By. Anuradha

Environment pollution has become a common topic these days. Many people are talking about the consequences of pollution as many people are experiencing the effects of that. Several climatic changes can be daily experienced and there are people who are actually dying because of sun strokes and extreme heat conditions. However, when one part of the world faces the risks of high temperature, some other people are suffering from flood and related disasters in the other part and that is why environmental pollution has become a concern of many people.

Greenland is a country that faced the direct consequences of high temperature and it was recently revealed that the ice cubs in Greenland are melting so fast. Climatic scientists predict that many of the events which were presumed to be happening way ahead have already taken place and many ice cubs are turning into the water at a high rate. 

Dr. Steffan Olsen of the Danish Meteorological Institute summed up the second problem with this photo of a sled team running through the water as far as the eye can see.

He says, “parts of Greenland melt every summer. Most freeze again in winter, but in recent years the ice budget has stopped balancing. This year, melt rates are like nothing previously seen in June and far above the normal peak. The cause is a combination of long-term warming and a high-pressure system that led to temperatures spiking. No one really knows how long this will continue and just how much of Greenland will be lost, but we do know this is not normal and much of the former ice will raise sea levels worldwide”.

In May, climate scientists noticed Greenland was exceptionally warm, even by the hotter standards of recent years, and predicted rapid melting.

We’re a month off the usual peak, and already Greenland’s melt rate has exceeded the top 10 percent of years since measurements existed. National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Olsen is a scientist who did many experiments about the climatic changes in Greenland. Each year, he places monitoring equipment on the sea ice at Inglefield Bredning, northwest Greenland, collecting it before the melt sets in. This year, the melt arrived long before schedule, but the ice below was solid enough that the water couldn’t drain away through cracks.

You can get a better idea of what is happening by analyzing the charts above. As it reveals, melting usually peaks in July, but by the second week of June, melt rates already exceeded normal annual maximums. It’s too early to tell if this will be the biggest melt of all time or if it will fall behind the epic 2012 floods, but no other year looks close.

The most tragical thing is that in the day Olssen took this photo, it is estimated Greenland lost 2 billion tonnes of ice. That’s almost enough to cover the whole of Great Britain in 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) of ice.

An estimated 45 percent of Greenland was melting on June 15. National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Lest you think this is just a localized issue to one (very large) island, things are actually much worse sixty degrees further west. So far this year, it is Alaska and the sea to the north that have really been getting a taste of the future. In the 19th Century, sea ice north of Alaska was so thick that thousands died seeing the North-West Passage. Now, there is less than 15 percent ice for most of the way.

Since water is darker than ice, a layer like the one Olssen’s dogs are splashing through prevents the 24-hour sunlight from being reflected, creating more warming and a vicious circle.

So, do you need any more proof to understand that our globe is actually heating up and if we do not control our behaviors, then surely few small countries would be vanished from the earth in near future. The whole climate of the world would be changed and the mythical ‘world’s end’ would soon be a reality.

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