed to become virtually ice-free.” 

This data about the Antarctic isn’t shocking if you consider the status of Zombie Ice and what effects it will also have on the Earth in the next century. As more information regarding this event comes to light, society will have to begin to change and develop new ways to preserve the planet.