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Greenland Is Melting at a ‘Disastrous’ Rate

Researchers worry that this rapid rate of ice loss may lead to sea levels rising even faster than previously predicted.

Greenland’s ice sheets are melting at unprecedented rates, according to a new international study. The study used satellite estimates to calculate ice loss, and found that Greenland averaged 283 billion tons of melting per year from 2017 to 2020. That’s up from just 235 billion tons per year from 2012 to 2016. These findings “are pretty disastrous really” according to the study’s co-author Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute. “We’re losing more and more ice from Greenland.” Evidence clearly points to human activity as the driving force behind this ice loss, said the study’s lead author Ines Otosaka, a glaciologist at the U.K.’s University of Leeds. Researchers worry that this rapid rate of ice loss may lead to sea levels rising even quicker than previously predicted. “This matters because rising sea levels will displace and/or financially impact hundreds of millions of people, if not billions, and will likely cost trillions of dollars,” said University of Colorado ice researcher Waleed Abdalati in an email to the Associated Press. “We have come to learn that ice responds rapidly to our changing climate.”