Greenland Ice Sheet Melting

By David Solano

Greenland, an island in between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, is also northeast of Canada, making it a freezing place with a thick layer of ice sheets. The earth's climate is changing and getting warmer and it’s bad for the ice sheet in Greenland. The ice sheet melting is going to have a negative impact on the earth, environment, and its inhabitants. Since the 2000s, ice melting has increased rapidly.

The Greenland ice sheet melting is terrible for the environment because it is said that the sea level will rise at least 10 inches from the Greenland ice sheet melting alone. Even if the planet’s inhabitants stopped emitting greenhouse gasses, this cannot be prevented from happening. The continuation of using and burning fossil fuels can cause the climate to change faster, melt the ice, and generate higher sea levels.

“We have caused the ice sheet to go out of equilibrium,” David Bahr, a co-author of the study and a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, tells USA Today. “We’re melting it faster than the ice can move downstream and replenish areas that are melting.”

Earth’s warming climate means that overall, Greenland loses more ice than it gains each year. Warmer temperatures mean more melt days. During summer, temperatures are warm enough for ice on the surface of the Greenland ice sheet to melt in many places. Polar Bears who live in that environment are affected badly, they use floating ice to hunt prey but as it gets hotter and the ice is melting it's harder for them. Polar bears are exceptional swimmers but as the ice is melting and the ice is further apart when the polar bears are swimming from the ice they swim over 60 miles to get to the next ice, the journey eventually exhausting them and causing them to drown. As the earth is getting warmer and ice is melting, within the next couple of decades floating ice will decrease, until there is none left in the Arctic Ocean. By 2050 the population of Polar bears is expected to decrease by 30%

Nothing could be done to prevent the melting of the ice, even if the temperature stopped rising. It may not be able to be prevented but it can be delayed by using and burning fossil fuels less. Saving fresh water, by showering instead of taking baths, using tap water to drink (if it’s safe) instead of water bottles. Saving electricity is also good.