STORY HIGHLIGHTS
• Greenland's ice sheet dumps more than 280 billion metric tons
of melting ice into the ocean each year.
• Even if global warming were to stop today, the ice sheet would continue shrinking.
• Scientists analyzed 40 years of satellite data from more than 200 large glaciers draining into the ocean.
• Greenland's ice sheet dumps more than 280 billion metric tons
 |
| Even if global warming were to stop today, the ice sheet would continue shrinking. |
• Even if global warming were to stop today, the ice sheet would continue shrinking.
• Scientists analyzed 40 years of satellite data from more than 200 large glaciers draining into the ocean.
Greenland's melting ice sheet has passed the point of no return.
In
fact, glaciers on the island have shrunk so much that even if global
warming were to stop today, the ice sheet would continue shrinking, a new study suggests.
"Glacier
retreat has knocked the dynamics of the whole ice sheet into a constant
state of loss," study co-author Ian Howat, an earth scientist from Ohio
State University, said in a statement. "Even if the climate were to stay the same or even get a little colder, the ice sheet would still be losing mass."
This
"tipping point" means the snowfall that replenishes the ice sheet each
year cannot keep up with the ice that is flowing into the ocean from
melting glaciers.
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