Widespread ice losses from Greenland have locked in nearly a foot of global sea level rise that’s set to come in the near future — and new research suggests there is no way to stop it, even if the world stopped releasing planet-heating emissions today.

The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that the overall ice loss from Greenland’s ice sheet will trigger at least 10 inches of sea level rise, no matter the climate warming scenarios. That’s generally the same amount that global seas have already risen over the last century from Greenland, Antarctica and thermal expansion (when ocean water expands as it warms) combined.

Researchers from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland observed changes in ice-sheet volume in and around Greenland and saw that meltwater runoff has been the primary driver. Using “well-established theory,” the scientists were able to determine that around 3.3% of the Greenland ice sheet — equivalent to 110 trillion tons of ice — will inevitably melt as the ice […]