It is old news by now that the Greenland ice sheet is melting and that it could trigger a shutdown of the Gulf Stream current that moderates the North Atlantic climate (see 2005’s “The Day After Tomorrow”).
But as if that weren’t enough, new information this summer is indicating that the rate of Greenland’s meltdown is accelerating to as much as triple speed. According to an Aug. 19 article in New Scientist magazine, the melting is headed for a “point of no return,” where melting waters at the bases of Greenland’s glaciers will irreversibly accelerate their drift out to sea within the next century.
If all of Greenland’s glaciers went today, sea levels would rise worldwide by more than 20 feet.
One can perhaps take heart, however, in a July 18 Wall Street Journal front-page story, in which a rancher is reclaiming land left behind by the 300-foot retreat of a glacier on his property over the last decade. The headline? “For Icy Greenland, Global Warming Has a Bright Side.”