Greenland is melting: catastrophic consequences for the Earth are named

Greenland is getting greener. This could have huge consequences for the world. The extent of Greenland’s ice melt over the past three decades is about 36 times the size of New York City – land that is rapidly giving way to wetlands and shrubland, a study released Tuesday shows.

The amount of vegetation in Greenland doubled between the mid-1980s and mid-2010s as parts of the country that were once covered in ice and snow became barren cliffs, wetlands or scrubland. Wetlands alone have quadrupled in size during this time, CNN notes.

After analyzing satellite imagery, scientists found that Greenland had lost 28,707 square kilometers of ice over a three-decade period and warned of a cascade of impacts that could have major implications for climate change and sea level rise.

Rising air temperatures led to the loss of ice, which in turn increased land temperatures. This has caused the melting of permafrost, the frozen layer just below the Earth’s surface that is found in much of the Arctic, and this melting releases carbon dioxide and methane that warm the planet, contributing to even greater global warming. Melting permafrost also causes soil instability, which can affect infrastructure and buildings.

“We saw signs that ice loss is triggering other responses that will lead to further ice loss and further greening of Greenland, where melting ice exposes bare rock that is then colonized by tundra and eventually shrubland,” one of the authors notes. report by Jonathan Carrivick in a press release. “At the same time, the water released from the melting ice moves sediments and silt that eventually form wetlands and marshes.”

The loss of ice creates a so-called feedback loop, CNN says. Snow and ice typically reflect solar energy back into space, preventing excessive heating in some parts of the Earth. But as the ice melts, these areas absorb more solar energy, raising land surface temperatures, which can cause further melting and other negative effects.

Melting ice also increases the amount of water in lakes, where water absorbs more heat than snow, raising land surface temperatures.

Since the 1970s, Greenland has warmed at twice the global average rate, and the study authors warn that more extreme temperatures are possible in the future.

Greenland is the largest island in the world, which is mostly covered with ice and glaciers. The country, which is an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark, has a population of approximately 57,000 people. Much of the population is indigenous, and many people there rely on natural ecosystems for their survival.

Michael Grimes, the report’s lead author, said the flow of sediment and nutrients into coastal waters was particularly problematic for Indigenous communities that rely on fishing, as well as for hunters in other parts of the island.

“These changes are critical, especially for indigenous people whose traditional hunting practices depend on the stability of these fragile ecosystems,” he said.

“Moreover, the loss of ice mass in Greenland is a significant contributor to global sea level rise, a trend that poses significant challenges both now and in the future.”