Scientists are reporting a massive melting event that has taken place in Greenland. The report by Danish researchers states that a large ice sheet in the Arctic territory has melted by around 8 billion metric tons a day, which is twice the average rate for this time of the year.
The flooding is enough to cover the whole of the US state of Florida in 2 inches of water.
The report also found that temperature in Greenland is around 10 degrees Celsius higher than normal and that temperatures of over 20 degrees are being recorded. Last week the Nerlerit Inaat airport in Greenland recorded the highest temperature since records began at 23.4 degrees.
Previous data has shown that the Greenland ice sheet began melting in 1990 and that this has rapidly accelerated since the year 2000.
Massive melting event in Greenland. While not as extreme as in 2019 in terms of gigatons (left image - but still would be enough to cover Florida with two inches of water), the area over which melting takes place (right image) is even a bit larger than two years ago. pic.twitter.com/rEeDIlYTA7
— Polar Portal (@PolarPortal) July 29, 2021
It is feared that the melting of these ice caps could have serious consequences for the rest of the world.
One major issue is that the melting will raise the water level across the world, making many coastal areas uninhabitable and completely submerging many islands. It is already though that world sea levels could rise between 10cm and 18cm by the end of the century. This would have a devastating effect.
Another major issue is that as the ice caps melt, less heat is absorbed and reflected, meaning that the effects of climate change become exponentially worse, in a reverse snowball effect, and that the melting of the northern ice-cap could disrupt the Atlantic Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream brings hot weather from North America to Europe, and if cut off due to global warming, could ironically plunge northern Europe into the extreme cold.
The discovery comes as the United Nations releases a report stating that the world was at a tipping point when it comes to global warming, and as wildfires and extreme heat rage across Greece, Turkey, California and Canada.
[h/t: Science Alert]
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