For three days this month, 7 billion tonnes of rain fell across Greenland – the largest amount since records began in 1950. It is also the first time since then that rain, not snow, fell on Greenland’s highest peak.
This is alarming. Greenland’s ice sheet is the second largest on the planet (after Antarctica) and any rain falling on its surface accelerates melting. By August 15, the amount of ice lost was seven times greater than is normal for mid-August.
This is just the latest extreme climate event on the island, which sits in the North Atlantic Ocean. In a single day in July this year, the amount of ice that melted in Greenland would have covered the US state of Florida with 5 centimetres of water. And in October 2020, research showed ice in Greenland is melting faster than at any other time in the past 12,000 years.
Melting in Greenland threatens to significantly hamper humanity’s efforts to mitigate climate change. That is because, after a certain point, it may…