At the end of the last ice age, the Earth slowly warmed by 4–7 °C globally14 and lost almost two-thirds of its land ice in the process. That raised sea level by 120 metres, at rates often exceeding a metre per century1. It seems that nothing in the present ice-sheet configuration would rule out similar rates in future. How much of the remaining 65 metres’ worth of land ice will humans melt if we warm the planet by a further several degrees?
A new view on sea level rise : article : Nature Reports Climate Change
At the end of the last ice age, the ice sheet extended as far south as 40N (New York and Chicago). By contrast, the southern tip of Greenland is at 60N. Temperatures in the center of the Greenland ice sheet have not gotten above freezing at any time this year.
Besides the fact that the remaining ice is located much further north, most is at much higher elevation and the surface area is much smaller than it was 15,000 years ago. Melt rates producing sea level rise of one metre per century are completely implausible.
Rahmstorf has absolutely no idea what he is talking about.
We are currently between [interglacial] ice ages Mr. Rahmstorf will know this well, during these phases the ice will melt, as it has done, the equilibrium is nicely balanced, the poles are not melting. It is a boon for mankind, this warmth should be celebrated with an almighty thanks.
The trigger and why-fors which brings to an end – a glacial period is not understood, what we do know, is that, geologically speaking it is sudden.
As you say Steve, the ice was much extended in the NH and SH.
I live in a relict glaciated valley, at one time or another it is reckoned the ice height above where I type – was between 2 – 5 thousand feet thickness – that’s a helluva lot of water, when it melted it had to go somewhere.
Rahmstorf, is a German version of Mickey Mann, his big mate is Schellnhuber who is another green lunatic, together they form the Axis of green bollox between PIK, UEA, Penn State they are all as bad as each other and compete for the most preposterous headlines – and science long ago fled, abandoning these faculties to their CAGW advocacy and eco-alchemy.
‘Nature’??????????????? Ha Ha Ha – what a comic, it is become.
Lol, Steve, Rahmy just co-authored another paper, Schaeffer et al. predicting 3 meters of sea rise in a world warming by 1.5- 2°C . Most of Schaeffer et al, relied on Kemp et al 2010 for their temp/sea level measurements. (Climate related sea-level variations over the past two millennia) Again, co-authored by Rahmy.
One of the most hilarious parts of the study is that to determine past sea level rise, they did a paleo study from one place in North Carolina. (2000 years!) To verify the accuracy to the study, they compared their finding to other paleo sea level studies. And they match!!! ….. well, they do if you apply a variable GIA to the various paleo studies. The values of the various GIAs vary from 0mm/yr, to 1.7mm/yr!
Now, before anyone starts yelling about how stupid that is, you must be warned that this approach has been verified by a refereed paper, titled, Testing the robustness of semi-empirical sea level projections (2011) The lead author was Rahmstorf, of course.
As far as I can recall, Mann was on a similar paper that did a “sea-level reconstruction” from just two sites that looks like a hockey-stick. It’s bad enough that alarmists look at sea-ice in the Arctic only and start panicking. At least in that scenario there are two points of data.
Rahmsdorf is a shameless publicity hungry fraud that besmirches the reputation of science in Germany.
So , we find out that Rahmstorf is just another Mann. Hahahahahaha , These charlatans posing as learned individuals wouldn’t make a good third rate technician between the two of them. I can picture them in their stupidity and arrogance argueing between themselves about who is better, makes for a funny thought. Their parents totally wasted what ever effort they put into getting them educated because obviously none of it took.
Maybe it would melt if we concentrated the energy of all 400,000 Hiroshimas there.
There is so much stuff out there that contradicts these fraudsters, just another example here
http://carc.org/pubs/v15no5/5.htm
“By about 7000 years ago the massive glaciers of the last Ice Age had retreated to the mountain peaks of the eastern Canadian Arctic. Tundra vegetation had become established, and was grazed by caribou, muskoxen, and, in some areas, by bison. The gulfs and channels between the arctic islands had long been at least seasonally ice-free, and provided a home to populations of seals, walrus, and whales. There is considerable evidence that for the next 3500 years the arctic climate was noticeably warmer than today, the tree-line was north of its present position, sea ice was less extensive, and animal populations were large and well established.”
Robert McGhee is Head of Scientific Section, Archaeological Survey of Canada, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa.
The truth is out there…