Greenland melt in overdrive. High mountain glaciers disproportionately contribute to sea level rise

I keep vigil.

The U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday (12/11/2018) announced the results of the 2018 Arctic Report Card (includes video). NOAA found that the Arctic experienced that over the past year, the 2nd warmest air temperatures ever were recorded, the 2nd lowest overall sea-ice coverage recorded, the lowest recorded winter ice coverage in the Bering Sea, and early plankton blooms caused by the rapid melt of Barents sea-ice.

Besides the above findings, NOAA’s report card is worth a look as it includes updates on rapid melting of Greenlands ice sheets as well as its tundra vegetation transitioning to arctic shrub, found a rapid decline in caribou ( because a warmer Arctic has less food and more insects), the arrival of toxic plankton blooms and micro-plastic pollution that has been transported from the worlds other oceans to the Arctic by ocean currents.

Man oh man are we ever fucking things up for ourselves, because unfortunately for us, what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic.

From the science journal Nature, Greenland is losing ice at fastest rate in 350 years.

Ice melt across Greenland is accelerating, and the volume of meltwater running into the ocean has reached levels that are probably unprecedented in seven or eight millennia. The findings, drawn from ice cores stretching back almost 350 years, show a sharp spike in melting over the past two decades.

Previous studies have shown record melting on parts of Greenland's ice, but the latest analysis includes the first estimate of historical runoff across the entire ice sheet. The results, published on 5 December in Nature1, show that the runoff rate over the past two decades was 33% higher than the twentieth-century average, and 50% higher than in the pre-industrial era.

“The melting is not just increasing — it’s accelerating,” says lead author Luke Trusel, a glaciologist at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. “And that’s a key concern for the future.”

From Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.