Is Greenland Ice Sheet passing “Point of No Return”?
Nature, v. 428, pp. 114-115, March 11, 2004 Greenland’s climate: A rising tide By Quirin Schiermeier The ice covering Greenland holds enough water to raise the oceans seven metres — and it’s starting to melt. How far will it go? Quirin Schiermeier wades into the evidence. Greenland was not always covered with ice. About 60 million years ago, when Earth’s climate was much warmer than today, the world’s largest island was a grassy arctic tundra across which the ancestors of modern horses and other mammals migrated. Since that time, millions of cubic kilometres of ice have accumulated on the island. No longer home to migrating beasts, Greenland now serves as a reservoir for immense quantities of water. And it would be best for the water to stay there. If Greenland’s ice sheet were to melt, the oceans would rise by seven metres, enough to cover large parts of low-lying countries such as Bangladesh and the Netherlands. New York cabbies would have to buy motor boats. Most of southern Florid
