COPENHAGEN, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Scientists at the University of Copenhagen said on Friday that the rate at which Greenland’s glaciers are melting has increased fivefold over the past 20 years due to global warming.
Melting ice in Greenland is of particular concern because the ancient ice sheets store enough water to melt completely and raise sea levels by at least 20 feet (6 meters).
Anders Anker Björk, assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen’s School of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, told Reuters that a study of 1,000 glaciers in the region showed that the rate of melting had entered a new phase over the past 20 years. .
“There is a very clear correlation between the temperatures we experience on Earth and the changes in glacier melt rates that we observe,” Björk said.
Scientists studied the development of glaciers over 130 years through satellite images and 200,000 old photographs, and found that glaciers have been losing an average of 25 meters a year from 5 to 6 meters about 20 years ago. concluded.
Global temperatures are already nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius higher than before the industrial revolution, and 2023 is “almost certain” to be the warmest in 125,000 years, European Union scientists announced earlier this month. .
Jørgen Eyvind Olesen, director of the Aarhus University Climate Institute, said lowering temperatures will require a global effort to minimize greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
“I believe we can prepare for these glaciers to continue to melt at an ever-increasing rate,” Olesen said.
Greenland glaciers are often used to predict the effects of climate change on the Greenland ice sheet.
“If glaciers start losing mass several times faster than in the last century, we would expect ice sheets to follow the same path more slowly and over longer timescales,” said William, a senior researcher at the Institute of Geology. Colgan says. The Denmark-Greenland study (GEUS) revealed this.
The Greenland ice sheet contributed 17.3% of the observed sea level rise between 2006 and 2018, and glaciers accounted for 21%. Greenland has approximately 22,000 glaciers.
Report by Johannes Birkebaek.Editing: Barbara Lewis
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.