Greenland recorded temperature as high as nearly 11-degrees Celsius in August, which is considered excessive for the region and is accelerating the ice melt process. By Kumar Shree
The harsh summer in Greenland got all scientists worried as temperatures recorded are way higher than usual and this, in turn, is accelerating the melting of ice by many folds. We can only imagine the impact of such harsh temperatures as researchers speculate a loss of almost 440 billion tonnes of ice by the end of this summer season in Greenland.
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If you are wondering about the amount of water, consider this analogy. 400 billion tonnes of ice upon melting will convert into enough water to flood entire Greece. You read that right. Notably, Greece has a landmass of 131,957 sq km. Now that is certainly not a good piece of news.
The situation in Greenland has not been satisfactory since 2019, and this year it has worsened beyond imagination. Scientists have concluded that in 2019, Greenland shed more than twice the ice against its annual average record since 2003. In the year 2020 also, nearly 58 billion tonnes of ice bid adieu to Greenland between July 31 to August 3. That amount, once again, is way more than the average of 40 billion tonnes of ice during this time of the year.
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As reported by the Associated Press, Tom Mote, an ice scientist at the University of Georgia said, “If you look at climate model projections, we can expect to see larger areas of the ice sheet experiencing meltdown for a longer duration of the year and greater mass loss going forward. There’s every reason to believe that years that look like this will become more common.”
Many studies have concluded that Greenland’s ice sheet is up to two miles thick in certain places. Now, if all of that ice melts, the global sea levels would increase by as much as 24 feet, which will end up swallowing many countries and beaches across the globe. That is something worth pondering upon.
Related: Canada’s Ice Shelf (Bigger Than Manhattan) Collapses, Thanks To Global Warming!
