The Other Arctic Crisis: Greenland’s Meltdown

THE GREENLAND MELTDOWN World Science Festival If Greenland's ice sheet completely melts, scientists predict that global sea levels will rise at least 20 feet. While there's still a sizable amount of ice left, researchers think the melt is starting to accelerate; glaciers in the northeast part of the sheet, once thought to be the most stable of all, have actually been losing 10 billion tons of ice every year for the past decade. Here are some fast facts about the Arctic crisis you don't hear as much about. LOSS IN GREENLAND'S ICE SHEET... ...covers 656,000 square miles, 80% of Greenland's surface, 3 times the size of Texas ..is the 2nd largest body of ice on Earth after Antarctica ..contains 10% of Earth's fresh water supply ..is over 10,500 feet thick at its highest point YEARS 2007 -uly -3,000,000 2012 This graph shows changes in the mass of the Greenland lce Sheet, estimated to hold around 3 million gigatons (1 Gigaton=1 billion metric tons, or around 2.2 trillion pounds) of ice in total. Measurements come from the GRACE satellites, which examine Earth's gravity field. Source: Danish Meteorological Institute ANNUAL GLOBAL SEA RISE 2 Greenland's ice sheet alone contributes 16% of the total annual sea level rise we've seen 1 over the past 20 years. (MILLIMETERS) 2008 OF TONS SNOIT118 2010 007- 008- -1200 -2000 009L- 2014