In Arctic heat Greenland’s ice loss grows faster still

(Climate News Network, 24 Aug 2020) Greenland’s ice loss tipped a new record last year. This ominous milestone is just the latest in a run of alarming news.

Its icecap is now smaller than at any time since measurements began: Greenland’s ice loss means it lost mass in 2019 at a record rate.

By the close of the year, thanks to high summer melt and low snowfall, the northern hemisphere’s biggest reservoir of ice had shed 532 billion tonnes into the sea – raising global sea levels by around 1.5mm in a year.

The previous record loss for Greenland was in 2012. In that year, the island lost 464 billion tonnes, according to studies of satellite data published by European scientists in the journal Communications Earth and Environment.

Greenland’s ice cap has been shrinking, if unsteadily, for many years. In 2017 and 2018, the losses continued, but only at around 100bn tonnes a year.

“After a two-year breather, the mass loss increased steeply and exceeded all annual losses since 1948, and probably for more than 100 years,” said Ingo Sasgen of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, who led the study.

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Climate News Network, 24 Aug 2020: In Arctic heat Greenland’s ice loss grows faster still