Greenland’s ice cap melting faster than expected: experts

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – Greenland’s ice cap, which covers more than 80 percent of the island, is melting faster than expected because of global warming, a Danish researcher said on Monday.

The 1.8-million-square-kilometre (695,000-square-mile) ice cap, which accounts for 10 percent of the planet’s fresh water, is losing about 257 cubic kilometres (62 cubic miles) of ice per year.


In 2080, it is expected to lose 465 cubic kilometres (111 cubic miles) per year, according to new estimates presented by a Danish-US team of scientists at the International Research Center in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The net loss in 2080 would be “81 percent greater than today” and would cause “sea levels to rise by 107 millimetres” (4.2 inches), the team’s head researcher Sebastian Mernild said in a statement received in Copenhagen.

AFP