Greenland's ice sheet would continue to melt even if global warming stops: Research

A new research titled “Nature Communications Earth and Environment” which has been published in the journal ‘Nature’ suggests that even if global warming stops today, the ice sheet on the glaciers of Greenland would continue to melt. According to the study, the researchers have concluded that the annual snowfall on the glaciers is no longer enough to reload the ice that melts during the summer. The study observed 234 glaciers across the Arctic spanning 34 years till 2018. 

No repair for the damage 

The lead author of the study, and researcher at the Ohio State University, Michalea king said, "We've been looking at these remote sensing observations to study how ice discharge and accumulation have varied. And what we've found is that the ice that's discharging into the ocean is far surpassing the snow that's accumulating on the surface of the ice sheet”.

The study suggests that the glacier melting caused by global warming and climate change has caused the oceans to rise on an average of one millimetre per year. The observations of the researchers show that ice from the ice sheets breaks off into icebergs or melts from the glaciers into the ocean. 

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According to the study, the snow gained during the years 1980s and 90s through melted ice from the glaciers was in complete balance. It kept the ice sheet intact. During those years, the ice sheets lost about 450 gigatonnes of ice each year from flowing outlet glaciers, which was then replaced with snowfall. Michalea King said, "We are measuring the pulse of the ice sheet -- how much ice glaciers drain at the edges of the ice sheet -- which increases in the summer. And what we see is that it was relatively steady until a big increase in ice discharging to the ocean during a short five- to six-year period”. She added, "Glaciers have been sensitive to seasonal melt for as long as we've been able to observe it, with spikes in ice discharge in the summer. But starting in 2000, you start superimposing that seasonal melt on a higher baseline - so you're going to get even more losses”. 

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During the study, the researchers noticed that before the year 2000, the ice sheet would have gained or lost the same amount of mass each year. However, in the current climate, the ice sheet will gain mass in only one out of every 100 years. Ian Howat, who is the professor of earth sciences and distinguished university scholar at Ohio said that, "Glacier retreat has knocked the dynamics of the whole ice sheet into a constant state of loss”. "Even if the climate were to stay the same or even get a little colder, the ice sheet would still be losing mass”, he added. 

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