Time to Sell That Beachfront Property

Scientists alarmed at increase in melt rate of ice (snippets)

HAMISH MACDONELL GREENLAND’S cover of ice is melting ten times quicker than previously thought, an increase that could lead to floods across the world, scientists have found. Newly published research shows an alarming rise in the rate of collapse of the massive Greenland ice-sheet as a result of global warming. Scientists now believe the ice-sheet is shrinking at the rate of ten metres a year, not the one metre previously thought. If the entire ice-sheet melts, the resulting flood waters would raise the level of global seas by seven metres, submerging large areas of land, including sea-level cities such as London. Greenland has the biggest ice-sheet in the northern hemisphere: almost 772,000 square miles of ice which is up to 1.9 miles thick, the base of which is below sea level. ....One medium-term side-effect of the destruction of the Greenland ice-sheet could be the loss of the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe warm and temperate. The fresh water from the ice mixes with the salt water in the sea, altering the salinity and changing the direction and behaviour of major currents. ....It is likely to take hundreds of years for the entire ice-sheet to melt but, as this year’s survey has shown, if the speed of the destruction increases, that timescale could be brought forward dramatically.