Greenland’s ice sheet could break up if the temperature rises by as little as 2C. Last week, the Petermann glacier lost a 100 sq mile chunk of ice.

The entire ice mass of Greenland will disappear from the world map if temperatures rise by as little as 2C, with severe consequences for the rest of the world, a panel of scientists told Congress today.

Greenland shed its largest chunk of ice in nearly half a century last week, and faces an even grimmer future, according to Richard Alley, a geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University

‘Sometime in the next decade we may pass that tipping point which would put us warmer than temperatures that Greenland can survive,’ Alley told a briefing in Congress, adding that a rise in the range of 2C to 7C would mean the obliteration of Greenland’s ice sheet.

The fall-out would be felt thousands of miles away from the Arctic, unleashing a global sea level rise of 23ft (7 metres), Alley warned. Low-lying cities such as New Orleans would vanish.

‘What is going on in the Arctic now is the biggest and fastest thing that nature has ever done,’ he said.

Speaking by phone, Alley was addressing a briefing held by the […]