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Scientists Warn 1.5°C Global Warming Target May Fail To Save Ice Caps. Scientists say efforts to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C under the Paris Climate Agreement may fail to save the world’s ice sheets, resulting in potentially catastrophic sea level rises. Research led by Durham University, UK, suggests the target should instead be closer to 1°C to avoid significant losses from the polar ice sheets and an accompanying acceleration in sea level rises. Currently, around 230 million people live within one metre of sea level and melting ice represents an existential threat to those communities, including several low-lying nations. The climate scientists’ work suggests that while we should continue to work to reduce temperature rises, even optimistic estimates mean we should prepare to adapt to worst case scenarios. The team reviewed a wealth of evidence to examine the effect that the 1.5°C target would have on the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica which together store enough ice to raise global sea levels by almost 65 metres. The mass of ice lost from these ice sheets has quadrupled since the 1990s and they are currently losing around 370 billion tonnes of ice per year with current warming levels of around 1.2°C above pre-industrial temperatures according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. The authors argue that further warming to 1.5°C would likely generate several metres of sea level rise over the coming centuries as the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets melt in response to both warming air and ocean temperatures. This would cause extensive loss and damage to coastal and island populations and lead to widespread displacement of hundreds of millions of people.