Melt the Ice Make Greenland Green Again
(CNN)Greenland is experiencing its most pregnant melting effect of the twelvemonth every bit temperatures in the Arctic surge. The corporeality of ice that melted on Tuesday solitary would exist plenty to comprehend the entire state of Florida in two inches of water.
It's the third case of extreme melting in the past decade, during which time the melting has stretched farther inland than the unabridged satellite era, which began in the 1970s.
Greenland lost more than 8.5 billion tons of surface mass on Tuesday, and 18.4 billion tons since Lord's day, co-ordinate to the Kingdom of denmark Meteorological Institute. While this week's total ice loss is not equally extreme as a similar event in 2019 — a tape melt yr — the surface area of the ice canvass that'southward melting is larger.
"It's a significant melt," Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Water ice Data Center at the Academy of Colorado, told CNN. "July 27th saw well-nigh of the eastern half of Greenland from the northern tip all the fashion to the southern tip generally melted, which is unusual."
As human being-acquired climatic change warms the planet, ice loss has increased rapidly. According to a recent study published in the journal Cryosphere, World has lost a staggering 28 trillion tonnes of ice since the mid-1990s, a big portion of which was from the Chill, including the Greenland water ice sheet.
"In the past decade, we've already seen that surface melting in Greenland has get both more severe and more than erratic," said Thomas Slater, a glaciologist at the Academy of Leeds and a co-writer on that report. "As the atmosphere continues to warm over Greenland, events such equally yesterday'due south extreme melting volition become more frequent."
Although the electric current ice meltdown in Greenland isn't record-setting, the magnitude at which these events occur is a clear signal of how climate change is creating more melt periods.
"Overall, we're seeing that Greenland melts more oftentimes," said Scambos, who also authors the National Snow and Ice Data Center's Greenland updates. "In previous decades or centuries, it'due south extremely rare to get higher up freezing temperatures at the acme of Greenland."
In 2019, Greenland shed roughly 532 billion tons of ice into the sea. During that twelvemonth, an unexpectedly hot spring and a July rut wave acquired about the entire ice canvas's surface to begin melting. Global ocean level rose permanently by ane.five millimeters as a event.
As Greenland's surface continues to thaw, Slater said coastal cities around the earth are vulnerable to storm-surge flooding, especially when extreme weather coincides with high tides. Melting from Greenland is expected to raise global ocean level between 2 and 10 centimeters by the terminate of the century, he added.
Massive water ice sheets can cook apace when the air temperature is warm. But warmer ocean h2o is also eroding the water ice sheet around the edges.
As humans release oestrus-trapping greenhouse gas, the warming atmosphere thaws the fresh white water ice — which reflects the sun's energy back into space — on the surface. That exposes the darker ice below which absorbs solar energy and causes more melting.
Additionally, warmer littoral h2o melts the ice sheet around the edges, breaking off massive icebergs that contribute to sea level ascension.
Scientists say the trends at which climate change is accelerating are quite clear, and that unless emissions are curbed, such farthermost events will keep to occur more oftentimes.
"While such events are concerning, the science is clear," Slater said. "Meaningful climate targets and action can still limit how much the global sea level will rise this century, reducing the harm done by astringent flooding to people and infrastructure effectually the world."
Correction: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect description of Greenland. Greenland is part of North America. This story has been updated.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/29/us/greenland-ice-melting-climate-change/index.html
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