Ice sheet collapse: The greatest unknown in climate science | Jon Gertner

Give yourself the gift of knowledge — subscribe to Big Think Edge: http://bit.ly/bigthinkedge The ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are remnants of the ice age. They're also the wild cards of climate science. - The science of glaciology and ice sheets is quite new, as methods to measure melting glaciers were only realized with the advent of aviation and lasers. - The world's sea levels are rising 3mm per year, and of that Greenland's ice sheet contributes 1mm – it is losing between 250 to 300 billion tons of ice per year. Three millimeters total is not much, but ice sheets don't always operate in a linear fashion. - No human has ever witnessed an ice sheet collapse. It is also such a rare event that models cannot accurately predict what the effect will be. Can we halt global warming before we reach that tipping point? If you're interested in licensing this or any other Big Think clip for commercial or private use, contact our licensing partner Executive Interviews: :https://ift.tt/2IQF1gR Read more at BigThink.com: https://ift.tt/2RHIWzj Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: https://ift.tt/1qJMX5g Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink