A Drop-by-Drop Disaster

As glaciers in Greenland heat up, they are dumoing water into the ocean at a rate greater than one cubic mile per week, scientists, scientists determined in 2005. For perspective, one cubic mile of water is about five times the amount Los Angeles uses in a year. The concern: that´s more than twice the previously observed rat of melt and runoff.

By some estimates, if the entire Greenland ice sheet (here turning to slush near Ililussat in 2006) were to melt, it would disgorge enough water to melt, it would disgorge enough water to raise global sea levels 23 ft., swallowing up large parts of coastal Florida, most of Bangladesh and many other regions worldwide.