Antarctica and Greenland Raised Sea Levels More Than Half an Inch in Just 16 Years, New NASA Data Shows
01 May
Climate
Greenland's fast-melting Kangerdlugssup glacier. NASA / Jim Yungel
Greenland and Antarctica have raised global sea levels by more than half an inch in the last 16 years, according to data from the most advanced laser that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has ever launched into space to observe the earth.
<p>While the figures themselves are consistent with other studies, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/30/climate/antarctica-ice-climate-change.html?campaign_id=51&emc=edit_MBE_p_20200501&instance_id=18124&nl=morning-briefing&regi_id=88631294&section=whatElse&segment_id=26351&te=1&user_id=d8eb7cee9d3c5ab39515239b6ec54d19" target="_blank">The New York Times pointed out</a>, the satellite laser allows researchers a much more precise picture of how polar ice is changing over time, which helps determine the role of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> and plan for future <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>.</p><p>"We've all been waiting for this new dataset," Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory research professor Robin Bell <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/30/848398472/antarctica-and-greenland-are-losing-thousands-of-gigatons-of-ice-thats-a-lot?utm_term=nprnews&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=npr&fbclid=IwAR2t-fTSchEfWMFJe_R91Jy86koAqTfmGlewTvq9eG6z0lzpdM1w8GjogGY" target="_blank">told NPR</a>.</p>
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<p>The study, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04/29/science.aaz5845" target="_blank">published in Science Thursday</a>, combines data from two NASA satellites: the original Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), which took measurements from 2003 to 2009, and ICESat-2, launched in 2018. The two satellites allowed researchers to measure changes in ice mass from 2003 to 2019, and to calculate that Greenland and Antarctica contributed 0.55 inches to sea level rise during that time. That's around a third of the global total, which was also driven by the expansion of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">oceans</a> as they warm, NPR explained.</p><p>"If you watch a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers" target="_self">glacier</a> or ice sheet for a month, or a year, you're not going to learn much about what the climate is doing to it," University of Washington glaciologist and lead study author Ben Smith said in a <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2981/nasa-space-laser-missions-map-16-years-of-ice-sheet-loss/?fbclid=IwAR0vi9r5VM03t_d9hDoceJSHkeEsxDtzOIApDy3x4TniEx4UowY02_j-bSM" target="_blank">NASA press release</a>. "We now have a 16-year span between ICESat and ICESat-2 and can be much more confident that the changes we're seeing in the ice have to do with the long-term changes in the climate."</p>
<p>The data also revealed that Greenland's ice sheet lost an average of 200 gigatons of ice per year and Antarctica's lost an average of 118. That's more than 5,000 gigatons total, NPR reported. To put that in perspective, one gigaton is enough to fill 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.</p><p>But the satellite data also helped show how the ice was being lost. In Antarctica, the East actually gained mass, probably because of increased precipitation, The New York Times reported. But this was offset by losses in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula. In West Antarctica, 30 percent of that loss was due to floating ice, which either calves icebergs or melts from below due to warm ocean water. While this ice cannot contribute directly to sea level rise because it is already floating, its loss destabilizes the so-called "grounded ice" that can.</p><p>"It's like an apple tart and the ice shelves are like the wall of pastry around the edges of the tart," Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego glaciologist and study coauthor Helen Fricker explained to NPR. "And if those walls are too thin or they're not baked well enough, then the filling will ooze out."</p><p>In Greenland, two thirds of the ice loss was due to surface melting, something that rarely occurs in Antarctica, The New York Times said. Greenland also lost a lot of mass from its coastal glaciers, according to NASA. Its Kangerdulgssuaq and Jakobshavn glaciers have shrunken by 14 to 20 feet per year.</p>
<p>NASA explained why its satellites were able to provide such a detailed portrait:</p><blockquote>ICESat-2's instrument is a laser altimeter, which sends 10,000 pulses of light a second down to Earth's surface, and times how long it takes to return to the satellite – to within a billionth of a second. The instrument's pulse rate allows for a dense map of measurement over the ice sheet; its high precision allows scientists to determine how much an ice sheet changes over a year to within an inch.<br><br>The researchers took tracks of earlier ICESat measurements and overlaid the tracks of ICESat-2 measurements from 2019, and took data from the tens of millions of sites where the two data sets intersected. That gave them the elevation change, but to get to how much ice has been lost, the researchers developed a new model to convert volume change to mass change. The model calculated densities across the ice sheets to allow the total mass loss to be calculated.</blockquote><p>This level of detail is essential for helping coastal residents and governments plan for sea level rise, which is expected to reach two to six feet by 2100, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/30/climate-change-antarctica-greenland-ice-melt-raised-sea-levels-by-half-inch-in-last-16-years.html" target="_blank">according to CNBC</a>.</p><p>"Our goal is to be able to tell every coastal community what they can plan on [in] the coming decades," Bell told NPR. "To be able to do that, we both need to measure how the ice is changing but also understand better why it's changing."</p>
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Antarctica before and after its hottest day on record Feb. 6. NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and GEOS-5 data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC.
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Small iceberg in ice fjord with mountainous background, Southern Greenland. Education Images / Universal Images Group / Getty Images
Greenland's kilometers-long ice sheet underwent near-record imbalance last year, scientists have reported on Wednesday.
The ice sheet suffered a net loss of 600 billion tons, which was enough to raise the global watermark 1.5 millimeters, accounting for approximately 40% of total sea-level rise in 2019.
The alarming development was reported in "The Cryosphere," a peer-reviewed journal published by the European Geosciences Union.
<p>Researchers noted that the massive melt was not due only to warm temperatures but also to unusual high-pressure weather systems, which suggested that scientists may be <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/tipping-points-some-corners-of-the-globe-have-a-key-impact-on-climate-change/a-16196401" target="_blank">underestimating the threats the ice faces</a>.</p><p>The unusual high-pressure weather systems are linked to climate change and they have blocked the formation of clouds, causing unfiltered sunlight to melt the surface of the ice sheet. </p><p>Fewer clouds also meant less snow, which researchers found to be some 100 billion tons below the 1980-1999 average. </p>
<p>"These atmospheric conditions are becoming more and more frequent over the past few decades," said lead author Marco Tedesco, a scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.</p><p>"This is very likely due to the 'waviness' in the jet stream," a powerful, high-altitude ribbon of wind moving from west to east over the polar region, he said. </p><p>"We're destroying ice in decades that was built over thousands of years," Tedesco warned. </p><p>Greenland's ice sheet is the second largest in the world and it is located high in the Arctic region, where average temperatures have risen 2 degrees Celsius since the mid-19th century, twice the global average. </p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/record-shrinking-of-greenlands-ice-sheet-raises-sea-levels/a-53155868?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2645742998#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
By Alex Matthews
Every year 150 climate scientists fly far into the wilderness and bore deep into Greenland's largest glacier. Their work is complicated and important. The EastGRIP project is trying to understand how ice streams underneath the glacier are pushing vast amounts of ice into the ocean, and how this contributes to rising sea levels. But this year the drills will be silent. The ice streams will go unmeasured.
<p>The reason is the coronavirus. The fallout from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-eu-internal-borders-could-stay-shut/a-53002172" target="_blank">measures to contain</a> the outbreak have made the research impossible. Greenland is closed to foreigners. Its government is worried any outbreak could be particularly dangerous to its indigenous population and rapidly overwhelm its health services.</p><p>Even if the country were open, it just isn't practical to bring an international team of scientists together, 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away from the nearest airport, in case one of them is sick. The transport planes that normally fly in the teams and resupply them have also been grounded. Nobody wants to be responsible for bringing small, isolated communities into contact with the virus. </p>
Going Without Results
<p>The scientists are missing out on a lot. They were hoping to complete the 2,660-meter (8,727-feet) hole they have been drilling for the past five years, and finally access the ice streams they've been hunting for.</p><p>"We were actually hoping to reach the bedrock this year, which is super exciting, as we are down where the ice stream flow really is important," explains Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Professor of Ice, Climate and Earth at the University of Copenhagen and chairperson for EastGRIP's steering committee.</p><p>"How does this ice actually flow? That really is what we have been waiting for for five years, what was going to happen this year. All of that has now been put back. We will have to live without the results." </p>Damaged Equipment
<p>When the team returns next year, it's data and understanding they will have lost. Another year of snow will have buried trenches and covered equipment, meaning they will spend more time repairing and replacing buildings and hardware. </p><p>It's a problem faced by Dr Ken Mankoff and the team he works with at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. They are examining the health of the ice sheets in Greenland and monitoring snowfall. They also have monitoring equipment in the field that could fail if they cannot reach it, leaving gaps in data that has been collected for decades. </p><p>"In the worst-case scenario there will be a 12-month gap," he says. "Some of that data can be filled in with satellites and remote sensing, other parts are unique and will be lost."</p>Junior Scientists' Careers Affected
<p>Dahl-Jensen and Mankoff will have to wait until they can return to their respective sites and hope the loss of data won't upset their research too much. For now, both say they are happier remaining at home and keeping themselves, their teams and everyone else they would otherwise encounter safe.</p><p>But for younger scientists, those working on research with short-term funding, and those working towards academic qualifications on a timescale, the lack of results is a much bigger problem. The <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-research-vessel-begins-yearlong-drift-through-arctic-ocean/a-50706787" target="_blank">next generation of climate scientists will be affected</a>. </p><p>"There are junior colleagues, and this will have a significant impact on their career if they cannot get the data for the project that they need to do their work," says Mankoff. "My attitude will not be shared by everybody else, and I doubt it is."</p>Most Productive Time of the Year
<p>Someone who can relate is Dr Joran Moen, director of the University Center in Svalbard (UCIS) in Norway, the world's northernmost higher education institution. The school was shutdown and fieldwork cancelled, following orders from the Norwegian government. Around 70 students in Svalbard alone will be unable to complete fieldwork contributing to masters degrees or PhDs.</p><p>"The transition from March to June is a very important time for operations and for monitoring climate change in the area," he says. "We are in a part of the Arctic with a very dramatic change due to the temperature rapidly changing. It's a very good place to be to see how mankind can influence the climate and the effects of it."</p><p>"As for data gaps, the entire international community on Svalbard will have that problem, and of course that will also impact on our research. For students to be missing something like this in their research is a problem." </p>Waiting Game
<p>Moen and the UCIS have made provisions for as much education as possible to continue. Classes have moved online and small, risk-free research trips are still being planned. Dahl-Jensen and Mankoff are waiting to see when they can reach their equipment, and planning how much extra work they may have to do in the snow.</p><p>Climate science is also waiting, to see when it will continue, and just how vital the missing data will be. </p>From Your Site Articles
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Greenland Lost 600 Billion Tons of Ice Last Summer, Raising Sea Levels, NASA Study Finds
19 March
Science
Umiamako Glacier enters the ocean in the west of Greenland. E.RIGNOT / NASA
Greenland experienced an unusually warm summer in 2019, which caused the world's largest island to lose 600 billion tons of ice and raised sea levels by 0.2 of an inch, according to a NASA study released yesterday. That amount of ice loss more than doubled Greenland's 2002-2019 annual average.
<p>The data comes from the joint <a href="https://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grace-fo/" target="_blank">U.S.-German space mission known as Grace-FO</a>, a pair of satellites that circle the globe and sense the variations in mass that correspond to Earth's gravity field, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51954988" target="_blank">according to the BBC</a>. The satellites are particularly adept at sensing tiny changes in the Earth's gravitational field caused by ice gain or loss. They have proven themselves useful in detecting groundwater storage around the globe, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/03/18/greenland-lost-near-record-600-billion-tons-ice-last-summer-raising-sea-levels/" target="_blank">according to the Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>The study also looked at Antarctica, noting that it continues to lose its ice mass, particularly in the Amundsen Sea Embayment and the Antarctic Peninsula on the western part of the continent, according to <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7618" target="_blank">NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a>. </p>
<p>"We knew this past summer had been particularly warm in Greenland, melting every corner of the ice sheet," lead author Isabella Velicogna, senior project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor at University of California, Irvine, said in a <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7618" target="_blank">statement</a>. "But the numbers really are enormous."</p>
<p>The study was published in the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2020GL087291" target="_blank">Geophysical Research Letters</a>. It tracked ice loss in Greenland dating back to 2002, using information from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) satellites, which went out of commission in 2017, and the new Grace-FO satellites, which launched in 2018. The FO stands for Follow On, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
<p>The satellites revealed that from 2002 to 2019, Greenland lost 4,550 billion tons of ice, for an average of 261 billion tons every year, according to The Washington Post. 2012 and 2019 were the two largest melt years in that time frame, the BBC reported.</p>
<p>Velicogna told The Washington Post what made 2019 so different in Greenland was that there was a lot of melting from the glaciers in the north and northeastern glaciers, which is unusual. </p>
<p>"And, so, basically, we have melting all around the ice sheet," she said. </p>
<p>In the coastal town of Ilulissat, not far from where the mighty Jakobshavn Glacier enters the ocean, temperatures reached into the high 20s Celsius this summer. The warm temperatures even reached the ice sheet's interior, which approached above freezing levels, the BBC reported. </p>
<p>"It's significant that we're now seeing melt and mass loss extending to Greenland's northern glaciers. All of Greenland contributed to the big summer melt of last year," Velicogna said, according to the BBC.</p>
<p>Robin Bell, an expert on ice sheet dynamics at Columbia University, to The Washington Post that the satellite data will help researchers improve the accuracy of their future sea-level rise estimates. </p><p>"This is a beautiful update of how we can really see how the ice sheets are changing…from the annual inhale and exhale as snow accumulates in the winter in Greenland and melts in the summer," she said.</p>
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An iceberg melts off of Greenland. Danita Delimont / Getty Images
The polar ice caps are melting six times faster than they were in the 1990s, the most comprehensive look at the data to date has found.
<p>That data, compiled and analyzed by the <a href="http://imbie.org/" target="_blank">Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise (IMBIE)</a>, puts the melting of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/greenland" target="_self">Greenland</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/antarctica" target="_self">Antarctica</a>'s ice sheets on track with the worst-case-scenario prediction from the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> (IPCC). If this trend continues, it could put 400 million people at risk from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a> by 2100.</p><p>"That's not a good news story," professor Andrew Shepherd from the University of Leeds <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51846468" target="_blank">told BBC News</a>.</p><p>Shepherd helped lead an international team of 89 polar scientists who analyzed ice loss at both poles using 26 surveys and 11 satellite missions between 1992 and 2018, according to a <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/4561/six-fold_increase_in_polar_ice_losses_since_the_1990s" target="_blank">University of Leeds press release</a>.</p><p>They found that Greenland and Antarctica together lost 6.4 trillion tonnes (approximately 7.1 trillion U.S. tons) of ice between 1992 and 2017, raising global sea levels by 17.8 millimeters (approximately .7 inches). Not only that, but the rate of loss accelerated. The ice sheets lost 81 billion tonnes (approximately 89 billion U.S. tons) a year in the 1990s and 475 billion tonnes (approximately 524 billion U.S. tons) a year in the 2010s. This means they are now contributing much more to sea level rise.</p>
<p>"Today, the ice sheets contribute about a third of all sea-level rise, whereas in the 1990s, their contribution was actually pretty small at about 5%. This has important implications for the future, for coastal flooding and erosion," Shepherd told BBC News.</p><p>The Antarctica figures were published in Nature in 2018, while the Greenland figures were published in Nature this week.</p><p>The two polar regions have responded slightly differently, according to the press release. Ice melt in Antarctica has contributed 40 percent of the combined total sea level rise and is driven by warm ocean water melting its glaciers. Ice melt in Greenland, which accounts for 60 percent of the sea level rise, is driven partly by ocean water but partly by warmer air temperatures melting the surface of its ice sheet.</p>
<p>In both cases, the extent of the ice loss is clear evidence of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, research leader Erik Ivins of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/11/polar-ice-caps-melting-six-times-faster-than-in-1990s?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco&fbclid=IwAR3w692OeS1yczfedxzhxo_JzFQvO7m-yJZwgc5F9UpoxwG8xoCNVY1USRY" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>"The satellite measurements provide prima facie, rather irrefutable, evidence," he said.</p><p>The findings have serious consequences for the future. The IPCC most recently predicted sea levels would rise 53 centimeters (approximately 21 inches) by 2100, putting 360 million people at risk from coastal flooding every year. But, the new data puts sea levels on track to rise an additional 17 centimeters (approximately 6.7 inches). This would increase the number of people at risk from yearly coastal flooding by 2100 to 400 million.</p><p>"These are not unlikely events with small impacts; they are already underway and will be devastating for coastal communities," Shepherd said in the press release.</p><p>However, this future is not inevitable. While Shepherd told The Guardian that the ice caps would melt for another 30 years even if greenhouse gas emissions ceased today, there is still time to limit the amount of melting.</p><p>"We can offset some of that [sea level rise] if we stop heating the planet," he said.</p>
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Grounded icebergs seen in Northeast Greenland, Polar regions, the region of the 79 North Glacier studied by scientists to find warm ocean currents beneath are carving away the ice sheet. Michael Nolan / robertharding / Getty Images
The Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than ever recorded in modern history. New research finds that the world's second-largest ice deposit is not just melting from the surface but from below as well, which adds a new twist to consider when predicting global sea level rise.
<p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Arctic" rel="noopener noreferrer">Arctic</a> ice sheet stores large quantities of frozen water extending 1.7 million square kilometers (656,000 square miles) long, <a href="https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/quickfacts/icesheets.html" target="_blank">according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center</a>. In recent years it has seen unprecedented melting — seven times faster today than in the 1990s — that is likely to be intensified by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate crisis</a>. Scientists estimate that if the Greenland Ice Sheet completely melted, sea levels would rise by about 20 feet. </p>
<p>Researchers have long known that surface melt occurs from exposure to the sun and rising temperatures, but Arctic scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (<a href="https://www.awi.de/en.html" target="_blank">AWI</a>) in Germany have now determined that an underwater current of warmer <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water">water</a> is carving a destructive path below the surface.</p><p>To come to their findings, the team took to the 79 North Glacier, a 50-mile-long "<a href="https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glossary/term/glacier-tongue" target="_blank">tongue</a>" of floating ice that has slid into the ocean and floats on the surface while remaining connected to the land ice. In the last two decades the 79 North Glacier has seen dramatic loss of both its mass and thickness. The first-ever extensive ship-based survey of the ocean floor revealed an underwater current more than a mile-wide arriving from the Atlantic Ocean, bringing heat into contact with the glacier to accelerate its melting. </p>
<p>"The reason for the intensified melting is now clear," researcher Janin Schaffer <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/awih-hto012920.php" target="_blank">said</a>, <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/awih-hto012920.php" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to EurekAlert!</a><a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/aboutus.php" target="_blank"></a>. "Because the warm water current is larger, substantially more warmth now makes its way under the ice tongue, second for second."</p><p>Schaffer and her team also found what is known as a bathymetric sill, which acts as a dam to water flowing over the seafloor. As water builds up against this barrier, it grows until eventually rushing over and coming into contact with the tongue, further melting the ice from below. </p><p>"The readings indicate that here, too, a bathymetric sill near the seafloor accelerates warm water toward the glacier. Apparently, the intensive melting on the underside of the ice at several sites throughout Greenland is largely produced by the form of the seafloor,"Schaffer said. </p><p>Writing in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0529-x" target="_blank">Nature Geoscience</a>, the study authors add that similar effects were seen at other parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet as well. The researchers say that their findings may help to more accurately gauge the total amount of meltwater lost from the ice sheet each year.</p>
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A new study shows that half of all Arctic warming and corresponding sea-loss during the late 20th century was caused by ozone-depleting substances. Here, icebergs discharged from Greenland's Jakobshavn Glacier. Kevin Krajick / Earth Institute / EurekAlert!
The world awakened to the hole in the ozone layer in 1985, which scientists attributed it to ozone-depleting substances. Two years later, in Montreal, the world agreed to ban the halogen compounds causing the massive hole over Antarctica. Research now shows that those chemicals didn't just cut a hole in the ozone layer, they also warmed up the Arctic.
<p>Now a new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0677-4" target="_blank">study</a> has found that those <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ozone" rel="noopener noreferrer">ozone</a>-depleting substances (ODS), which were developed in the 20s and 30s were responsible for roughly one-third of global warming from 1955 to 2005 and half of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic" rel="noopener noreferrer">Arctic</a> warming and sea-ice loss during that period. The study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0677-4" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a>.</p>
<p>The ODS, which includes chlorofluorocarbons, were widely used as refrigerants, solvents and propellants and became ubiquitous in the 1950s. They acted as a strong addition to carbon dioxide gas, the most pervasive greenhouse gas. Unlike carbon dioxide, the halogen compounds that are ODS are entirely man-made, so they did not exist in the atmosphere before they were introduced in industrial and domestic products. Since the ban on them was implemented in 1989, their deleterious impacts have started to fade as they slowly dissolve from the atmosphere, according to <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/eiac-osc011720.php" target="_blank">a press release</a> from the Earth Institute at Columbia University.</p><p>While most research has focused on what these substances do to the ozone, this is the first study that ties ODS to the unprecedented rate of Arctic warming, according to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00108-2" target="_blank">Nature</a>. </p><p>"While the dominant role of carbon dioxide is undisputed, another important set of anthropogenic [greenhouse gasses] was also being emitted over the second half of the twentieth century: ozone-depleting substances," researchers wrote in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0677-4" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a>, as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/banned-ozone-destroying-substances-arctic-warming-1483037" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> reported.</p><p>The team of researchers, led by Lorenzo Polvani from Columbia University, said this is the first time the warming effects of ODS have been quantified, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/banned-ozone-destroying-substances-arctic-warming-1483037" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>.</p>
<p>The researchers looked at two different climate models, one model looked at what has happened in the world, the other removed all the ODS. Without the ODS, the Arctic would warm 0.82 degrees Celsius. However, when the ODS were factored in, the number jumped to 1.59 degrees Celsius, as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00108-2" target="_blank">Nature</a> reported. </p><p>The research saw similar dramatic changes in sea-ice loss. They were even able to run the models to compare various layers of ozone thickness. That way they found that Arctic warming was due directly to the presence of the chemicals and not to the hole in the ozone, according to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00108-2" target="_blank">Nature</a>. </p><p>"This paper points out a large role for the ODS in Arctic warming, but we also have to remember the cooling effect of aerosol increases," Professor Martyn Chipperfield, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Leeds in the UK who was not involved in the study, told <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/banned-ozone-destroying-substances-arctic-warming-1483037" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>. "The cooling effect of aerosols is included in the models and offsets some of the greenhouse gas warming."</p>
<p>"For the ODSs, the exact mechanism which leads to a magnified impact in the Arctic remains to be determined," said Chipperfield. "It is a complex problem because there are many different major and minor ODS but only a few are treated in the models. Further modeling studies are needed to investigate this."</p>
<p>Polvani believes the study shows that the phase-out of ODS and greenhouse gasses could help stop ice-melt in the future. </p>
<p>"Climate mitigation is in action as we speak because these substances are decreasing in the atmosphere, thanks to the Montreal Protocol," said Polvani, a professor in Columbia's Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, in <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2020-01/eiac-osc011720.php" target="_blank">a statement</a>. "In the coming decades, they will contribute less and less to global warming. It's a good-news story."</p>
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Greenland’s Ice Sheet Is Melting at Rate That Surpasses Scientists' Expectations, Study Shows
11 December 2019
Science
In this view from an airplane rivers of meltwater carve into the Greenland ice sheet near Sermeq Avangnardleq glacier on Aug. 4 near Ilulissat, Greenland. Climate change is having a profound effect in Greenland, where over the last several decades summers have become longer and the rate that glaciers and the Greenland ice cap are retreating has accelerated. Sean Gallup / Getty Images
The rate that Greenland's ice sheet is melting surpassed scientists' expectations and has raised concerns that their worst-case scenario predictions are coming true, Business Insider reported.
<p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1855-2" target="_blank">new study</a> published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature" target="_blank">Nature</a> from a team of scientists at NASA and the European Space Agency looked at satellite imagery from 1992 to 2018 from 26 independent data sets. The images revealed a massive amount of ice loss that is picking up steam as time goes on. In fact, the researchers found that Greenland has lost 3.8 trillion tons of ice over the 26-year period studied. </p>
<p>In the 90s, Greenland lost an average of 25 billions of ice per year. That number has picked up to an annual average loss of 234 billion tons per year. The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1855-2" target="_blank">study</a> finds that the acceleration in melting will mean a three to five-inch rise in global sea levels by 2100, which is in line with the worst-case scenarios set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC).<span></span></p>
<p>That rate will mean 400 million people will be at risk of flooding every year, instead of the 360 million that the IPCC's main prediction forecasted, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/10/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-seven-times-faster-than-in-1990s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Guardian</a> reported. </p>
<p>"The most surprising aspect by far is that the increased sea-level rise, which may seem small to most people but is enough to cause an extra 40 million people to experience annual floods," said Andrew Shepherd to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/greenland-ice-loss-rate-7-times-higher-2019-12" target="_blank">Business Insider</a>. Shepherd is from the Centre for Polar Observation and Modeling at the University of Leeds in the UK, and he is the study's lead author. "Small changes in sea-level rise do matter."</p>
<p>It also means some of the irreversible effects of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> will happen sooner than scientists first predicted, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/10/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-seven-times-faster-than-in-1990s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Guardian</a> reported.</p>
<p>"These are not unlikely events or small impacts," said Shepherd, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/10/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-seven-times-faster-than-in-1990s">The Guardian</a> reported. "[These impacts] are happening and will be devastating for coastal communities."</p>
<p>In fact, every centimeter of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" rel="noopener noreferrer">sea level rise</a> makes a big difference and increases the chances that a storm surge will breach any sea wall. </p>
<p>"Storms, if they happen against a baseline of higher seas - they will break flood defenses," said Shepherd to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48387030" target="_blank">BBC</a>. "The simple formula is that around the planet, six million people are brought into a flooding situation for every centimeter of sea-level rise. So, when you hear about a centimeter rise, it does have impacts."</p>
<p>Greenland is home to the planet's only permanent ice sheet outside of Antarctica. The ice sheet covers three-fourths of Greenland's landmass. To conduct the study, a consortium of 89 scientists, representing 50 different institutions from around the world teamed up to form the most complete picture to date of Greenland's ice loss. </p>
<p>The Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE), used data from 13 NASA and European Space Agency satellite missions to calculate the tremendous amount of ice loss that Greenland has experienced over the last 26 years, according to a <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7556" target="_blank">statement</a> from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech. </p>
<p>"There are climate projections that are based on models of varying levels of complexity and observations, but they have large uncertainties," said Erik Ivins, an author on the study and lead scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7556" target="_blank">statement</a>. "Our <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1855-2" target="_blank">study</a> is purely an observational one that tests those uncertainties. Therefore, we have irrefutable evidence that we seem to be on track with one of the most pessimistic sea level rise scenarios."</p>
<p>The IPCC is usually seen as the gold standard for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-science" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate science</a>, but some experts fear that its findings did not include potential tipping points, where the climate crisis becomes catastrophic and irreversible, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/10/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-seven-times-faster-than-in-1990s" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Guardian</a> reported. </p>
<p>Louise Sime, a climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, spoke to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/10/greenland-ice-sheet-melting-seven-times-faster-than-in-1990s" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Guardian</a> about the new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1855-2" target="_blank">study</a> and said that "this finding should be of huge concern for all those who will be affected by sea level rise. If this very high rate of ice loss continues, it is possible that new tipping points may be breached sooner than we previously thought."</p>
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We Are Failing to Protect the Arctic From the Climate Crisis, Report Card Shows
11 December 2019
Climate
The melting of Greenland alone, pictured above, has risen sea levels by about 0.7 millimeters a year. MB Photography / Moment / Getty Images
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its 14th annual Arctic Report Card Tuesday, and the results are grim.
<p>The average land temperature between October 2018 and August 2019 was the second-warmest on record since 1900, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-ice" target="_self">sea ice</a> extent at the end of the summer was at its second lowest since satellite observations began and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/greenland" target="_self">Greenland</a> ice sheet melted at rates that rivaled the record melt year of 2012.</p><p>"If I had gotten a report card like this as a kid, I would have been grounded," Dr. Donald Perovich, a professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College who led the writing of the sea ice chapter, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/climate/climate-change-arctic-warming.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "It's not showing much improvement at all. Things are getting worse."</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6c6466f3b91173e3ccafd93be3eebd31"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UlhU4vrE3e4?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic" target="_self">Arctic</a> is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and this has major consequences for the ecosystems and indigenous communities it supports, as well as for the whole Earth. That is why NOAA produces the report card every year. This year's efforts combined the expertise of 81 scientists from 12 countries, according to a NOAA press release.<br></p><p>"The speed and trajectory of the changes sweeping the Arctic, many occurring faster than anticipated, makes NOAA's continued investment in Arctic research and activities all the more important," Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere at NOAA Timothy Gallaudet said in the release.</p><p>The report shone a special light on the Bering Sea, which suffered from record low winter sea ice in both 2018 and 2019, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10122019/arctic-report-card-2019-bering-sea-ice-extent-greenland-melt-permafrost-indigenous-impact" target="_blank">InsideClimate News</a> reported. This makes it harder for the more than 70 indigenous communities that call the region home to sustain themselves, according to an essay by the <a href="https://arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2019/ArtMID/7916/ArticleID/850/Voices-from-the-Front-Lines-of-a-Changing-Bering-Sea" target="_blank">Bering Sea Elders Group, included in the report</a>. Less sea ice makes hunting and fishing more difficult.</p>
<p>"The way that the lower 48 relies on, say, citrus or grapes or the potato as garden food sources, the Bering Sea, when the sea ice comes, it is our garden," Bering Sea Elders Group member Mellisa Johnson told The New York Times. "It is our way of life."</p><p>At the same time, melting <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/permafrost" target="_self">permafrost</a> is causing sinkholes, and the lack of sea ice makes storm surges more intense. This puts homes and other structures at risk, the elders wrote.</p><p>But the thawing permafrost isn't just a local problem. Scientists have long worried that the carbon stored in the permafrost could release greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere as it melts, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/12/10/arctic-may-have-crossed-key-threshold-emitting-billions-tons-carbon-into-air-long-dreaded-climate-feedback/" target="_blank">The Washington Post explained</a>. There is almost twice the amount of carbon stored in Arctic soil as there are greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. It won't all be released just yet, but the report suggests that the Arctic has now become a net emitter of greenhouse gasses. The region's permafrost could be emitting between 1.1 billion to 2.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year, roughly equivalent to Japan or Russia's 2018 emissions.</p><p>Ted Schuur, a Northern Arizona University researcher who wrote the chapter on permafrost, said that the Arctic's permafrost emissions were equal to less than 10 percent of what is released by the burning of fossil fuels every year, but any new source of carbon dioxide makes lowering emissions more difficult.</p>
<p>"We've crossed the zero line," he told The Washington Post.</p><p>Another global concern is <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>. Between 2002 and 2019, the melting of Greenland alone has risen sea levels by about 0.7 millimeters a year, <a href="https://arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2019/ArtMID/7916/ArticleID/842/Greenland-Ice-Sheet" target="_blank">the report found</a>.</p><p>Fisheries are also changing. As Bering Sea ice melts, Arctic fish like Pacific Cod migrate farther north and southern species like northern rock sole move in.</p><p>"This is a big change to the ecosystem," NOAA Fisheries research biologist Lyle Britt told The Washington Post.</p>
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Greenland Ice Sheet Melt Creates Huge Waterfalls, Increasing Concerns About Sea Level Rise
03 December 2019
Climate
Meltwater forms on the Greenland ice sheet near Sermeq Avangnardleq glacier on Aug. 4, 2019 near Ilulissat, Greenland. Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Scientists in the Arctic watched a glacial lake in Greenland turn into a waterfall that drained five million cubic meters of water, or 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, in just five hours, worrying scientists that the world's second largest ice sheet is becoming unstable, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
<p>The waterfall that the scientists observed was triggered by cracks in the ice sheet. When those cracks form, massive amounts of lake water falls below the surface to the area beneath the ice. There the meltwater expands the lake by weakening the ice. In the new study, the researchers captured the lake draining when its edge met a fracture in the ice that had formed one year earlier, according to the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/11/26/1913685116" target="_blank">study</a>.</p><p>The scientists watched the water plummet more than 3,200 feet to the lowest layers of the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers" target="_self">glacier</a> where the ice forms on top of bedrock. At the base layer, the water weakens the ice and helps it move out to sea, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/12/02/cracks-greenland-ice-sheet-are-producing-massive-waterfalls-raising-scientists-concerns-sea-level-rise/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>The team of scientists, led by researchers from the University of Cambridge in England, captured the drone footage in July 2018. The research, using specially outfitted drones that captured drainage of a fairly small glacial lake, could help scientists better understand the relationship between surface water and the stability of the ice sheet. That, in turn, could help scientists improve their global <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea rise</a> projections, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/12/02/cracks-greenland-ice-sheet-are-producing-massive-waterfalls-raising-scientists-concerns-sea-level-rise/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p><p>The researchers suggested that what they observed may represent an overlooked issue that is affecting the Greenland ice sheet.</p><p>"We propose that many lakes thought to drain slowly are, in fact, draining rapidly via hydrofracture. As such, rapid drainage events, and their net impact on ice sheet dynamics, are being notably underestimated," the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/11/26/1913685116" target="_blank">study</a> reads.</p><p>This means scientists may need to tweak their computer models to form a more accurate picture of the rate of melting and projections for sea level rise.</p><p>"We need to gain a more complete picture of these processes so that we can properly predict the impact of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a> on the Greenland Ice Sheet in the 21st century," said Thomas Chudley, the study's lead author from the University of Cambridge, to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/arctic-greenland-ice-sheet-lake-drain-1475212" target="_blank">Newsweek</a><em>.</em></p><p>Thousands of lakes form on the Greenland ice sheet every summer when the weather warms. Many of these lakes rapidly drain and create caverns called moulins. The water then winds its way down to the base of the ice sheet. The openings often stay that way through the warm season and capture streams and rivers that fall to the bottom of the ice sheet. Since the ice sheet is often over one kilometer thick, the water flowing into the moulins may be the world's largest waterfalls, according to a <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-12-drone-images-greenland-ice-sheet.html" target="_blank">statement</a> from the University of Cambridge.</p><p>"<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2017.5" target="_blank">Previous research has shown</a> that whilst only 3 percent percent of total surface melt is delivered to the bed via these drainage events, as much as 36 percent can continue to access the bed via moulins after the event," said Chudley to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/arctic-greenland-ice-sheet-lake-drain-1475212" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>. "Whilst satellite studies have previously estimated the number of lakes that rapidly drain to be between 10 to 30 percent, our lake drainage is actually small enough that it wouldn't be identified by these methods. So that suggests to us that there may be more of these rapid drainages — and the moulins that follow — than previously thought."</p><p>The scientists also found the water flow caused the ice's movement to speed up from 6.5 feet per day to over 16 feet per day. So much water seeped under the ice that it pushed the ice up about 1.6 feet. "We were also surprised to see that these impacts extended as far away as [2.4 miles] from the lake site itself, suggesting that these events can have quite widespread impacts in the short term," said Chudley to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/arctic-greenland-ice-sheet-lake-drain-1475212" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>.</p>
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The Apusiaajik Glacier, as seen from Kulusuk village in East Greenland. Like most glaciers in Greenland, it's retreating rapidly, changing the local landscape year by year. Photo credit: Karin Kirk
By Karin Kirk
Greenland had quite the summer. It rose from peaceful obscurity to global headliner as ice melted so swiftly and massively that many were left grasping for adjectives. Then, Greenland's profile was further boosted, albeit not to its delight, when President Trump expressed interest in buying it, only to be summarily dismissed by the Danish prime minister.
During that time I happened to be in East Greenland, both as an observer of the stark effects of climate change and as a witness to local dialogue about presidential real estate aspirations, polar bear migrations and Greenland's sudden emergence as a trending topic.
<p>While attention buzzed around Greenland, some key voices were absent: those of the Greenlanders themselves. This autonomous territory of Denmark is home to 56,000 people, most of whom are Greenlandic Inuit. What are their thoughts about climate change?</p><p>A cohort of Danish and Greenlandic researchers recently completed a nationally representative survey, aiming to shed light on what residents think about climate change, climate impacts and policy solutions. The outcome, <a href="https://kraksfondbyforskning.dk/en/blog/gp-climatechange/" target="_blank">Greenlandic Perspectives on Climate Change</a>, was published in August.</p><p>The researchers gathered responses from July 2018 to January 2019, before the summer of 2019 dealt Greenland an early breakup of sea ice, wildfires, a widespread heat wave and record-breaking glacial melt. Even before these events, climate change had already made a stark impression on the locals. "Climate change is our vulnerability, and it is bad for us," said a resident of Qeqertalik during an in-person survey.</p>
<h4>Comparing Greenlanders' Views With Those of Americans</h4><p>Several of the questions in the study used the same format as polling conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. As a result, the attitudes of Greenlanders and Americans can be directly compared. However, public opinion is ever-movable, and factors like <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather" rel="noopener noreferrer">extreme weather</a> and high-profile political events can sway people's attitudes in one direction or another. The comparisons below use U.S. <a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-in-the-american-mind-april-2019/" target="_blank">data from April 2019</a>, and shifts in Americans' views over time can be explored with <a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/americans-climate-views/" target="_blank">an interactive dataset</a>.</p><p>But regardless of the exact timing, these two cultures are worlds apart, as is evident in many of the responses.</p><h4>Broad Recognition That Climate Change Is Happening</h4>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAxMTA4My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTg4NDg2NH0.eVYBQRKRDr_zW_y-jNLVDPN8f8bf027dxeLDkseitj4/img.jpg?width=980" id="00f51" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1ae9bc89d804f6358003e00e3494047d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>The vast majority of people living in Greenland say the climate is changing. The <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/arctic" rel="noopener noreferrer">Arctic</a> is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, and the results are not subtle.</p><p>"We don't have solid <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-ice" rel="noopener noreferrer">sea ice</a> in the winter anymore and the ice is melting quickly," said one resident in Avannaata, in the northwest of Greenland. "Some of the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glaciers" rel="noopener noreferrer">glaciers</a> are becoming smaller than before, and glaciers now release icebergs all year round."</p><h4>Most Greenlanders Have Experienced the Effects of Climate Change</h4>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAxMTA4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NTQxMDUxMX0.qrBaBrMIjNCFFO7CI04VHcBVyFJ-5UDqbGTGY6aq0gk/img.jpg?width=980" id="335d2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0cbfab81a1744785449ebc787201df3e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>The Greenlandic way of life is close to nature. Most Greenlanders (76%) eat wild foods they hunt, fish or gather. Nearly one-quarter went out on the sea ice in the past year. Many live within sight of a glacier. The Greenlandic Inuit have long relied on nature for their livelihoods. One resident explained, "It is really bad because my parents are fishermen. If the weather is not stable, their economy is unstable."</p><h4>Climate Change Is an Important Issue in Greenland</h4>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAxMTA4OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzMwMjY4OX0.At7DjTRGJmyuXcCuV7-jjAHJim7Kr8i_-7fJnix5rks/img.jpg?width=980" id="3d47f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6016b9fd54a88222754aa080e079f841" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>For wealthy nations in temperate climates, such as the U.S., climate change has <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/459613-global-warming-is-a-rising-priority-for-voters" target="_blank">only recently</a> become an important issue among voters, despite decades of concern from scientists. But in Greenland, climate conditions are not an abstraction: Ice, snow and weather are central to their lives. Climate change is important to 82% of Greenlanders, compared with 64% of Americans.</p><p>Greenlanders spoke about local impacts: "The fish factory closed down in 2012 because the sea ice from the fjord side stopped forming." And they speak also of the global reach of the problem: "The ice sheet is melting and will be bad for both us and the world."</p><h4>Frequent Discussions Among Greenlanders About Climate Change</h4>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAxMTA5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDUyNTc3MH0.hBNiFsZs4akT6IW10_Mw4FGOpIEYORyWyzA2F6PDgL0/img.jpg?width=980" id="227df" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ee39d22db792cc50e3a626dea9d1ff1f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>As one might expect given the responses above, Greenlanders frequently talk about climate change. "We talk about the big changes in the weather almost every day," said one respondent. About one-quarter of Americans say they never discuss climate change; in Greenland, nearly half (45%) discuss it weekly or monthly.</p><h4>A Slim Majority of Greenlanders Point to Human Activities</h4>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAxMTA5Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDQ1MjU2NX0.tZo9ddTrZUNCmIZINIt1est_JXL4YDzAhLmcNIjhb3c/img.jpg?width=980" id="1781e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fc1a131a44cd1cf98671b10ff6aaba34" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Given Greenlanders' reactions to the other questions, it's somewhat surprising that only a narrow majority thinks that human activities are warming the climate. The data from this question are similar to data on public opinion in the U.S., with the caveat that people's attitudes in both locations can change over time.</p><p>But the similar results likely stem from different reasons. In the U.S., acceptance of humans as a driving factor in climate change has divided along political lines, and partisan rhetoric to ignore or deny climate change remains a persistent distraction.</p><p>Greenland does not share the fractious politics of the U.S., so it's unlikely that partisanship or fossil fuel lobbying are at the root of public opinion. But Greenland residents are disconnected from the driving causes of climate change. Citizens of industrialized nations are accustomed to seeing smoke stacks, vast industrial sites, and, in many areas, a gauze of pollution in the air. Greenland has none of that. Instead, natural forces dominate their daily lives. The scale of pollution in industrialized countries is as foreign to the Inuit culture as polar bears are to most Americans.</p><h4>Local Risks, Impacts and Perceptions</h4><p>When Greenlanders talk about climate change, their observations and worries differ markedly from those of Americans. Subsistence hunting and fishing are still part of the Greenlandic way of life, and the Inuit are personally exposed to the hazards and hardships of a rapidly changing environment.</p><p>A resident in Qeqertalik, West Greenland, voiced a local concern, "The food-chain is becoming unpredictable, and animals in the Arctic are getting closer to towns, which is uncomfortable."</p><h4>Violent Weather and Unpredictable Sea Ice as Top Problems</h4>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAxMTEwMC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODQ2NDQ2Nn0.VRm6m2tyu53eKBYSUrEDEXDwcPbbomxMFZyMjKhOKgI/img.png?width=980" id="a0f1c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ddfc66d15c1591d922053ad99ecb6bfb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>When it comes to specific climate impacts, people's observations reflect their particular circumstances. In southern areas of Greenland, unpredictable weather and increasing storminess rank as the top concerns. "More frequent, very powerful storms are very worrisome," said a West Sermersooq local.</p><p>In the northern and eastern regions of the country, the loss and thinning of sea ice are the most vexing impacts of climate change. A large majority (79%) of Greenland residents say they feel traveling on sea ice has become more dangerous in recent years: "Due to climate change, we get less sea ice in the winter, making it harder to make a living from [it]."</p><h4>Who Will Be Most Harmed by Climate Change? Sled Dogs</h4>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAxMTEwMi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODExNjU1N30.4mXt9dPzl3q1zysfPkqvhcBUMPgUyAKxWf543UdlL4w/img.png?width=980" id="767bd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1545d467543d669a8d644dc9fec17d30" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Greenland residents say those most likely to suffer harm from climate change are not people, not children, and not future generations. It's sled dogs. Two-thirds of Greenlanders say they think their dogs will be harmed by climate change, as opposed to 50% who feel Greenlanders themselves will be harmed.</p><p>One respondent said in an interview, "I used to dogsled a lot when I grew up. My children didn't experience this because they were too late for sea ice."</p><h4>Not All Think the Changes Will Be Bad</h4>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAxMTE3OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDQ3NzA4M30.eL8A5793PYMB7sqFXtTcKZUbi5nbhx1LWJBcRhUxUh8/img.png?width=980" id="0690c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cf93b902b58ba8d7b5cca5e35304ac82" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>In the Arctic, the allure of a longer or warmer summer has some appeal. Even so, four times as many people think climate change is a bad thing than think it's beneficial. Nearly half the population feels the changes are neither bad nor good.</p><p>"It is nice that the climate is warming but bad globally," said one resident. Others mentioned the possibility of saving money on heating oil and electricity.</p><p>Melting ice may have benefits for navigation and agriculture. "It might make the Northwest passage more sailable, which could be good for Greenlandic society's economy and infrastructure," said a resident of West Sermersooq, Greenland's most populous region. A respondent in Avannaata, situated well north of the Arctic Circle, said, "I'm not sure it is going to harm us. In the future, I would like to try farming after we move south. It should benefit farming."</p><p>One West Greenlander reflected on a consequence of the melting ice that would reap local benefits along with global concerns, "We may get greater access to gas, oil and natural resources."</p><h4>Most Greenlanders Back Limits on Greenhouse Emissions</h4>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAxMTEwNy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5NjU3MDMzM30.Eebzbq7Q4gjOSSNTklU6rJXZ8uAhRYoHmuvX3sO4oPI/img.png?width=980" id="cf415" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="09413931be350d4fb4708f02ec9ff3a6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Even though Greenland is a negligible contributor to the world's burgeoning outpouring of greenhouse gases, residents say they favor measures to limit their own pollution. Investments in renewable energy are the most attractive approach, with 75% approval and only 2% opposition. Most Greenlanders favor regulation of industrial greenhouse gas emissions and feel that Greenland should be part of the Paris climate agreement. Denmark is a member of the Paris agreement, but was granted a "<a href="http://climategreenland.gl/en/citizen/society-and-health/international-commitments/" target="_blank">territorial exclusion</a>" for Greenland. Greenland did not enter the Paris agreement because resource extraction is one of its few options for economic development. This outlook is reflected in the opinion data; banning oil drilling does not garner majority support, even though citizens support emissions reductions in other ways. About 40% of residents say they prefer protecting the environment even if it costs jobs, and 26% say they favor economic growth over environmental protection.</p><p>"Because of the climate change, it can be challenging for the fishers but we always adapt," said a Qeqqata local. "We have to contribute to spreading awareness and preventing pollution."</p><p>Greenland's climate is harsh even in the best of circumstances, and climate impacts to Inuit lives present a first-order challenge. Nonetheless, many have a broad view of the problem. "It has been very cold in Greenland the last months, while it is so hot in the other countries. The people in other countries are dying due to the fires. If global warming happens everything will be rotten."</p><p>For many people around the world, the bottom line remains the same, whether uttered by someone in Albuquerque or in Avannaata: "If people stop polluting earth, maybe climate change won't be as drastic."</p><p><em>Editor's note: Anthony Leiserowitz, Director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, served in an advisory role on the Greenlandic study.</em></p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>Minor, K., Agneman, G., Davidsen, N., Kleemann, N., Markussen, U., Olsen, A., Lassen, D., Rosing, MT. (2019). <em><a href="https://kraksfondbyforskning.dk/en/blog/gp-climatechange/" target="_blank">Greenlandic Perspectives on Climate Change 2018-2019 Results from a National Survey</a></em>. University of Greenland and University of Copenhagen. Kraks Fond Institute for Urban Research.</p><p>Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Rosenthal, S., Kotcher, J., Bergquist, P., Ballew, M., Goldberg, M., & Gustafson, A. (2019). <em><a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/10/92-percent-of-greenlands-residents-believe-climate-change-is-happening/doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/CJ2NS" target="_blank">Climate change in the American mind: April 2019</a></em>. Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You got us, <a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EcoWatch</a>. It does! <a href="https://t.co/DeQHcceB1H">https://t.co/DeQHcceB1H</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ActOnClimate?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ActOnClimate</a></p>— AlaskaWild 🏔️ (@alaskawild) <a href="https://twitter.com/alaskawild/status/1141479534308540416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/10/92-percent-of-greenlands-residents-believe-climate-change-is-happening/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>Related Articles Around the Web
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