Climate Commissioners comment on Greenland ice melt

Extent of surface melt over Greenland’s ice sheet on July 8 (left) and July 12 (right). Measurements from three satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 per cent of the ice sheet had undergone thawing at or near the surface. In just a few days, the melting had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97 per cent of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12. (Areas classified as ‘probable melt’ are coloured light pink; areas classified as ‘melt’ are dark pink; the white area on the left indicates an area showing no melting on July 8.) Credit: Nicolo DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC & Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory

‘This is extremely disturbing,’ said Climate Commissioner Professor Lesley Hughes. ‘This shows that some changes to the earth are happening much faster than any of us previously thought.’

NASA has found that it is easily the largest area of melting recorded over the past 30 years of satellite observations. And it is also the fastest scientists have ever seen. In a normal summer, about half of the surface of the ice sheet starts to melt, this year almost the entire surface is melting.

Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its two-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists.

‘Melting and ice discharge from Greenland make significant contributions to the increased rate of sea-level rise that we are now observing,’ says Professor Will Steffen. ‘Observations like this are a clear warning that, by the end of this century, the sea level could well rise by a metre or more compared to 1990.’

‘Even more worrying is that the Greenland ice sheet could reach the point of no return – the point at which we cannot prevent the loss of most or all of the ice sheet – earlier than we thought.’

‘This puts more pressure on the world's largest emitters, such as Australia, to achieve rapid and deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid condemning our descendants to several metres of sea-level rise.’

The Australian Government established the Climate Commission in 2011 to provide an independent, authoritative and trusted source of information on climate change science and solutions.

Source: Climate Commission