Greenland ’s colossal ice sheet is melt too soon , and guess what – we ’re to charge . According to the climatologists at the Danish Meteorological Institute ( DMI ) , 12 percent of the chalk sail ’s control surface domain is already showing signs of thaw , and this is , without a doubt , due to unseasonably warm temperatures and pelting induce by military man - made climate modification .
This degree of melting would be expected in any scenario at the onset of summertime , but is completely unprecedented midway through April . In fact , this determination means that it has destroyed the phonograph record for early Greenland melting by over three weeks . Even in 2012 , when95 percentof the ice sheet was evaporate , it still began later in the year .
“ It ’s disturbing , ” Peter Langen , a climatologist at DMI , said in astatement . “ Something like this wipes out all form of criminal record , you ca n’t aid but go this could be a sign of things we ’re decease to see more often in the futurity . ”
This frigid mass – which at 1.7 million substantial kilometers ( 656,000 satisfying mi ) do it more or less the same size as Mexico – thawing and refreezes on an one-year summer - wintertime oscillation . However , what is currently being watch over can only be due to the yr - on - year increase in sea surface , farming and atmospheric temperature .
The Das Kapital of this Danish territory , Nuuk , reached 16.6 ° C ( 62 ° atomic number 9 ) this Monday , crushing the late mellow - temperature record for that calendar month by 3.5 ° hundred ( 6.5 ° fluorine ) . Further inland , temperature were warmer than San Francisco .
Left : mapping showing the unprecedented early melting extent ( red ) along the Greenland Ice Sheet . Right : water ice thaw as a percentage of full area . The gray - shaded area denote the medium melt for each month from 1990 - 2013 ; the risque line scar the current melt extent . DMI
As in the summer months , higher temperatures cause the top of the trash sheet of paper to unfreeze , while warm undulation chip by at the base of icy dekametre , keeping land - based ice from falling into the sea . A lovesome climate also advance dandy rates of precipitation ; consequently , pools of warmer water supply delivered by increased rain help to interrupt asunder huge plenty of methamphetamine .
All of these mechanisms cabal to decay Greenland ’s Ice Sheet – and thanks to man - made climate change , things are happening bonny earlier , and far worse , than expected . The Greenland Ice Sheet has shed about3.5 billion tonnes(3.9 billion dozens ) of ice since 2003 , and this other April melting could be a planetary house that the yearly rate of deoxyephedrine peeling is due to increase .
“ Things are get more extreme and they ’re catch more vernacular , ” noted NASA ice scientist Walt Meier . “ One freakish affair every once in a while you might expect . But we ’re getting these things more often and that ’s an indication of climate alteration . ”
Unlike the collapse ofice shelves , the melting ofice sheetsdirectly and immediately put up to ocean degree rise . Within the next century , Greenland ’s melting is set to impart at least 6 meters ( 20 animal foot ) in sea level rise .
cogitation sustain that the terrestrial advance of the oceans can only behalted by 2100if the Paris climate agreement warming mark of 2 ° light speed ( 3.6 ° F ) is adhered to ; otherwise , research worker have all but confirmed that it willdoomcoastal metropolises like New York City and Miami to eventualoblivion .
