The World Weather Attribution (WWA) says Greenland's ice is melting 17 times faster than past averages due to a heat wave in May. According to a report released by the organization on Wednesday, this temperature has also affected Iceland.
The Arctic region is at the forefront of the impacts of global warming. According to a 2022 study published in the scientific journal Nature, this region has warmed four times faster than the rest of the Earth since 1979.
'Greenland's ice sheet is melting 17 times faster than preliminary analysis. This means that Greenland's contribution to sea level rise is greater,' said Friederike Otto, associate professor of climate science at Imperial College London, one of the authors of the report. Iceland has seen 13 degrees Celsius warmer than the daily maximum average temperature in May of 1991-2020. This is a record temperature for the month of May,” said WWA. According to the country's Meteorological Institute, 94 percent of Iceland's weather stations reported record temperatures in May.
According to WWA, rising temperatures and the rate of ice melting could affect the livelihoods and traditional lifestyles of Greenland's indigenous communities. These changes have also affected the infrastructure of the two countries. "Greenland and Iceland have infrastructure built for cold weather, which means that melting snow during heat waves can cause flooding and damage roads and infrastructure," WWA said.
