Greenland icemelt has speeded up six times since 1980s

Earther - A new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows after decades of near equilibrium, Greenland began losing ice in the 1980s and it’s accelerated sixfold since then. That has sped up its contribution to sea level rise and raises concerns about what the future holds.

... The results show that Greenland’s mass stayed mostly within its natural range of variability in the 1970s before slimming down steadily in the 1980s and then more rapidly in the next few decades. The biggest losses have come in the northwest, which has shed 1,578 gigatons of ice into the sea. That’s enough to fill Lake Erie more than three times over, though it represents a small fraction of all the ice stored in that region, which would raise sea levels more than four feet if melted. Add in the rest of the island’s ice, and you have enough water to raise sea levels 24 feet. The research shows all parts of Greenland are now losing ice and that the rate of loss has sped up. It doesn’t mean we’ll be canoeing through New York or Shanghai tomorrow, but the speed up shows the ice sheet is definitely feeling the impacts of climate change.