Greenland’s Coastal Ice Caps Have Melted Past The Point Of No Return

Coastal ice has passed a critical “tipping point,” a new study shows. And it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the island’s ice.

Even as President Donald Trump and his administration continue to deny the urgency of climate change, an international team of researchers has revealed how global warming has already melted Greenland’s coastal glaciers and ice caps past the point of no return.

In a study published in Nature Communications on Friday, scientists based in Europe and the U.S. describe how the glaciers and ice caps that cover tens of thousands of square miles along the coast of Greenland have reached a critical “tipping point,” beyond which further melting is unavoidable.

Troublingly, the ice had already surpassed this tipping point 20 years ago, the researchers said — only the technology to confirm this hadn’t existed until now.

“These peripheral glaciers and ice caps can be thought of as colonies of ice that are in rapid decline, many of which will likely disappear in the near future,” said Ian Howat, study co-author and glaciologist at Ohio State University, in a statement last week. “In that sense, you could say that they’re ‘doomed.’”

Source: Greenland’s Coastal Ice Caps Have Melted Past The Point Of No Return