Greenland’s Ice Won’t Stop Melting, But It Might Slow Down

According to experts, Greenland’s ice sheets contain enough water to raise global sea levels by 20 feet. Years ago, this might have been considered a “fun fact,” but today, as new technologies allow us to watch these ice sheets melt in real time, that fact feels a lot less fun.

If all that ice melts into the ocean, some of the world’s biggest and busiest cities will be drowned, millions of people will be displaced, and trillions of dollars of infrastructure will be destroyed.

The last time this much ice melted, it took thousands of years, but scientists fear that we have dramatically reduced this timeline with our greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2. Instead of seeing a steady rate of melting, we are seeing melting that is accelerating every year, and it will continue to accelerate as CO2 and other greenhouse gasses continue to build up in the atmosphere and warm the planet.

Experts, including Ian Howitt of Ohio State University, are afraid that this process is now irreversible, and even his most optimistic colleagues fear that only drastic action in dealing with greenhouse gasses can slow this melting down enough to buy ourselves the time we need to adapt [1].

The message is clear. We need to find bold and innovative solutions to reduce the amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere before things get even worse.

References

[1] https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15082020/greenland-ice-sheet-melt-climate-change/