Greenland has been experiencing one of its warmest summers yet, and that is not good news for its ice sheets. However, Thursday was the largest melting event in a single day resulting in 11 billion tons of melted ice.
The ice sheets are melting so fast that the global sea levels are rising. In fact, in just July, Greenland’s ice melting was responsible for a 0.5mm global sea-level rise.
While it is normal for the Greenland ice sheets to melt during the summer, it has been a terrible year for them.
July Was Not a Good Month
In just the month of July, 197 billion tons of ice was melted. To put this into perspective, the normal average at this time of year would be around 60-70 billion tons.
Thus, the ice melting in July was at least three times worse than a normal melting season.
However, this should come as no surprise, when you take into consideration that July 2019 was the hottest month in human history.
The Greenland Ice Melt Season Is Not Over
While the worst may be over, the melting season is not. Typically, Greenland’s melting season lasts until the end of August.
While it is expected for the melting to continue to be severe for the next few days, August is not expected to be anywhere close to the disaster that was July.
Climate Change is Here
For years, scientists have warned that climate change is coming, but we are feeling the effects of it today. The temperatures are increasing, ice is melting, the sea levels are rising, and it gets worse every year.
And this is only the beginning.
The world is currently on track to a 3.3C temperature increase by the end of the century, and there is still plenty of time for that to get worse.
Luckily, there is also time to minimize the effects by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
