"Greenland Ice Sheet Lost A Record 1M Tonnes Of Ice Per Minute In 2019"

"Climate-driven loss is likely to be the worst for centuries, and is pushing up sea levels"

"The Greenland ice sheet lost a record amount of ice in 2019, equivalent to a million tonnes per minute across the year, satellite data shows.

The climate crisis is heating the Arctic at double the rate in lower latitudes, and the ice cap is the biggest single contributor to sea level rise, which already imperils coasts around the world. The ice sheet shrank by 532bn tonnes last year as its surface melted and glaciers fell into the ocean and would have filled seven Olympic-sized swimming pools per second.

The satellite data has been collected since 2003. The 2019 loss was double the annual average since then of 255bn tonnes. Almost that amount was lost in July 2019 alone."

Damian Carrington reports for the Guardian August 20, 2020.

Source: Guardian, 08/21/2020