Greenland ice sheet melting faster than ever before, study finds
Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Greenland’s ice sheet shrank more last year than at any time since records began in 1948, according to a new study. Last year it lost close to 600 billion tonnes of water, which would contribute about 1.5 millimetres to the rise in global sea levels, according to the study published in The Cryosphere. It follows research published last month that showed the polar ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet are melting six times faster than they were in the 1990s. The high melt rate corresponds to the “worst case scenario” model for global warming set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which projected that sea levels could rise by as much as one metre by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions keep climbing.
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