The potential five-metre rise in ocean levels within the next century has raised urgent concerns, climatologist Alexey Kokorin told Sputnik.
This comes after scientists from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) announced that the world's largest iceberg, A23a, has reached the clear waters of the Southern Ocean and is projected to reach the Scotia Sea in the next month.
However, under the influence of wind, waves, and warm ocean waters, A23a may melt and cease to exist.
Though, as Kokorin claims, the rising sea levels caused by A23a melting will be minimal, he emphasised that the destruction of glaciers in the western part of Antarctica is a crucial factor contributing to the overall rise of the ocean.
A23а Iceberg drifting towards the open waters of the Southern Ocean
© Photo : Roscosmos
The potential increase in sea levels poses significant challenges for coastal regions worldwide.
"The formation of icebergs will intensify. The icebergs will not necessarily be as big, but about five small icebergs may appear,” Kokorin said.
Kokorin suggested that although the melting of Greenland's glaciers and thermal expansion of water also contribute to rising sea levels, the melting of the western shelf of Antarctica has the greatest impact which is extremely difficult to predict.
Kokorin insisted that to fight rising sea levels, one needs to tackle global warming and achieve carbon neutrality.
“It would still be good if we all stopped global warming by achieving carbon neutrality, so that the ocean rose by 1.5 to 2 metres, and that would have stopped everything,” the climatologist said.
Carbon neutrality is one of the goals proclaimed by the Paris Agreement on climate change. The US and EU countries plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, Russia and China by 2060, India by 2070.