Greenland Study Looks at the Impacts of “Zombie Ice”

Posted: September 2, 2022 9:57 am

A new discovery in Greenland is not good news for those worried about the disastrous effects of climate change. A new study released last week in the journal Natural Climate Change is demonstrating that sea levels could rise 10 inches or more in the coming years.

Zombie Ice Sends Up Red Flag

Climatologists are referring to the discovery as “zombie ice,” alluding to the fact that this dead ice will simply melt and disappear from the existing ice sheet. This is problematic because it shows that glaciers in Greenland are melting at a faster rate than what many experts had believed.

The deficit in the ice happens when glaciers do not receive adequate amounts of snow needed to replace the ice that is melting each year. Ideally, the annual snowfall of a region would be enough to replace that ice that melts each year on the edge of the glaciers. However, the increasing amount of emissions in the air have triggered this deficit, causing the glacier to melt so much that it is not able to keep up with the current snowfall measurements.

While an ocean rise of 10 inches had already been predicted, scientists now believe that up to 30 inches could be in the cards if action is not taken in the near future. A previous estimate from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted a rise of 2 to 5 inches by 2100, pointing to how quickly the predictions have changed. Even if the loss of ice comes in at the low levels, it will translate to a loss of 120 trillion tons of water from the Greenland ice sheet.

What is most troubling is that these numbers could rise even more if the world continues to give off emissions at its current rate. NASA has used its imagery and data to estimate that glaciers located in the northwestern corner of Greenland have been losing ice at a rate of 4 to 8 billion tons each year. The situation is even more dire in the far reaches of northern Greenland where glaciers have seen ice melting at a rate of 29 billion tons each year.

All Areas of Greenland Impacted by Climate Change

While not as severe, the southeastern and southwestern corners of the island are also seeing a dramatic loss of ice. For instance, the Helheim Glacier in southeastern Greenland shrunk by 6 miles in area between the years 2005 and 2019. The ice is simply melting and landing in the sea, causing the rapid ocean rise. It was estimated that 440 billions of tons of ice melted and or dropped off the glacier into the water in 2019 alone.

Scientists are confident in their warnings because this latest study leaned on real-world data rather than computer models or predictions. In the past, many of the most dire predictions were based on simulations. However, this study used actual recorded measurements in the data.

It is also concerning to climate experts that this particular study only looked at Greenland. The situation could be even worse in Antarctica or other areas of the planet.

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