Greenland's glaciers are melting much faster than we thought: Study

The ice caps in Greenland are melting at a much higher rate than scientists thought, which could profoundly affect major ocean currents, according to new study published in the Nature Journal.

The study, which analyzed “236,328 manual and AI-derived observations of glacier terminal sites collected from 1985 to 2022,” found that recent models have underestimated the total retreat of Greenland's glaciers by as much as 20 percent. The area studied had lost about 5,000 square kilometers of ice, or more than 1,000 metric gigatons, since 1985. combined with other studies tracking the annual melting of glaciers shows a rate of loss of 30 million metric tons of ice every hour.

While parts of Greenland's glaciers exist underwater and do not currently have a dramatic effect on sea levels, the study warns that the rate of melting “is sufficient to affect ocean circulation and the distribution of thermal energy around the world.”

“Although ice loss associated with glacier margin retreat had little direct effect on sea-level rise, it is often a precursor to accelerated glacial flow into the ocean,” the study says. brief says.

Chad Greene, lead author of the study and a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (and the musician behind upcoming album “The Iceman Strummeth”) explained that “when the ice at the end of a glacier retreats and recedes, it's like pulling the plug on the fjord, which lets the ice drain into the ocean faster.”

“The changes around Greenland are huge and happening everywhere – almost every glacier has retreated in recent decades,” Greene added in a statement to The guardian, It stands to reason that if you pour fresh water into the North Atlantic Ocean, then you will definitely have a weakening of [Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation current (Amoc)]though I have no intuition of how much I am weakening.'

In 2018, stream-current-weakest-for-1600-years-research-finds” rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank”>scientists warned that the Amoc current was weakening, which could have catastrophic consequences for weather patterns and global ocean currents if it collapsed. As American researcher Jason Box said Rolling rock the same year in a profile exploring his research on Greenland's glaciers, ice is “nature's thermometer.”

“It is not political. As the world warms, the ice melts. It's very simple… We're heading into uncharted territory,” Box said. “We're creating a different climate than Earth has ever seen.”

The new study comes shortly after researchers found that 2023 was the warmest year on record by a significant margin, and as the international community continues to struggle to reach consensus on the measures needed to prevent widespread climate catastrophe.

Last month, nations at the UN's 2023 global climate summit, COP28, signed a historic agreement to “transition” from fossil fuels and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The agreement was the subject of tense negotiations at the summit peak and nearly collapsed due to oil-exporting countries' efforts to remove language requiring a complete “phase-out” of fossil fuel energy resources.

During the conference, the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative—which studies global ice sheets— hosted a booth exclusively dedicated to discussing the effects of climate change related to Earth's frozen landscapes. At the end of the conference, one I open a letter from the group urged governments gathered at the conference to “advance both the urgency and ambition to mitigate climate change due to the response of the various components of the Cryosphere – ice sheets, glaciers, snow, permafrost, sea ice and also polar oceans.”

If they fail to act, the letter warns, “world leaders are de facto deciding to burden humanity for centuries to millennia by displacing hundreds of millions of people from flooded coastal settlements. Depriving societies of life-giving freshwater resources, disrupting the delicate balance of polar ocean and mountain ecosystems; and forcing future generations to compensate for long-term permafrost emissions.”

“This continued increase in CO2 is unacceptable,” the letter concludes. “The melting point of ice pays no attention to rhetoric, only to our actions.”