Greenland ice sheet — the second largest in the world — experiencing its highest temperatures in 1,000 years, researchers say
CBSN
The Greenland ice sheet, one of the coldest and most remote regions of the world that serves a pivotal role in the Earth's climate, is now clearly feeling significant effects of climate change. Researchers found that central and northern areas of the sheet have recently seen the hottest temperatures in a millennium.
It has been long clear that many parts of Greenland are warming, but the latest research, published in Nature on Wednesday, took a deeper look at the central part of Greenland's ice sheet, where the impact of climate change has long been unclear.
To learn more about that impact, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research drilled ice cores to create a "high-quality reconstruction" of temperatures in central and north Greenland from 1,000 AD to 2011. With that data, it became clear: Not even some of the coldest, most remote and highly-elevated areas of the world can escape the impacts of global warming.
