The massive ice sheet covering approximately 80 percent of Greenland is continuing to diminish for the 30th consecutive year, with scientists from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) assessing the trend as a direct consequence of global warming and a clear “climate signal.”
Sea-news.az reports that the last recorded increase in the ice sheet’s mass occurred during the 1995/1996 season, and losses have continued uninterrupted ever since.
The ice sheet has lost an estimated 173 billion tons of ice on average annually in recent cycles (with specific annual losses reaching around 130 billion tons in recent evaluations). The absolute record for ice loss was set in 2012, when a staggering 458 billion tons melted away. Signe Hillerup Larsen, a researcher in the Department of Glaciology and Climate at GEUS, noted that single-year weather patterns do not fully reflect long-term climate trends. Rather, the uninterrupted 30-year period of shrinkage definitively proves that global warming is severely accelerating the melting process.
Scientists warn that the continued rapid melting of Greenland’s glaciers poses an escalating threat to global sea levels and vital coastal marine infrastructure worldwide.
