By Evan Howell , Science.  Excerpt: Seas will rise this century—but not uniformly.... In the very places where glaciers are melting and shrinking, the land beneath will rebound as the burden eases, meaning seas may fall even as the meltwater causes them to rise elsewhere. A new study shows that in Greenland—whose rapidly melting ice sheet accounts for about one-fifth of current sea level rise—this paradox will mean expanding coastlines, dried-up fjords, and future complications. Published today in  Nature Communications , the research  shows portions of Greenland’s coast will rebound far more sharply than expected , causing seas to fall by anywhere from 1 to nearly 4 meters by 2100. Western and southern Greenland...will likely bear the brunt of the retreat, posing major problems for shipping and food security. ...Changes in the mass of Greenland’s enormous ice sheet, which is roughly three times the size of Texas and in some places more than 3 kilometers thick, ...

By Somini Sengupta , The New York Times.  Excerpt: ...the fate of the world’s largest island has outsize importance for billions of people on the planet. That’s because of the one thing that Greenland is quickly losing: ice. Most of Greenland’s landmass...is covered in ice. That ice is melting rapidly because the polar regions of the world are warming rapidly, with wide-ranging consequences for the stability of the Earth’s climate. Blame the burning of coal, oil and gas. Their emissions have driven up global temperatures, most strikingly in the Arctic, which is  warming at least twice as fast  as the rest of the planet. As the Arctic warms, potential new trading routes open up, as well as access to mineral riches, including those that are vital for clean energy technologies useful for slowing climate change.... ...In the 12 months ending on Aug. 31, 2025, Greenland lost 105 billion metric tons of ice, according to scientists at the Danish Meteorological Institute, who...

By Larissa G. Capella , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Jasmine Saros , a lake ecologist at the University of Maine, has been studying Arctic lakes in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, since 2013, ...in 2023, they returned to find many once-clear lakes had turned brown. ...Lake browning often results from high concentrations of dissolved organic carbon, primarily from decaying vegetation. It can also be caused by an increase in iron, typically resulting from natural processes such as weathering of iron-rich soils and rocks into the water, as well as anthropogenic influences such as agricultural runoff and industrial discharges. Data from the fifth-generation European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts atmospheric reanalysis ( ERA5 )...showed that nine atmospheric rivers had dumped precipitation over the area between September and October of 2022. Atmospheric rivers are known for transporting moisture, but they can also carry warm air. The ERA data also highlighted that September 2022 was the hot...

By Julienne C. Stroeve et al, Science.  Abstract: Under current nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, global warming is projected to reach 2.7°C above preindustrial levels. In this review, we show that at such a level of warming, the Arctic would be transformed beyond contemporary recognition: Virtually every day of the year would have air temperatures higher than preindustrial extremes, the Arctic Ocean would be essentially ice free for several months in summer, the area of Greenland that reaches melting temperatures for at least a month would roughly quadruple, and the area of permafrost would be roughly half of what it was in preindustrial times. These geophysical changes go along with widespread ecosystem disruptions and infrastructure damage, which, as we show here, could be substantially reduced by increased efforts to limit global warming....  Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads1549 .  See...

By Thomas R. Chudley et al, Nature Geoscience.  Summary: The Greenland Ice Sheet, which measures more than 3 kilometers at its thickest point and covers an area three times the size of Texas, is the world’s second largest body of ice. If all of it were to melt, the world’s oceans would rise a whopping seven meters. And while such a complete meltdown would likely take thousands of years, Greenland—already one of the largest contributors to sea level rise—is poised to add up to 30 centimeters by 2100. Now, new research published in  Nature Geoscience  has revealed that  this enormous mass of ice is breaking apart faster than expected ....  Full article at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01636-6 . 

By Ariana Bindman , SFGate.  Excerpt: A Cold War relic, Camp Century was supposed to be entombed in ice forever. NASA’s April 2024 expedition to the Greenland Ice Sheet...[was] "...looking for the bed of the ice and out pops Camp Century,” said Alex Gardner, a scientist at NASA’s California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a  Nov. 25 news release. ...Part research facility, part war machine, the clandestine, underground military site once housed up to  200 soldiers  and scientists who dutifully  studied ice core samples  during the height of the Cold War.  The nuclear-powered operation , complete with  an experimental subsurface railway  ultimately designed to help launch 600 missiles and provide year-round accommodations for its personnel, was supposed to be entombed in  snow for eternity  after authorities decommissioned it in 1967. ...But the bones of “Project Iceworm” may soon reemerge, as scientists worry that global w...

By Raymond Zhong  and  Mira Rojanasakul , The New York Times.  Excerpt: For the past two decades, scientists have been raising alarms about great systems in the natural world that warming, caused by carbon emissions, might be pushing toward collapse. These systems are so vast that they can stay somewhat in balance even as temperatures rise. But only to a point. Once we warm the planet beyond certain levels, this balance might be lost, scientists say. The effects would be sweeping and hard to reverse. Not like the turning of a dial, but the flipping of a switch. One that wouldn’t be easily flipped back. ...Mass Death of Coral Reefs. ...Abrupt Thawing of Permafrost. ...Collapse of Greenland Ice. ...Breakup of West Antarctic Ice. ...Sudden Shift in the West African Monsoon. ...Loss of Amazon Rainforest. ...Shutdown of Atlantic Currents....  \Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/08/11/climate/earth-warming-climate-tipping-points.html .   

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42198-2 By R. Millan et al, Nature Communications.  Abstract: The glaciers of North Greenland are hosting enough ice to raise sea level by 2.1 m, and have long considered to be stable. ...Here, we show that since 1978, ice shelves in North Greenland have lost more than 35% of their total volume, three of them collapsing completely. For the floating ice shelves that remain we observe a widespread increase in ice shelf mass losses, that are dominated by enhanced basal melting rates. Between 2000 and 2020, there was a widespread increase in basal melt rates that closely follows a rise in the ocean temperature. ...These results suggest that, under future projections of ocean thermal forcing, basal melting rates will continue to rise or remain at high level, which may have dramatic consequences for the stability of Greenlandic glaciers.... See also Greenland-wide accelerated retreat of peripheral glaciers in the twenty-first century by L. J. ...

https://eos.org/articles/greenland-was-much-greener-416000-years-ago By Bill Morris , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: In 2019, a team of scientists glimpsed an ancient, shrubby landscape at the base of a long-forgotten ice core—rare evidence that Greenland wasn’t always completely covered in ice. Now, they have pinpointed the age of that ecosystem, and the implications are disturbing—Greenland’s ice sheet, the finds show, could melt at any time, contributing to catastrophic sea level rise. ...The team  reported  the find in 2021 but at the time were unable to accurately date the deposits. Doing so, said coauthor  Tammy Rittenour , a paleoclimatologist with Utah State University, is crucial for “understanding the conditions at which you can melt the Greenland ice sheet.” ...Climate variability driven by the  El Niño–Southern Oscillation , North Atlantic Oscillation, and other patterns, Cronin said, could have driven Earth’s climate, ocean circulation, and ice dynamics to tipp...

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/29/major-sea-level-rise-caused-by-melting-of-greenland-ice-cap-is-now-inevitable-27cm-climate By  Damian Carrington , The Guardian.  Excerpt: Major sea-level rise from the melting of the  Greenland  ice cap is now inevitable, scientists have found, even if the fossil fuel burning that is driving the climate crisis were to end overnight. The research shows the global heating to date will cause an absolute minimum sea-level rise of 27cm (10.6in) from Greenland alone as 110tn tonnes of ice melt. With continued carbon emissions, the melting of other ice caps and thermal expansion of the ocean, a multi-metre sea-level rise appears likely. Billions of people live in coastal regions, making flooding due to rising sea levels one of the greatest long-term impacts of the climate crisis. If Greenland’s record melt year of 2012 becomes a routine occurrence later this century, as is possible, then the ice cap will deliver a “stagge...

https://eos.org/articles/evidence-of-drought-provides-clues-to-a-viking-mystery By Korena Di Roma Howley , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: ...Why, after more than 450 years, did a colony of medieval Norse farmers disappear from their remote Greenland settlement? In attempting to uncover what may have happened, researchers have returned again and again to climate—and to a seemingly obvious scenario. Having turned up on the island during the centuries-long  Medieval Warm Period , the settlers were then gradually ushered out by the arrival of the  Little Ice Age  in the 14th century. But a new study has found that drought, not plunging temperatures, may have pushed an already fragile community to its breaking point. ...Around 985 CE, at the height of the  Viking era , a group led by exiled explorer Erik the Red sailed west from Iceland and established the first European settlement on Greenland. The Norse farmed the land and hunted walrus for the ivory trade. ...Though they inha...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/06/02/greenland-melt-warm-climate-change/ By Kasha Patel, The Washington Post .  Excerpt: The term “atmospheric river” has recently become popularized in media due to its role in extreme weather. As the plume of water vapor makes landfall, it precipitates as rain or snow. In the fall and winter, atmospheric rivers bring much of California’s annual precipitation but can also unleash intense flooding . In July 2021, an atmospheric river brought flooding to Germany , which killed more than 200 people. In Greenland, these warm rivers in the sky also play a role in melting the ice sheet. Amid rising temperatures, Greenland has lost more ice mass than it gained for 25 years in a row. In that time, melting ice from Greenland has added about 0.4 inches to sea level rise — equivalent to adding water from 120 million Olympic-size swimming pools each year. If the entire ice sheet were to melt, sea level could increase by more than 20 feet. In a stud...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/20/climate/greenland-rain-ice-sheet.html Source: By Henry Fountain , The New York Times.  Excerpt: The showers are another troubling sign of a changing Arctic, which is warming faster than any other region on Earth.…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/08/05/greenland-melt-event-season-2021/ Source: By  Kasha Patel , The Washington Post. [article has satellite images]  Excerpt: Last week, a heat wave spurred Greenland’s biggest melting event of the 2021 season so far. The Polar Portal, run by Danish research institutions,  stated  that enough water melted to cover all of Florida with two inches of water. ...Stendel noted that the amount of ice melted from this event contributed to global sea-level rise by roughly 0.1 millimeter and that it could also impact sea-level rise further down the line. “When ice from the ice sheet melts, the remaining ice is at lower altitudes and can therefore melt easier. Even if we stopped all emission of greenhouse gases today, the sea level would continue to rise for the next several hundreds of years,” Stendel wrote. “In other words, what happens now has a relevance for the future.”  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/03/15/greenland-ice-sheet-more-vulnerable/ Source:  By  Sarah Kaplan , The Washington Post. Excerpt: At first, Andrew Christ was ecstatic. In soil taken from the bottom of the Greenland ice sheet, he’d discovered the remains of ancient plants. Only one other team of researchers had ever found greenery beneath the mile-high ice mass. But then Christ determined how long it had been since that soil had seen sunlight: Less than a million years. Just the blink of an eye in geologic terms. And it dawned on him. If plants once grew at multiple spots on the surface of Greenland, that meant the ice that now covers the island had entirely melted. And if the whole Greenland ice sheet had melted once in the not-so-distant past, that meant it could go again. ...The  findings , published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicate that the biggest reservoir of ice in the Northern Hemisphere can collap...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/23/climate-moulins-greenland/ Source:  By  Chris Mooney , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: The scientists ...created two intersecting holes into the bed of a now frozen-over ice river.... The hole, scientists believe, ultimately penetrates more than a half-kilometer into the ice, joining a network of channels extending all the way to the base of the ice sheet. ...Covington and his colleague Jason Gulley, ...were motivated by a scientific question with enormous implications as the climate warms. Just how vast are these moulins, these ice caves found by the thousands across Greenland’s surface? How much are they undermining the integrity of the second-largest sheet of ice on the planet? And how much worse will it get as melting, and moulins, begin to extend farther and farther toward the airy center of Greenland, where the ice is well over a mile thick? ...As the climate warms — with the Arctic warming fastest of al...

https://eos.org/articles/shrinking-ice-sheets-lifted-global-sea-level-14-millimeters Source:   By Tim Hornyak, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Using satellite data stretching back more than a decade, scientists have found that the loss of ice in Antarctica and Greenland accounts for a 14-millimeter elevation in sea levels since 2003. The data provide the most accurate and granular picture of ice loss so far, a crucial element for predictions of how high seas will rise as the climate changes....

https://eos.org/articles/unprecedented-clear-skies-drove-remarkable-melting-in-greenland Source:   By Hannah Thomasy, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: It’s no surprise that warming temperatures are bad news for the Greenland Ice Sheet, a body of ice that’s 3 times the size of Texas. But temperature isn’t the only factor that controls how fast this monstrous ice sheet is melting. New research [ https://www.the-cryosphere.net/14/1209/2020/tc-14-1209-2020.pdf ] from scientists at Columbia University, NASA, and the University of Liège in Belgium shows that atmospheric conditions play an important role in driving major melting events. In terms of melting, 2019 was one of the worst years for the Greenland Ice Sheet since measurements began in 1948. ...Lead author of the new study Marco Tedesco, a climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said that unusual atmospheric conditions in 2019 were important contributors to this record-breaking loss. In much of Greenland,...

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/predicting-the-future-of-greenlands-melting-ice-sheet Source:   By Sarah Stanley, Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Climate change drives increased melting of glaciers around the world, including about 280 glaciers that drain ice from Greenland’s massive ice sheet through deep fjords into the ocean. Greenland’s ice has the potential to increase global sea level by more than 7 meters, but the exact effects and their timing are difficult to predict....

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/climate/climate-change-acceleration.html Source:   By Henry Fountain, The New York Times. Excerpt: More devastating fires in California. Persistent drought in the Southwest. Record flooding in Europe and Africa. A heat wave, of all things, in Greenland. Climate change and its effects are accelerating, with climate related disasters piling up, season after season. “Things are getting worse,” said Petteri Taalas, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization, which on Tuesday issued its annual state of the global climate report, concluding a decade of what it called exceptional global heat. “It’s more urgent than ever to proceed with mitigation.” ...Seas are warming and rising faster, putting more cities at risk of tidal flooding or worse. Glaciers are melting at a pace many researchers did not expect for decades. The amount of Arctic sea ice has declined so rapidly that the region may see ice-free summers by the 2030s. Even the gro...