scholarly journals Delaying future sea-level rise by storing water in Antarctica

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Frieler ◽  
M. Mengel ◽  
A. Levermann

Abstract. Even if greenhouse gas emissions were stopped today, sea level would continue to rise for centuries, with the long-term sea-level commitment of a 2 °C warmer world significantly exceeding 2 m. In view of the potential implications for coastal populations and ecosystems worldwide, we investigate, from an ice-dynamic perspective, the possibility of delaying sea-level rise by pumping ocean water onto the surface of the Antarctic ice sheet. We find that due to wave propagation ice is discharged much faster back into the ocean than would be expected from a pure advection with surface velocities. The delay time depends strongly on the distance from the coastline at which the additional mass is placed and less strongly on the rate of sea-level rise that is mitigated. A millennium-scale storage of at least 80 % of the additional ice requires placing it at a distance of at least 700 km from the coastline. The pumping energy required to elevate the potential energy of ocean water to mitigate the currently observed 3 mm yr−1 will exceed 7 % of the current global primary energy supply. At the same time, the approach offers a comprehensive protection for entire coastlines particularly including regions that cannot be protected by dikes.

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 1979-1997
Author(s):  
K. Frieler ◽  
M. Mengel ◽  
A. Levermann

Abstract. Even if greenhouse gas emissions were stopped today sea level would continue to rise for centuries with the long-term sea-level commitment of a two-degree-warmer world significantly exceeding 2 m. In view of the potential implications for coastal populations and ecosystems worldwide we investigate, from an ice-dynamic perspective, the possibility to delay sea-level rise by pumping ocean water onto the surface of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. We find that due to wave propagation ice is discharged much faster back into the ocean than would be expected from a pure advection with surface velocities. The delay time depends strongly on the distance from the coastline at which the additional mass is placed and less strongly on the rate of sea-level rise that is mitigated. A millennium-scale storage of at least 80 % of the additional ice requires placing it at a distance of at least 700 km from the coast line. The pumping energy required to elevate the potential energy of ocean water to mitigate the currently observed 3 mm yr-1 will exceed 7 % of the current global primary energy supply. At the same time the approach may be the only way to protect entire coastlines or specific regions that cannot be protected by dikes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
Denizhan Guven ◽  
M. Özgür Kayalica ◽  
Gülgün Kayakutlu

This paper aims to analyze the impact of energy consumption, economic structure, and manufacturing output on the CO2 emissions of East European countries by applying the Structural Time Series Model (STSM). Several explanatory factors are used to construct the model using annual data of the 1990–2017 period. The factors are: total primary energy supply, GDP per capita and manufacturing value added, and, finally, a stochastic Underlying Emission Trend (UET). The significant effects of all variables on CO2 emissions are detected. Based on the estimated functions, CO2 emissions of Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Hungary will decrease, by 2027, to 53.2 Mt, 103.2 Mt, 36.1 Mt, 1528.2 Mt, 36 Mt, and 36.1 Mt, respectively. Distinct from other countries, CO2 emissions of Poland will extend to 312.2 Mt in 2027 due to the very high share of fossil-based supply (i.e., coal and oil) in Poland. The results also indicate that the most forceful factor in CO2 emissions is the total primary energy supply. Furthermore, for Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Belarus, the long-term impact of economic growth on CO2 emissions is negative, while it is positive for Russia, Ukraine, and Serbia. The highest long-term manufacturing value-added elasticity of CO2 emissions is calculated for Serbia and Belarus.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1324
Author(s):  
David Revell ◽  
Phil King ◽  
Jeff Giliam ◽  
Juliano Calil ◽  
Sarah Jenkins ◽  
...  

Sea level rise increases community risks from erosion, wave flooding, and tides. Current management typically protects existing development and infrastructure with coastal armoring. These practices ignore long-term impacts to public trust coastal recreation and natural ecosystems. This adaptation framework models physical responses to the public beach and private upland for each adaptation strategy over time, linking physical changes in widths to damages, economic costs, and benefits from beach recreation and nature using low-lying Imperial Beach, California, as a case study. Available coastal hazard models identified community vulnerabilities, and local risk communication engagement prioritized five adaptation approaches—armoring, nourishment, living shorelines, groins, and managed retreat. This framework innovates using replacement cost as a proxy for ecosystem services normally not valued and examines a managed retreat policy approach using a public buyout and rent-back option. Specific methods and economic values used in the analysis need more research and innovation, but the framework provides a scalable methodology to guide coastal adaptation planning everywhere. Case study results suggest that coastal armoring provides the least public benefits over time. Living shoreline approaches show greater public benefits, while managed retreat, implemented sooner, provides the best long-term adaptation strategy to protect community identity and public trust resources.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sainan Sun ◽  
Frank Pattyn

<p>Mass loss of the Antarctic ice sheet contributes the largest uncertainty of future sea-level rise projections. Ice-sheet model predictions are limited by uncertainties in climate forcing and poor understanding of processes such as ice viscosity. The Antarctic BUttressing Model Intercomparison Project (ABUMIP) has investigated the 'end-member' scenario, i.e., a total and sustained removal of buttressing from all Antarctic ice shelves, which can be regarded as the upper-bound physical possible, but implausible contribution of sea-level rise due to ice-shelf loss. In this study, we add successive layers of ‘realism’ to the ABUMIP scenario by considering sustained regional ice-shelf collapse and by introducing ice-shelf regrowth after collapse with the inclusion of ice-sheet and ice-shelf damage (Sun et al., 2017). Ice shelf regrowth has the ability to stabilize grounding lines, while ice shelf damage may reinforce ice loss. In combination with uncertainties from basal sliding and ice rheology, a more realistic physical upperbound to ice loss is sought. Results are compared in the light of other proposed mechanisms, such as MICI due to ice cliff collapse.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabien Maussion ◽  
Quentin Lejeune ◽  
Ben Marzeion ◽  
Matthias Mengel ◽  
David Rounce ◽  
...  

<p>Mountain glaciers have a delayed response to climate change and are expected to continue to melt long after greenhouse gas emissions have stopped, with consequences both for sea-level rise and water resources. In this contribution, we use the Open Global Glacier Model (OGGM) to compute global glacier volume and runoff changes until the year 2300 under a suite of stylized greenhouse gas emission characterized by (i) the year at which anthropogenic emissions culminate, (ii) their reduction rates after peak emissions and (iii) whether they lead to a long-term global temperature stabilization or decline. We show that even under scenarios that achieve the Paris Agreement goal of holding global-mean temperature below 2 °C, glacier contribution to sea-level rise will continue well beyond 2100. Because of this delayed response, the year of peak emissions (i.e. the timing of mitigation action) has a stronger influence on mit-term global glacier change than other emission scenario characteristics, while long-term change is dependent on all factors. We also discuss the impact of early climate mitigation on regional glacier change and the consequences for glacier runoff, both short-term (where some basins are expected to experience an increase of glacier runoff) and long-term (where all regions are expecting a net-zero or even negative glacier contribution to total runoff), underlining the importance of mountain glaciers for regional water availability at all timescales.</p>


1979 ◽  
Vol 24 (90) ◽  
pp. 213-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig S. Lingle ◽  
James A. Clark

AbstractThe Antarctic ice sheet has been reconstructed at 18000 years b.p. by Hughes and others (in press) using an ice-flow model. The volume of the portion of this reconstruction which contributed to a rise of post-glacial eustatic sea-level has been calculated and found to be (9.8±1.5) × 106 km3. This volume is equivalent to 25±4 m of eustatic sea-level rise, defined as the volume of water added to the ocean divided by ocean area. The total volume of the reconstructed Antarctic ice sheet was found to be (37±6) × 106 km3. If the results of Hughes and others are correct, Antarctica was the second largest contributor to post-glacial eustatic sea-level rise after the Laurentide ice sheet. The Farrell and Clark (1976) model for computation of the relative sea-level changes caused by changes in ice and water loading on a visco-elastic Earth has been applied to the ice-sheet reconstruction, and the results have been combined with the changes in relative sea-level caused by Northern Hemisphere deglaciation as previously calculated by Clark and others (1978). Three families of curves have been compiled, showing calculated relative sea-level change at different times near the margin of the possibly unstable West Antarctic ice sheet in the Ross Sea, Pine Island Bay, and the Weddell Sea. The curves suggest that the West Antarctic ice sheet remained grounded to the edge of the continental shelf until c. 13000 years b.p., when the rate of sea-level rise due to northern ice disintegration became sufficient to dominate emergence near the margin predicted otherwise to have been caused by shrinkage of the Antarctic ice mass. In addition, the curves suggest that falling relative sea-levels played a significant role in slowing and, perhaps, reversing retreat when grounding lines approached their present positions in the Ross and Weddell Seas. A predicted fall of relative sea-level beneath the central Ross Ice Shelf of as much as 23 m during the past 2000 years is found to be compatible with recent field evidence that the ice shelf is thickening in the south-east quadrant.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Lawrence ◽  
Jonathan Boston ◽  
R Bell ◽  
S Olufson ◽  
R Kool ◽  
...  

Purpose of Review: Managed retreat will be inevitable where other adaptation options, such as protective structures or building restrictions, provide only temporary respite or are otherwise uneconomic, technically impractical or both. Here, we focus on the implementation of pre-emptive managed retreat, providing examples of how it can be sequenced, socialised and given the governance enablers necessary for implementation. Recent Findings: Ongoing sea-level rise during the twenty-first century and beyond poses huge adaptation challenges, especially for low-lying coastal and floodplain settlements. Settlements are already functionally disrupted from repetitive non-extreme flooding and research shows that sea-level rise will impact far more people, far sooner than previously thought, as more powerful storms, heavy rainfall and rising groundwater coincide with higher tides. To date, most examples of managed retreat have been post-disaster responses following damage and disruption. Pre-emptive managed retreat, by contrast, has yet to become a well-accepted and widely practised adaptation response. Nevertheless, there are increasing examples of research and practice on how pre-emptive managed retreat can be designed, sequenced and implemented alongside other forms of adaptation within anticipatory forms of governance. Summary: The current state of knowledge about managed retreat is reviewed and critical insights and lessons for governance and policy-making are given. Several novel examples from New Zealand are presented to address some of the implementation gaps. Goals and principles are enunciated to inform long-term adaptation strategies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 833-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiko Goelzer ◽  
Violaine Coulon ◽  
Frank Pattyn ◽  
Bas de Boer ◽  
Roderik van de Wal

Abstract. Estimating the contribution of marine ice sheets to sea-level rise is complicated by ice grounded below sea level that is replaced by ocean water when melted. The common approach is to only consider the ice volume above floatation, defined as the volume of ice to be removed from an ice column to become afloat. With isostatic adjustment of the bedrock and external sea-level forcing that is not a result of mass changes of the ice sheet under consideration, this approach breaks down, because ice volume above floatation can be modified without actual changes in the sea-level contribution. We discuss a consistent and generalised approach for estimating the sea-level contribution from marine ice sheets.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1.6) ◽  
pp. 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ansari Saleh Ahmar

Humans in this world are very dependent on petroleum and energy. Petroleum and other energies are a major source in supporting human life. Regarding the reduced petroleum availability, a new energy is needed to replace the role of petroleum. Nowadays, there is much renewable energy that have been discovered and used. The purpose of this research is to predict the total primary energy supply in Indonesia by using α-Sutte Indicator and ARIMA method, and comparing those four methods which are effective in predicting data. Data from the research is renewable energy (total primary energy supply) which is obtained from OECD from 1971-2015. From the research, it is found that the α-Sutte Indicator method is more suitable to predict renewable energy (total primary energy supply) data in Indonesia compared to ARIMA (0,1,0). 


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