Ice sheet

When it comes to global warming, it appears that the greatest rate of warming is happening at the poles. That conclusion was strengthened recently by a couple of new studies focusing on the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. They each looked at different measurements, but both agreed that the impacts of global warming on the ice are underestimated.

Thanks to a new study from the Potsdam Institute in Germany, it’s possible to measure how global warming will raise sea levels. The report predicted for every degree Celsius of global warming, sea levels are expected to rise seven feet.

That Greenland’s massive ice sheet melts during the summer is nothing new, but the size and speed of a recent thaw is. NASA scientists say a four-day melt in mid-July was the largest one in more than three decades of satellite observation.

A massive ice island broke off of the Petermann Glacier in Greenland. The iceberg, which contains enough fresh water to supply every American for half a year, is roughly twice the size of Manhattan in New York.

Antarctica has long been considered a last redoubt of cold in a warming globe. But new science suggests that a key part is warming up fast. Sam Eaton reports the finding could cause scientists to rethink their sea level projections for later this century.