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Irreversible damage? Greenland's eternal ice is probably lost - dramatic consequences threaten the world

2020-08-19T10:43:25.395Z


The glaciers on Greenland have suffered irreparable damage. The ice sheet retreats even if the temperature rise were to be stopped - with drastic consequences.


The glaciers on Greenland have suffered irreparable damage. The ice sheet retreats even if the temperature rise were to be stopped - with drastic consequences.

  • Greenland's ice sheet continues to shrink.
  • The system is out of whack due to climate change .
  • The melt is causing global damage.

Nuuk / Columbus - Climate change has worried scientists for decades - now a team of researchers from Ohio State University has sounded the alarm. The occasion is an analysis of new data on the ice sheet on Greenland .

The glaciers on Greenland are so badly affected by climate change that their melting can no longer be reversed. This applies even if the global temperature rise stops immediately , as researcher Michaela King writes in a specialist magazine. King and her colleagues have explored Greenland's glaciers at more than 200 locations over the past 40 years. The focus was on the amount of glacier water that flows into the sea and the amount of ice that is added by the snowfall in the region.

Greenland's glacier can no longer be saved: Research confirms that its decline is too rapid

Before the turn of the millennium, the amount of melted ice and snowfall were roughly in equilibrium. And this despite the fact that around 450 billion tons of ice flowed into the sea every year. The ice that was removed was compensated for by the snow in winter - this cycle has now been permanently damaged by climate change and the associated rise in temperature . “We found that the amount of ice that flows into the ocean far exceeds the amount of snow that is newly accumulating on the surface of the ice sheet,” says King.

Almost 40 years of satellite data from #Groenland show that the #glaciers there continue to shrink, even if global #climate warming would stop today. Https://t.co/cYMJoxBlYR pic.twitter.com/yCnYW3auTs

- Glacier Initiative (@KlimaschutzCH) August 15, 2020

As early as 2000, the tendency shifted between an ice retreat and an ice gain due to climate change in an inclined position. Since then, the glaciers have been losing more than 500 billion tons of ice per year, 50 billion tons more than before. At the same time, however, no more snow falls, which is why the balance was shaken.

Shortly before the turn of the millennium, the probability that glaciers would gain ice was just as high as the probability of losing it. The researchers are currently assuming that ice growth could only happen once every hundred years. “Even if the climate stayed the same or cooled down a bit, it would still result in ice loss,” says King's colleague Ian Howat. But not only Greenland is struggling with the loss of ice, a glacier could soon have disappeared in Germany too .

Glaciers in Greenland seem lost: the melt has global consequences

The consequences could have a global impact: the ice that flows into the sea from Greenland contributes large parts to the global rise in sea ​​levels , which in turn has catastrophic consequences. Last year, two hot months were enough to raise the sea level by 2.2 millimeters due to meltwater. According to a study by the consulting firm McKinsey, one country would be particularly hard hit by climate change. ( tko)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-08-19

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