Greenland's ice melting rate reaching 'tipping point'

Climate change is causing Greenland ice masses to melt faster, losing four times more ice since 2003, a new study says.

According to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the ice loss in 2012 – more than 400 billion tonnes – reached nearly four times the rate in 2003.

The largest sustained ice loss came from southwest Greenland, a region previously not seen as a crucial actor in rising sea levels as it is mostly devoid of large glaciers.

“We knew we had one big problem with increasing rates of ice discharge by some large outlet glaciers,” said Michael Bevis, the study’s lead author and a professor of geodynamics at Ohio State University.

The melting of surface mass, which the study’s authors said was a consequence of global warming, is set to “become a major future contributor to sea level rise.”

“The only thing we can do is adapt and mitigate further global warming – it’s too late for there to be no effect,” Bevis said, adding “we are watching the ice sheet hit a tipping point”.

To analyse changes in ice mass, the study used data from NASA’s gravity recovery and climate experiment and GPS stations scattered across Greenland.

If all of Greenland’s vast ice sheet was to melt, global sea levels would rise by seven metres.

Original source: Aljazeera
Published on 22 January 2019