December 11, 2019

Anna Murray 

According to a scientific article, published in the journal Nature on December 10, warned Greenland ice was melting 7 times faster than in the 1990s at a much greater pace than experts ever predicted. It also warns that the melting is likely to threaten 40 million people at risk of flooding. The study’s results were presented by the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE) team, an international collaboration of 89 polar experts from 50 international organizations, entitled “the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise”, providing improved estimates of the ice sheet contribution to sea-level rise.

The IMBIE’s collaboration, led by Professor Andrew Shepherd at the University of Leeds, Dr. Erik Ivins at the California Institute of Technology, Professor Eric Rignot at the University of California, Irvine, and other scientists, analyzed 11 individual satellite measurements recorded from 1992 to 2018. Their comprehensive survey demonstrated Greenland had lost 3.8 trillion tons of ice since 1992, which measured to 10.6mm of sea-level rise. It concluded 2 main contributing factors in Greenland ice melt were surface runoff by increased air temperatures and warming oceans from below.

IMBIE’s article reaffirmed the emergence in the fight against climate change. Earlier, sled dogs were seen wading through standing water on the sea ice during an expedition in North-Western Greenland. Professor Andrew Shepherd also stated that Greenland ice melting on the current trends would cause 100 million people to be flooded each year by the end of the century.

Photo:Webshot.