Union of concerned students

Greenland's massive ice sheet, located north-east of the United States of America, has been one of the many places where climate change has shown detrimental effects. As carbon and greenhouse gases emissions increase the surface temperature, the results that the ice sheet has shown have been fully negative.

 

Ian Johnson, an Environment Correspondent, writes for the Independent on July 25th of this year, "The problem is that the warmer weather is allowing more dark algae to grow on the ice. Because ice is white, it reflects much of the sun’s energy, but dark algae absorb the heat, increasing the rate of melting." These dark algae are expected to expand over more of the Greenland ice sheet and potentially cause more melting and an acceleration of sea level rise.

 

The Greenland Ice sheet is only a portion of the world's ice that has been and will be affected by the ever-changing climate. To prevent sea levels from engulfing coastal establishments and degrading the quality of life by contaminating drinking water, interfering with agricultural practices, and harming ecosystems by threatening wildlife populations and changing coastal plant life, steps need to be taken to combat climate change.

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