Nature - Greenland Ice Sheet Loss Up 250% 5/04 - 4/06 Over 2Yr Trailing

[hatrack]

The Greenland icesheet, the second largest single store of frozen freshwater in the world, is melting faster than previous estimates, according to a study that adds to grim news about global warming.

In 2001, the UN's top scientific forum on global warming projected that the thick slab of ice that covers most of Greenland would melt only slightly during the 21st century. But a study published on Thursday in the British weekly journal Nature calculates that the rate of Greenland ice loss increased by 250 percent between May 2004 and April 2006 compared with the two years between April 2002 and April 2004. Ice is now being lost at around 248 cubic kilometers (59.5 cu. miles) per year -- equivalent to a global sea level rise of about 0.5mm (0.02 inches) per year.

Taking other accelerating factors into account, such as major losses at two big glaciers in recent years, Greenland is contributing almost 0.7mm a year, said Tavi Murray, an environmentalist at Britain's Swansea University. This is a significant rise compared to the 2001 estimates by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

If averaged out for the 110-year span, those estimates would give Greenland a contribution of around 0.5mm (0.02 inches) per year of the planetary rise in sea level.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/060920170221.bjip4big.html