Greenland melts in a matter of days

NASA reports that heat imaging shows nearly the entire sheet of cover ice in Greenland melted in a matter of days this month.


From July 8 to July 12, nearly 60 percent of Greenland's surface ice melted, leaving scientists concerned that domino weather conditions may result.  Some climatologists say that a warm ridge of air or heat dome similar to conditions that have caused drought in the Midwest may be to blame.  They say that sea levels will rise.  If carbon is released from melted tundra, methane stored in the Arctic shelf could cause more rapid and disastrous warming. 


Every summer Greenland's surface ice melts by about 50 percent.  The melting of the entire sheath of ice is extremely rare, the last one occurring in 1889.  The big melt happened right after a piece of the Petermann Glacier twice the size of Manhattan calved off into the sea.


Internally, Greenland's melting ice has irreparably harmed the Inuit hunting and dogsledding culture.  Eco-tourism efforts in Greenland will also be affected, experts say.


Anna Heilmann, an Inuit political scientist based in Greenland  writes on the website of the Society for Ecological Restoration, International: "the climate change is catastrophic to the Greenlandic hunter and the Greenlandic dog sledge and the Greenlandic culture!"

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

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