> Oh, and the quote in the documentary implied a complete melting of the
> Greenland icesheet in the next half century, which is quite a
> different thing than a few meters of sea level rise by 2100. No one
> would claim that there is any reasonable probability of a complete
> loss of the Greenland (or West Antarctic) ice sheets in the timeframe
> of a century.
Well, I think this section from Hansen's article linked by Michael
Tobis comes awfully close:
"However, the primary issue is whether global warming will reach a
level such that ice sheets begin to disintegrate in a rapid, non-
linear fashion on West Antarctica, Greenland or both. Once well under
way, such a collapse might be impossible to stop, because there are
multiple positive feedbacks. In that event, a sea level rise of
several metres at least would be expected.
As an example, let us say that ice sheet melting adds 1 centimetre to
sea level for the decade 2005 to 2015, and that this doubles each
decade until the West Antarctic ice sheet is largely depleted. This
would yield a rise in sea level of more than 5 metres by 2095."
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