Information from NASA’s ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite) was used to illustrate the change in elevation on Greenland’s ice sheet between 2003 and 2006. As NASA describes the image, “white regions indicate a slight thickening, while the blue shades indicate a thinning of the ice sheet. Gray indicates areas where no change in elevation was measured.”

 

Experts note that the Greenland ice sheet is particularly imperiled. Science Daily reports on a recent study which shows that the Greenland ice sheet might completely disappear in the next two thousand years if there is just 1.6 degrees of global warming. Compared to other melts in our planet’s history, this is extremely fast.