Greenland lost 11 billion tons of ice in one day. How does that melt compare to the past?
Scientists announced Thursday that July equaled, if not surpassed, the hottest month in recorded history. But that was not the only cause for concern.
Greenland's ice sheet melted at its most rapid rate so far this summer summer on Thursday, losing 11 billion tons of surface ice to the ocean, according to data from the Polar Portal, a website run by Danish polar research institutions, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
More links to this story.
The Arctic is burning and Greenland is melting, thanks to record heat
The Arctic's ice sheet is melting at a rapid rate: 11 billion tons in one day
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That's GREAT news! Maybe someday itll be as warm as when the Vikings settled there.
When the Vikings settle there, it was warm local weather temporarily, not a much warmer global climate, as it is now.
The melting of Greenland ice will pour fresh cold water over the warm salty Gulf Stream, causing it to submerge.
That means no more Gulf Stream warming for Europe.
Even notice that Europe is near the Arctic Circle?
It is going to drop about 20 degrees in temperature if the Greenland ice melt continues.
{...
The mighty Gulf Stream, which keeps Northern Europe and parts of Western Russia warmer than other parts of the world that share their latitude, may collapse if greenhouse gas emissions persist, an international team of researchers warns.
Global warming and the melting ice may seriously weaken the powerful Gulf Stream current and ultimately lead to its collapse, which would have incalculable consequences for precipitation, sea ice, sea levels and natural calamities in the North Atlantic and elsewhere on Earth, an international group of researchers predict in an
study which was published in the scientific magazine Geophysical Research Letters.
According to Danish climate professor Sebastian H. Mernild, CEO of the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing
Center in Bergen, Norway, the melting of, above all, the Greenland Ice Sheet may result in a marked freshwater influx that could substantially weaken the Atlantic Ocean's intricate system of surface and deep ocean currents, including the Gulf Stream, which is responsible for keeping Europe temperate, Danish newspaper
Berlingske reported.
The rise of the meltwater from the Greenland Ice Sheet is expected to be accelerated by the growing density of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Therefore, the balance of the ocean currents may be upset at a faster pace.
In the study, two scenarios were suggested. In the "good" one, which is predicated on the assumption that the world will succeed in overriding the global carbon dioxide curve by the 2040s, the Gulf Stream will "only" be weakened by about 18 percent by the end of the 21st century.
In the nightmare "business as usual" scenario, which anticipates that carbon dioxide emissions will grow as before, the Gulf Stream will have lost about 37 percent of its strength by 2100. By around 2300, the colossal hot water pump will have lost about 75 percent of its momentum and will have a 44 percent risk of collapsing completely, the researchers concluded.
...}
Melting Greenland Ice to Stop Gulf Stream, Plunge Europe Into Cold
