Greenland has lost about 5,000 gigatons of ice since the early 2000s, enough to cover Texas in a sheet 26 feet high. The new estimate adds 1,000 gigatons to that period, the equivalent of piling five more feet of ice on top of that fictitious Texas-sized sheet.
The additional loss comes from a region previously unaccounted for in estimates: ice lost at a glacier’s edges, where it meets the water. Before this study, estimates primarily considered mass changes in the interior of the ice sheet, which are driven by melting on the surface and glaciers thinning from their base on the ice sheet.
“We can take a look at the glaciers we have now and see how they’re behaving,” said Michael Wood, a study co-author and glaciologist. “That will give us a sense of what the future might hold for future ice loss from Greenland.*”*
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The [Greenland ice sheet](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/greenland-ice-sheet-drilling-bedrock-sea-rise/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2) has lost 20 percent more ice than scientists previously thought, posing potential problems for ocean circulation patterns and [sea level rise](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/04/10/sea-level-rise-southern-us/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2), according to a new study.
Greenland has lost about 5,000 gigatons of ice since the early 2000s, enough to cover Texas in a sheet 26 feet high. The new estimate adds 1,000 gigatons to that period, the equivalent of piling five more feet of ice on top of that fictitious Texas-sized sheet.
The additional loss comes from a region previously unaccounted for in estimates: ice lost at a glacier’s edges, where it meets the water. Before this study, estimates primarily considered mass changes in the interior of the ice sheet, which are driven by melting on the surface and glaciers thinning from their base on the ice sheet.
The study, released Wednesday in Nature, will help scientists better estimate contributions to sea level rise from Greenland, which already raised the global sea level about [2½ inches](https://sealevel.nasa.gov/understanding-sea-level/key-indicators/greenland) in the past two decades. It will also help improve computer models predicting the overall health of Greenland, which is warming [four times faster](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/29/arctic-ice-sheet-melting-climate-change/?itid=lk_inline_manual_7) than the rest of the world.
“We can take a look at the glaciers we have now and see how they’re behaving,” said Michael Wood, a study co-author and glaciologist. “That will give us a sense of what the future might hold for future ice loss from Greenland.*”*
Read the full story here, and skip the paywall with email registration: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/01/17/greenland-ice-sheet-sea-level-rise/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/01/17/greenland-ice-sheet-sea-level-rise/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
For once, I’d like scientists to be wrong about bad news. “Oh wait, we forgot this crucial calculation. Sorry guys, global warming is cancelled!
How common this has become in the last 20 years. Climate damage is advancing more quickly than scientists estimated, again and again.