​Greenland, the world’s largest island, is warming at a rapid rate, and analysis of the ice in the coldest and highest regions of the island shows that it has never been as warm in the last millennium as it is now. The study, published in the journal Nature, says the main concern is rising ocean levels due to melting ice.

Greenland has an area of ​​more than 2.1 million km2 and a population of 55,000 people. The largest city, the capital Nuuk, has almost 20,000 inhabitants.

In 2012, ice cores were collected from the northern and central regions, the coldest and highest regions of the island, and analysis of the ice provided insights into how temperatures have changed over the past thousand years. The conclusion was that at no time in the past 1,000 years has it been as warm as between 2001 and 2011.

Compared to the 20th century, the temperature in the studied regions increased by an average of 1.5 degrees, and although the data of the study dates back to 2012, it should not be forgotten that recent years were the warmest in the entire history of observations, so the melting of the ice happened even faster.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark and the University of Bremen (Germany).

The main effect of the accelerated melting of ice in Greenland is related to the rise in the level of the World Ocean, the most pessimistic estimates indicate the possibility of a rise in the level of the planetary ocean by 2100 by 50 cm due to the melting of the glaciers of the largest island on the globe.

Greenland has so much ice that the planet’s ocean levels could rise more than 20 feet if, hypothetically, it all melted.

The situation is worrying, as it is clear that the ice is melting in the northernmost areas of the island, as well as in those at very high altitudes.

Melting of large amounts of fresh water, as in Greenland, threatens hundreds of millions of people who now live below sea level, or annual floods. It also leads to changes in ocean salinity, a phenomenon that can disrupt marine ecosystems.

That things do not sound very good is evidenced by an event that took place in August 2021: for the first time since the availability of meteorological data, it rained at the Summit station, located at an altitude of 3200 m above sea level in Greenland. The average temperature in August at Summit Station is -16 degrees, and sometimes the temperature drops below -35 C, but the warm air mass has caused rain here.

At the station, located at an altitude of more than 3200 m, the absolute minimum was -67 degrees in winter, and in summer it was no more than +4 degrees. It is one of the coldest places on earth.

The temperature record for Greenland was set on July 30, 2013 +25.9 C in Manitsok on the southwest coast. The previous record was +25.5°C in Kangerlussuaq on July 27, 1990.

Many studies have shown that the Arctic region is warming faster than any other place on the globe. Heat waves also reach midnight, ice begins to melt faster, and the number of frosty days has decreased.

The study, published in the journal Nature, is titled “Modern temperatures in central and northern Greenland are the warmest in the last millennium.”

Sources: USA Today, Washington Post

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