Scientists have reported unusual melting of surface ice cover in Greenland. Almost the entire ice cover, including its two-mile-thick centre, has experienced some degree of melting. Summertime melting of the ice sheet is an annual occurrence.
According to satellite images from NASA (see above left), Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at an alarming rate. Before July 2012, the most extensive melting seen by satellites in the past three decades was about 55 percent. Ice core records reveal that we have not seen such pronounced melting of Greenland’s ice sheet since 1889.
It's important to appreciate the colour coding of this visible science. Areas marked in white are places where no surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet has taken place.
As predicted by models of global warming, the melting of Greenland’s ice will cause sea levels to rise while the melting of sea ice in the arctic can heat things up in the Northern Hemisphere and cause more extreme weather.
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