Melting of ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica could cause extreme weather in Canada, research suggests

The melting of ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica could cause more frequent extreme weather events in Canada, a new scientific paper has suggested.

The frozen caps covering the far north and south of the planet are the two largest such bodies in the world.

Between them they hold almost 30 million cubic kilometres of ice.

“We’re underestimating the impact of the ice sheets on the climate system,” said Natalya Gomez, a professor at McGill University and co-author of the paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Climate change has been melting both at an increasing rate. Some say the Antarctic’s western sheet may have already passed a tipping point of irreversible loss.

Scientists have long known such huge volumes of freshwater entering the oceans will have an impact not only on sea levels, but also on weather patterns, by altering the strength of ocean currents that move warmer or colder water around the globe.

Gomez said the total consequences of ice losses on both sheets, in addition to warming produced by the greenhouse effect of carbon in the atmosphere, have never been estimated before.

“You might have more extreme weather events,” said Gomez. “The warmest day of the year may get warmer or last for longer. We may have more really cold days, really stormy days. (There’s) a greater range of possibilities.”

Also on Wednesday, Britain’s Met Office released forecasting data that suggest the next five years will be the warmest since records began in 1850.

The previous five years were the beginning of the record-breaking decade of heat, the institution added.

It forecasts that global temperatures for each of the next five years will be 1C or more higher than pre-industrial levels.

With files from the Canadian Press