1930 Greenland vs. Greenland Today: Photographs Reveal Alarming Glacial Retreat

A startling rate of glacier retreat was observed in Greenland when aerial photographs from 1930 were compared to satellite images from today.

Photographs of 1930 Greenland

During her 2019 visit to Denmark, Laura Larocca, a climate scientist, delved into thousands of ancient aerial Greenland photographs found in a Copenhagen castle 15 years prior. Now stored in the Danish National Archives, these images sparked Larocca's and other researchers' quest to reconstruct Greenland's glacial past amidst a swiftly warming climate.

Digitizing archives dating to the 1930s, Larocca's team merged them with current satellite images, revealing the extensive transformations in Greenland's icy expanse. Shockingly, the comparison disclosed an alarming acceleration in glacier retreat. The research highlighted that in the 21st century, Greenland's glaciers receded twice as fast as in the 20th century, underscoring the dramatic impact of recent climate changes on the region's ice formations.

100 Years Later, The Arctic Started Warming

As the study's lead author during her postdoctoral tenure at Northwestern University, Larocca described the extensive labor and collaborative effort invested, emphasizing the stunning scale of change witnessed in the Arctic due to rapid warming. Over recent decades, the Arctic's temperature surged four times faster than the global average, resulting in escalating consequences. Notably, Greenland's summit experienced unprecedented rainfall in 2021, marking a historic event, while previously stable northern glaciers now present potentially catastrophic implications for rising sea levels.

Larocca was struck by the unforeseen significance of century-old aerial photographs taken by Danish pilots for military purposes, now integral to climate science. She highlighted the intriguing intersection of these images with international and US history. Even a century later, these photos serve as crucial scientific documentation revealing the dramatic alterations in glacier formations.

Now an assistant professor at Arizona State University's School of Ocean Futures, Larocca aims for this visually comprehensive study to raise awareness about the swiftly melting Arctic territory and the imminent threat it poses to global coastlines due to rising sea levels. She hopes that this research will prompt action and further attention to address the pressing concerns arising from the accelerating changes in the Arctic.

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Emissions and Glacial Retreat

Larocca emphasizes the profound impact of human decisions on glaciers in the forthcoming decades, stressing their vulnerability to temperature changes. She underscores the importance of swift action in reducing emissions to mitigate future glacier loss and its contribution to rising sea levels.

Since the early 1900s, glaciers worldwide have rapidly melted due to human-induced factors, particularly the surge in greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution. These emissions have disproportionately elevated temperatures, intensifying glacier melting and retreat, with over a third projected to vanish by 2100. The Arctic has already lost 95% of its oldest and thickest ice, with projections suggesting potential ice-free summers by 2040 if emissions remain unchecked.

This glacier meltdown leads to rising sea levels, amplifying coastal erosion and bolstering storm surges from increasingly frequent and severe coastal storms. Greenland and Antarctica's ice sheets are the primary contributors to global sea level rise, with the Greenland ice sheet diminishing four times faster than in 2003 and currently responsible for 20% of the current sea level increase. The urgency lies in curbing emissions swiftly to minimize the dire consequences of accelerating glacier loss and its ramifications for rising sea levels and coastal vulnerabilities.

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