GLACIAL DOOMSDAY

Scientists have issued a dire warning as the Greenland ice sheet, one of the largest in the world, is far more vulnerable than previously thought. The enormous body of ice has been critical to global sea level rise and climate change, and new research suggests that it could be in greater danger than previously believed. The climate crisis, triggered by human activity like burning fossil fuels, has resulted in average global temperatures rising to dangerous levels, and is beginning to cause, or aggravate major natural disasters around the world. Scientists now warn that the rising air temperatures has amplified the effects of melting caused by the ocean warming, which has led to greater loss of ice from the Greenland ice sheet.

Together, the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets make up the largest bodies of ice in the world, and since the 1990s they have been shrinking at an increased rate.

According to the European Environment Agency, this rapid melting is responsible for contributing about one-third of global sea level rise over the same period.

For Greenland, the EEA calculated that the cumulative ice loss between 1992 to 2017 was 3.9 billion tonnes, which added a further 11mm to the global sea level rise, while Antarctica lost 2.6 billion tonnes, equivalent to a contribution of 7mm in sea level rise.

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