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Greenland Lost 600 Billion Tons of Ice Last Summer, Raising Sea Levels, NASA Study Finds
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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Greenland’s Ice Sheet Is Melting at Rate That Surpasses Scientists' Expectations, Study Shows
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.
We Are Failing to Protect the Arctic From the Climate Crisis, Report Card Shows
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its 14th annual Arctic Report Card Tuesday, and the results are grim.
Greenland Ice Sheet Melt Creates Huge Waterfalls, Increasing Concerns About Sea Level Rise
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.
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.
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'Oceans Are Sending Us so Many Warning Signals': New UN Climate Change Report
It's time for low-level coastal communities to head for the hills. Once-in-a-hundred-years sea level events will be an annual occurrence by 2050.
An iceberg floats behind houses during unseasonably warm weather on July 30 in Ilulissat, Greenland.
'We Should Be Retreating Already From the Coastline,' Scientist Suggests After Finding Warm Waters Below Greenland
Editor's Note: This article includes a quote from Josh Willis, NASA oceanographer: "There is enough ice in Greenland to raise the sea levels by 7.5 meters, that's about 25 feet, an enormous volume of ice, and that would be devastating to coastlines all around the planet," said Josh Willis, a NASA oceanographer, to CNN. "We should be retreating already from the coastline if we are looking at many meters [lost] in the next century or two." In 2019, a NASA study found, "In the scenario with no reduction of emissions, the study found that the entire Greenland Ice Sheet will likely melt in a millennium, causing 17 to 23 feet of sea level rise." That report also states, "In the next 200 years, the ice sheet model shows that melting at the present rate could contribute up to 63 inches to global sea level rise, said the team led by scientists at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks." It appears Willis's quote is accurate in terms of sea levels rising, but attributed it to a faster timeline than the NASA report.
Andrew Yang's assertion that people move away from the coast at the last Democratic debate is the completely rational and correct choice for NASA scientists in Greenland.
"There is enough ice in Greenland to raise the sea levels by 7.5 meters, that's about 25 feet, an enormous volume of ice, and that would be devastating to coastlines all around the planet," said Josh Willis, a NASA oceanographer, to CNN. "We should be retreating already from the coastline if we are looking at many meters [lost] in the next century or two."