Greenland's ice sheets are melting so fast that global sea levels have risen 0.5mm in just one month

[Tobythecat]

www.independent.co.uk/environment/greenland-weather-temperature-heatwave-ice-melt-sea-level-a9030361.html

I will be posting climate change news every day. I'm posting here for traffic.

The sea level fluctuates constantly, falling in the northern winter and rising in the summer. It doesn't necessarily mean that it is a permanent rise of 0.5mm

@brahumbug

Quick! Tell the scientists! Im sure they never considered this before. Thank god youre here to tell them

Also, dont forget to inform the scientists looking at global warming that its hotter in summer than in winter

Right, but this is extremely unusual levels of melting not just 'normal' summer

No idea why the OP is getting these snarky responses, it is genuinely concerning and coming off the back of news that the ten hottest summers have been since 2002.

Mine wasn't a snark response. I am very concerned with the effects of climate change and I am an active campaigner on the subject. So stick your sarky remark were the sun doesn't shine.

What I don't understand about Greenland is that we know that there was considerable (for the time) permanent Norse settlement there from 985 for around 450 years until the weather cooled. We know from records, carbon dating and midden deposits containing arable crops that the climate was much milder then, in order to support farming that far north without modern day assistance. Farmers for centuries were able to grow enough grass based crops to sustain cattle, pigs and sheep over the winter, and to send tribute crops back to Norway. We know from records and church returns that the climate change was relatively quick to take place - in people's lifetimes it changed to something able to support a decent standard of living from farming to near starvation levels.

We know the north wasn't always as cold as it is now and we have only been keeping records for the blink of an eye. I'm not denying global warming but is it climate change or normal fluctuations that should be occurring?

Personally, I prefer to concentrate on reducing emissions, plastic use, throwaway culture, over-population, over-farming and so on but I cannot buy into the utter hysteria about climate change. Climates are not static and that is not something that should be aimed for as the only way of achieving it would be artificial stimulus.

What would you like us to do about this OP?

half a milimeter? I'll get my wellies out

Very good post @QualCheckBot

I’m not sure the Greenland settlement was that successful or long lasting? Jared Diamond wrote about this in his great book ‘Collapse - why some civilisations fail’. It’s a while since I’ve read it - must get it out again!

I’m not sure the Greenland settlement was that successful or long lasting? Jared Diamond wrote about this in his great book ‘Collapse - why some civilisations fail’. It’s a while since I’ve read it - must get it out again!

I think it was very successful - two groups built farms and small towns and had a fairly important bishopric which was supported by those settlements, and it lasted 450-500 years. That's a lot of generations of Europeans born and raised in Greenland. The Inuit only came along towards the end of this period (they migrated westwards from Siberia). There are quite impressive stone ruins left in Greenland - all the more impressive for the fact they are still quite substantial despite the climate and the centuries since then. Its even thought that before the 15th Century, the seas were more easily navigable due to less stormy conditions and certainly there were regular ships going from Norway to serve the Greenland settlements.

I think, in medievaal terms, you have to say that was a very successful settlement. People migrated to a previously uninhabited area, farmed it well enough to stay there and for hundreds of years, leave marriage records, have families, etc. We still don't know for sure why the settlement died off - it might have been a combination of factors.

We do know for certain that the end of the Norse settlement in Greenland coincided with a relatively rapid cooling of the climate to modern day temperatures and that it was warmer for the period of 450-500 years when it was successful.

Oh dear.

There is no hysteria over climate change, it is just a fact. Climate does change naturally, but there is no doubt that man made emissions are exacerbating any change and producing severe warming.

I'm sure I read somewhere once that we only have records of climate for the last 100 years, so we have no idea whether this has happened before and comes and goes in cycles.