Greenland Ice Sheet Finally Halts Its Advance

Published March 17, 2014

The Greenland ice sheet is finally receding a little bit, after more than 70 years of cooling temperatures and long-term ice sheet advance. Global warming alarmists are predictably claiming the halt to Greenland’s ice sheet advance is a climate catastrophe.

Cherry-picking an extremely short time period, lasting less than a decade, researchers report the Greenland ice sheet retreated some during a nine-year period ending last April.

“Now, there’s more ice leaving than snow arriving,” said study co-author Michael Bevis in USA Today.

As Environment & Climate News previously reported, the 1980s and 1990s were the two coldest decades in Greenland since the 1910s. The 1980s and 1990s were a full 1.5 degrees Celsius colder than the 1930s and 1940s. As Greenland temperatures rebound from the extended cold spell, it stands to reason that the ice sheet will recede some.

Nevertheless, the media are spinning the foreseeable and fortuitous development as another global warming crisis.

“These new measurements show that the sleeping giant is awakening and suggest — given likely continued Arctic warming — that it’s not going back to bed,” alarmist researcher told Climate Central.

By comparison, the recent Greenland ice sheet retreat has been occurring for barely half as long as the current halt in global warming.