Sustained warming greater than some threshold would lead to the near - complete loss of the Greenland ice
sheet over a millennium or more, causing a global mean sea - level rise of up to 7 meters [23 feet](high confidence).
Not exact matches
That estimate was based in part on the fact that sea level is now rising 3.2 mm / yr (3.2 m /
millennium)[57], an order of magnitude faster than the rate during the prior several thousand years, with rapid change of ice
sheet mass balance
over the past few decades [23] and Greenland and Antarctica now losing mass at accelerating rates [23]--[24].
In one projected event, large parts of the ice
sheet melt and drain into the ocean
over the next
millennia, raising global sea levels by several tens of meters.
It is certainly possible and may be likely for the polar ice
sheets to disappear, causing sea level rise (SLR) of 22 + / - 10 metres
over coming
millennia.
Thus even there, a new equilibrium is reached in a few decades (for extra CO2
over current land occupation) to
millennia (for ice
sheet retraction and plant spread).
Clouds modulate Earth's energy budget
over millennia and more — second only to runaway ice
sheet feedbacks leading to glacials every 100,000 odd years.
The growth and decay of continental ice
sheets represents a slow feedback operating
over millennia; if one is concerned with the more rapid response of the climate to CO2, ice
sheets have to be accounted for as a major forcing.
In addition there are slow climate feedbacks, such as changes of ice
sheet size, that occur mainly
over centuries and
millennia.
That estimate was based in part on the fact that sea level is now rising 3.2 mm / yr (3.2 m /
millennium)[57], an order of magnitude faster than the rate during the prior several thousand years, with rapid change of ice
sheet mass balance
over the past few decades [23] and Greenland and Antarctica now losing mass at accelerating rates [23]--[24].
There is medium confidence that at least partial deglaciation of the Greenland ice
sheet, and possibly the West Antarctic ice
sheet, would occur
over a period of time ranging from centuries to
millennia for a global average temperature increase of 1 - 4 °C (relative to 1990 - 2000), causing a contribution to sea - level rise of 4 - 6 m or more.