Greenland's ice sheet is melting as fast as at any time in the last 12,000 years, study shows

 

Greenland's Ice Sheets are Melting Faster Than Ever

By: Chris Johnson

    If it isn't obvious enough already, this world is going through some struggles environmentally whether it be water pollution, air pollution, littering, mining, or disrupting animal's habitats. Some things are less noticeable than others however, what's happening in Greenland cannot go unnoticed. 

    Its been known for awhile now that the rate at which Greenland's ice sheets are melting is increasing at an alarming rate. Over the past year, they had a record breaking number and more ice melted than ever before. If the melting continues at this rate, Greenland will experience the most ice melted now then they will ever have in the last 12,000 years. Jason Briner, a professor of geology at the University at Buffalo and the lead author of the study, mentions how they do year-to-year captures of data to get a better picture of what the century is going to look like and says that "it's pretty clear we're in quite anomalous times". Now there were periods before humans where these ice melts have occurred however, they were due to the natural climate variability. Now, it's because of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. 

    Greenland is 2nd in ice cap size, right behind Antarctica, which means these melts are causing the global sea levels to rise, adding millions of more people are risk for flooding. If all of the ice melts on Greenland, the sea levels will rise by 24 feet. There are many things going on in the world in terms of the environment and this is only one of them.

                             

   Sources:

- https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/30/weather/greenland-ice-sheet-melt-carbon-emissions-climate-change/index.html