Greenland’s glaciers are melting five times faster than before

But with the new study, the picture has become clearer. This is according to Assistant Professor Anders Björk from the University of Copenhagen, one of the researchers who conducted this study.

“In this paper, we have proven beyond doubt that all of Greenland’s glaciers are melting and that this has been happening exceptionally quickly over the past 20 years. There is no longer any doubt about the extent of the melting and there is no reason to investigate this claim further.” says in a press release from the University of Copenhagen.

The researchers analyzed the evolution of glaciers over the past 130 years. They did this with the help of satellite images and old aerial photographs.

Old photos come from the Danish National Archives. They were previously used as a basis for maps.

The researchers examined a total of 200,000 old photos.

The fact that Anders Björk says the study shows with certainty that all of Greenland’s glaciers are melting is not because researchers have looked at how evolution might have looked for each of them.

They studied about 1,000 glaciers. Researchers have assessed that this is a representative number.

“Just over 1,000 glaciers is a large number to study, but we did this because we wanted to be absolutely sure of getting a comprehensive picture of the evolution over the past 130 years,” explains Anders Björk.

In addition to him and his colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, the new study was conducted by researchers from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEOS) and American researchers.

Anders Björk says the rapid melting of glaciers is worrying.

He adds that the new knowledge also gives reason for optimism.

“Our study also shows that glaciers are responding very quickly to climate change, which is positive in itself because it also shows that it is not too late to limit global warming. Anything we can do to reduce carbon dioxide emissions now will slow the pace of change.” “climatic”. future sea level rise.”