Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 21 august 2019
Earth’s future is being written in fast-melting Greenland

By SETH BORENSTEIN rapidly,” Holland said.
AP Science Writer Holland, like NASA’s Willis,
HELHEIM GLACIER, Green- suspects that warm, salty
land (AP) — This is where water that comes in part
Earth’s refrigerator door is from the Gulf Stream in
left open, where glaciers North America is playing a
dwindle and seas begin to bigger role than previously
rise. thought in melting Green-
New York University air and land’s ice. And if that’s the
ocean scientist David Hol- case, that’s probably bad
land, who is tracking what’s news for the planet, be-
happening in Greenland cause it means faster and
from both above and be- more melting and higher
low, calls it “the end of the sea level rise. Willis said that
planet.” He is referring to by the year 2100, Green-
geography more than the land alone could cause 3
future. Yet in many ways this or 4 feet (more than 1 me-
place is where the planet’s ter) of sea level rise.
warmer and watery future So it’s crucial to know how
is being written. much of a role the air
It is so warm here, just inside above and the water be-
the Arctic Circle, that on low play.
an August day, coats are In this Aug. 15, 2019, photo, a boat navigates at night next to large icebergs in eastern Greenland. “What we want for this is
left on the ground and Hol- Greenland’s ice has been melting for more than 20 years. an ice sheet forecast,” Hol-
land and colleagues work Associated Press land said.
on the watery melting ice In this remote landscape,
without gloves. In one of doesn’t even count the a record total of 16.5 hours. and his team. It’s dwarfed sound travels easily for
the closest towns, Kulusuk, huge calving events or the Before this year, that station by the landscape, an al- miles. Every several minutes
the morning temperature warm water eating away was above zero for only most imperceptible red there’s a faint rumbling that
reached a shirtsleeve 52 at the glaciers from below, 6.5 hours in 2012, once in speck against the ice cliffs sounds like thunder, but it’s
degrees Fahrenheit (10.7 which may be a huge fac- 1889 and also in the Middle where Helheim stops and not. It’s ice cracking.
degrees Celsius). tor. Ages. its remnants begin. In tiny Kulusuk, about a
The ice Holland is standing And one of the places hit This year is coming near Those ice cliffs are some- 40-minute helicopter ride
on is thousands of years hardest this hot Green- but not quite passing the where between 225 feet away, Mugu Utuaq says the
old. It will be gone within land summer is here on extreme summer of 2012 — (70 meters) and 328 feet winter that used to last as
a year or two, adding yet the southeastern edge of Greenland’s worst year in (100 meters) high. Just much as 10 months when
more water to rising seas the giant frozen island: Hel- modern history for melting, next to them are Helheim’s he was a boy can now be
worldwide. heim, one of Greenland’s scientists report. remnants — sea ice, snow as short as five months. That
Summer this year is hitting fastest-retreating glaciers, “If you look at climate mod- and icebergs — forming a matters to him because as
Greenland hard with re- has shrunk about 6 miles (10 el projections, we can ex- mostly white expanse, with the fourth-ranked dogsled-
cord-shattering heat and kilometers) since scientists pect to see larger areas of a mishmash of shapes and der in Greenland, he has
extreme melt. By the end came here in 2005. the ice sheet experiencing textures. Frequently water 23 dogs and needs to race
of the summer, about 440 Several scientists, such as melt for longer durations of pools amid that white, glim- them.
billion tons (400 billion met- NASA oceanographer Josh the year and greater mass mering a near-fluorescent They can’t race in the sum-
ric tons) of ice — maybe Willis, who is also in Green- loss going forward,” said blue that resembles wind- mer, but they still have to
more — will have melted or land, studying melting ice University of Georgia ice shield wiper fluid or Kool- eat. So Utuaq and friends
calved off Greenland’s gi- from above, said what’s scientist Tom Mote. “There’s Aid. go whale hunting with rifles
ant ice sheet, scientists esti- happening is a combina- every reason to believe As pilot Martin Norregaard in small boats. If they suc-
mate. That’s enough water tion of man-made climate that years that look like this tries to land his helicopter ceed, which this day they
to flood Pennsylvania or the change and natural but will become more com- on the broken-up part of didn’t, the dogs can eat
country of Greece about a weird weather patterns. mon.” what used to be glacier — whale.
foot (35 centimeters) deep. Glaciers here do shrink in A NASA satellite found that a mush called a melange “People are getting rid of
In just the five days from July the summer and grow in Greenland’s ice sheet lost — he looks for ice specked their dogs because there’s
31 to Aug. 3, more than 58 the winter, but nothing like about 255 billion metric with dirt, a sign that it’s firm no season,” said Yewlin,
billion tons (53 billion metric this year. tons of ice a year between enough for the chopper to who goes by one name.
tons) melted from the sur- Summit Station, a research 2003 and 2016, with the set down on. Pure white ice He used to run a sled dog
face. That’s over 40 billion camp nearly 2 miles high loss rate generally getting could conceal a deep cre- team for tourists at a hotel
tons more than the aver- (3,200 meters) and far worse over that period. vasse that leads to a cold in neighboring Tasiilaq, but
age for this time of year. north, warmed to above Nearly all of the 28 Green- and deadly plunge. they no longer can do that.
And that 58 billion tons freezing twice this year for land glaciers that Danish Holland and team climb Yes, the melting gla-
climate scientist Ruth Mot- out to install radar and GPS ciers, less ice and warmer
tram measured are retreat- to track the ice movement weather are noticeable
ing, especially Helheim. and help explain why salty, and much different from
At Helheim, the ice, snow warm, once-tropical water his childhood, said Kulusuk
and water seem to go on attacking the glacier’s “un- Mayor Justus Paulsen, 58.
and on, sandwiched by derbelly” has been bub- Sure, it means more fuel is
bare dirt mountains that bling to the surface needed for boats to get
now show no signs of ice “It takes a really long time around, but that’s OK, he
but get covered in the to grow an ice sheet, thou- said.
winter. The only thing that sands and thousands of “We like it because we
gives a sense of scale is the years, but they can be bro- like to have a summer,”
helicopter carrying Holland ken up or destroyed quite Paulsen said.q