Climate change melts 12.5bn tons of ice in Greenland 50 years earlier than predicted An estimated 11.5bn tons of carbon emissions were stripped from the North Atlantic Ocean by Greenland alone in less than 50 years, scientists have warned.
The study, published in the journal Nature, found that average water temperatures in the North Atlantic were 31 degrees Celsius lower than what had been expected at the time – representing the largest loss of ice in recorded history.
The global Arctic ice cover had shrunk by 45 per cent since 1979, bringing the melting rate to 1.3bn tons a year.
The findings are the first to suggest that warming and temperature of the Earth’s surface could have led to a vast reduction in ice cover, raising the prospect of renewed western ice-free periods.
In a finding that will worry international officials keen to build a new relationship in the Arctic following the sudden reversal of fortunes in 2011, the authors calculated that 22.5bn tons of carbon emissions were stripped from the surface at a time when sea ice had the potential to rise by 4.3 metres and water temperatures by nearly 22 degrees.
They also found that a similar reduction in the Arctic was also required for another 4.3m tons of carbon to flow from Greenland to the atmosphere.
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