'Tears of the Glacier' 530 Billion Tons Disappeared from Greenland Alone Last Year

"Fastest Speed Ever Recorded"... Twice the Average Glacier Loss from 2003 to 2018
Glacier Formation Falls Below Loss... Concerns Over Sea Level Rise

Satellite image of the eastern coast of Greenland taken by NASA [Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Due to rapid climate change, Greenland's continental ice sheet is melting at an unprecedented rate. Last year, the amount of ice lost in Greenland reached 532 billion tons, twice the average loss over the past 16 years. Greenland is known as the "canary of climate change" because it is more affected by global warming than other regions.

The rapid reduction of Greenland's continental ice sheet means that global sea levels are rising rapidly. With 79% of its surface covered by ice, Greenland's continental ice sheet is the second largest in the world after Antarctica. If all of Greenland's ice melts, global sea levels would rise by up to 6 meters.

According to the daily newspaper The Guardian on the 21st (local time), the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany reported in a paper published the day before in the scientific journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment that satellite image analysis showed Greenland's continental ice sheet melted by 532 billion tons last year. This surpasses the previous record of 511 billion tons in 2012.

Generally, glaciers melt the most during summer. In July alone last year, Greenland's continental ice sheet melted by 223 billion tons, similar to the average annual loss of 255 billion tons since statistics began in 2003. This contrasts sharply with 2017 and 2018, when Greenland experienced abnormally cold summers and high snowfall in autumn and winter, resulting in minimal ice loss.

Ingo Sasgen, a glaciologist at the Alfred Wegener Polar and Marine Research Institute and author of the paper, expressed concern, saying, "The continental ice sheet has lost its balance, and the losses will increase year by year." He particularly noted that meltwater from the ice could affect the melting of the solid ice beneath, potentially accelerating the melting process.

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

The problem is that the amount of ice melting in summer exceeds the amount of ice formed in winter. Continental ice sheets form as snow accumulates in winter without melting. Recently, Ian Howat, a glaciologist at Ohio State University, and his research team analyzed 234 Arctic glaciers over 34 years until 2018 and confirmed that Greenland's annual snowfall cannot compensate for the amount of ice melting in summer.

Experts estimate that meltwater from Greenland raises sea levels by about 1 mm annually, and last year's melting of Greenland's continental ice sheet likely raised global sea levels by 1.5 mm. Danish climatologist Martin Stendel told BBC that this amount of meltwater could cover the entire United Kingdom. CNN reported that sea levels could rise by about 1 meter by the end of the 21st century.

Considering this, changes in Greenland pose a threat to coastal cities. As glaciers melt, rising sea levels could cause coastal habitats to disappear over decades. CNN emphasized that coastal or low-lying major cities such as Florida and other U.S. coastal states, London in the UK, Tokyo in Japan, Shanghai and Hong Kong in China, Kolkata in India, and Dhaka in Bangladesh need to prepare. Without defenses, about 300 million people worldwide could lose their homes.

Twyla Moon, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, stated, "When we think about responding to climate change, it's not about how to reverse Greenland's continental ice sheet, but about how quickly sea level rise will impact our society, infrastructure, homes, and military bases."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.