Few places afford a such a clear view of climate change as does Greenland, a frozen island in the Arctic about half the size of the United States, with a polar ice cap that’s three kilometers thick at its center.
Few places afford a such a clear view of climate change as does Greenland, a frozen island in the Arctic about half the size of the United States, with a polar ice cap that’s three kilometers thick at its center. The melting of Greenland’s ice has accelerated over the past decades, and with it, rising sea levels. According to recent estimates, Greenland has lost around 270 billion tons of ice every year over the past few decades—equivalent to the weight of 26,000 Eiffel Towers—and which has contributed around 30-40% of the current global sea-level rise. Roughly half the ice loss occurs via ice calving at the ice sheet’s edge, while the other half happens through surface melting. Studying the reasons for the recent acceleration of Greenlandic surface melting and understanding the processes that control it are fundamental to improving estimates of what will happen to our oceans and the relative impact on our society.
This melting has occurred in tandem with the increase in CO2 emissions on a global scale, in stark contrast to the goals stated in the Paris Agreement, signed almost a decade ago. For this reason, understanding where and how quickly Greenland’s ice is melting is one of the keys to studying the effects of climate change on our planet, and the reason for a recent expedition to Greenland.
Read more at: Columbia Climate School
A melting pond atop Greenland’s ice sheet. (Photo Credit: Marco Tedesco)
