Thread: Study Says Climate Change Accelerating Greenland’s Ice Loss

Study Says Climate Change Accelerating Greenland’s Ice Loss

• Sam Frizell @Sam_Frizell

3:39 PM ET

Part of the glacial ice sheet that covers about 80 percent of the country is seen on July 17, 2013 on the Glacial Ice Sheet, Greenland.Joe Raedle—Getty Images

New research is upending scientists' long-held belief that Greenland's ice sheets are stable, showing instead that global climate change is melting the country's ice at a much faster rate than once believed, leading to an increase in the world's sea levels


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Greenland’s ice sheet is rapidly melting in areas previously believed to be stable, leading to accelerated rises in global sea levels, according to a study published Sunday.

While scientists have been aware that climate change has caused Greenland’s ice sheet to thin for decades, melting in the sheet’s northeast region has been discovered for the first time, USA Todayreports. Ice loss in the northeast region of Greenland has nearly tripled since 2003, with the ice sheet retreating 12.4 miles over the past decade and losing 10 billion tons of ice per year from April 2003 to April 2012, according to the new study

The rapid change in the northeast region “surprised everyone,” said study co-author Michael Bevis, a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University.

The loss of Greenland’s ice sheet has been a major contributor to global sea level rise over the past 20 years, accounting for one-sixth of the annual rise. As humans emit increasing quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, the atmosphere more readily absorbs sunlight, warming the planet and causing sea levels to rise. Ice deflects most sunlight from the earth’s surface, but water absorbs heat from the sun.

This causes a positive feedback loop: as temperatures rise, more ice becomes water, causing the temperature to rise further and ice sheets like the one in Greenland to melt at an increasing pace.

http://time.com/26618/study-says-cli...ands-ice-loss/

Realtime Coverage

Warming melts last stable edge of Greenland icesheet AFP - ‎57 minutes ago‎ Paris — The last edge of the Greenland ice sheet that had resisted global warming has now become unstable, adding billions of tonnes of meltwater to rising seas, scientists said on Sunday. In a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, they said ... The Independent LiveScience.com American Live Wire Phys.Org WTSP 10 News University of Bristol Warming melts edge of Greenland icesheet Sky News Australia - ‎32 minutes ago‎ Greenland is Literally Melting Daily Beast - ‎56 minutes ago‎ Study Says Climate Change Accelerating Greenland's Ice Loss TIME - ‎57 minutes ago‎ Greenland's Ice Loss Triples and Raises Global Warming Awareness American Live Wire - ‎1 hour ago‎ Study: Ice Sheet Destabilizing, Threatening Greater Sea-Level Rise NEWS.GNOM.ES - ‎1 hour ago‎ Show recently hidden articles Highly Cited Greenland's ice loss nearly tripled in a decade USA TODAY - ‎2 hours ago‎ Sea levels will probably rise more now that the last remaining stable portion of Greenland's ice sheet — the world's second-largest — is no longer stable, a study says. Scientists have known Greenland's ice sheet has been thinning for decades, but for the first ... In Depth Study: Greenland Melting is More Pervasive, Adding to Sea Level Fears Mashable - ‎2 hours ago‎ 3_16_14_andrew_apgreenlandice In this July 26, 2011 photo, drops of water fall from a melting iceberg near Nuuk, Greenland. Image: Brennan Linsley/Associated Press. 2_27_14_andrewheadshot. By Andrew Freedman 2014-03-16 18:00:34 UTC. Your preferred source Regional warming triggers sustained mass loss in Northeast Greenland ice sheet EurekAlert (press release) - ‎2 hours ago‎ Northeast Greenland, where the glacier is found, is of particular interest as numerical model predictions have suggested there is no significant mass loss for this sector, leading to a probable underestimation of future global sea-level rise from the region.

Greenland Ice Melt 'Accelerating,' Climate Change Awakens 'Sleeping Giant'

International Business Times 2 hours ago

Written by Philip Ross

Greenland is the world's largest island holds roughly 680,000 cubic miles of ice within its ice sheet. The ice is up to 3 miles thick in some areas and covers about three-fourths of the island.