A Dramatic Warming Surge in Greenland: An Ice Core Study

Rising temperatures have the “clear fingerprints of global warming,” as determined by a recent report of Greenland’s ice cores.

Base Facts

By digging up to 100 feet into the enormous ice sheet of Greenland’s interior, scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany were able to reconstruct the temperature of north and central Greenland back to the year 1000.

The key Arctic region, whose melting ice has a large global impact, had a severe spike in temperatures, according to the report’s authors, who attributed this to human-caused climate change.

The study, which was released on Wednesday in the journal Nature, found that between 2001 and 2011, the ice was generally 1.7 degrees Celsius (3 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than it was between 1961 and 1990 and 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the whole 20th century.

Researchers say that although a slower long-term rate of warming has been seen on the island since 1800, human-caused global warming is to blame for the “recent severe” temperature spike in Greenland.

Maria Hoerhold, a glaciologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and the study’s principal author, noted that temperatures have continued to rise between the 1990s and 2011. “Global warming is now clearly visible,”

Reason

The process is known as “Greenland blocking,” which occurs when high-pressure systems remain over Greenland and push warmer air further north, probably also contributing to the warming.

The freshest water on Earth’s surface is found in Antarctica and Greenland is the “biggest contribution” to sea level rise. This freshwater is largely trapped in massive ice sheets. Scientists predict that these glaciers, together with those in Alaska, Nepal, and the Alps, as well as Siberia’s arctic permafrost, will have the greatest impact on sea level rise.

According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a complete loss of Greenland’s ice may cause the world’s oceans to rise by almost seven meters. This would be devastating to coastal towns, which are currently coping with the effects of rising sea levels and intensifying storm systems.

Background

According to a U.N. report published in October, scientists predict that if current emission levels continue, the world’s temperature will rise by roughly 3 degrees Celsius by 2100. Furthermore, greenhouse gas emissions are expected to increase by 10.6% above 2010 levels by 2030, exceeding the critical 43% reduction that the U.N. determined was required to achieve the historic Paris Climate Agreement goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the century’s end.

The areas closest to the Earth’s poles may experience the greatest temperature rise. Since 1979, the Arctic has warmed up about four times faster than the rest of the world, according to a study that was published in Communications Earth & Environment last August. This could mean the end of the Arctic ice sheet.

Scientists have cautioned that governments have not yet implemented the necessary reforms to prevent the worst effects of global warming, which are occurring as a result of the burning of fossil fuels and warming the earth.

According to a United Nations assessment released in November, many of the most well-known glaciers could vanish by the year 2050 due to global warming. About one-third of the over 18,600 glaciers the organization oversees across 50 UNESCO World Heritage Sites are anticipated to disappear by the middle of the century.

Two-thirds of the world’s glaciers are predicted to vanish by the year 2100, according to another study.

According to geologists, the ice sheet in Greenland has been warming significantly and is on the verge of a catastrophic melting event. According to NASA, Greenland is home to enough ice that if it all melted, the world’s sea levels would rise by about 24 feet.

Although the study mainly looked at temperatures up until 2011, exceptional occurrences have occurred in Greenland after then. Nearly the whole ice sheet’s surface started melting in 2019 due to an unexpectedly warm spring and a heatwave in July, releasing some 532 billion tonnes of ice into the ocean. Scientists later estimated that this would cause a 1.5-millimeter increase in global sea level.

Then, in 2021, rain began to fall for the first time on Greenland’s top, which is located around two miles above sea level. After that, the warm air sparked an extraordinary rainstorm that dumped 7 billion tonnes of water on the ice sheet, nearly filling the Reflecting Pool at the National Mall in Washington, DC, 250,000 times.

Scientists noted that because these catastrophic occurrences are occurring more frequently in Greenland, the team will continue to track the developments.

Every grade count, we’ll eventually return to Greenland and keep extending those records, he said.