CNN reported that Greenland's ice sheet experienced its biggest melt last Thursday (1 August), which amounts to 11 billion tons of surface ice to the ocean.
If you can’t figure out how much that is, it’s equivalent to 4.4 million Olympic swimming pools!
Quoting a climate scientist from the Danish Meteorological Institute, Ruth Mottram, the report said although the ice sheet in Greenland would normally melt around May, this year it started much earlier and has continuously melted for the past four months.
Mottram told the news portal that in July alone, Greenland's ice sheet lost 197 billion tons of ice, which is the equivalent of around 80 million Olympic swimming pools.
To make things even more worrisome, a report by news portal The Hill stated that the ice sheet wasn't expected to melt like this until 2070!
We are 50 years ahead of schedule, so it is pretty alarming.
Apparently, the heat wave in Europe has spread to the Arctic, causing temperatures to rise faster than the global average.
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While scientists recorded an unconfirmed temperatures of 2.7C at 3,000 meters above sea level on Thursday, meteorologists on the same day reported that globally, this July has been as hot as any month in recorded history.
This put global average temperatures for July on par with, or possibly higher, than those of the current record holder, July 2016.
If we don't do something about climate change, we would soon be the one melting.