Greenland Melting

Greenland’s ice sheets are melting more rapidly than once predicted, and abrupt changes in the Earth’s climate and landscape are contributing to a new sense of urgency among some researchers, including climatologist Jason Box who studies Greenland’s surface. “Box doesn’t shy away from bold strokes,” writes Jeff Goodell for Rolling Stone. “As he sees it, the general public has been betrayed by the reluctance of climate researchers to speak about the dangers of climate change with sufficient urgency.” Box’s predictions on the pace of melting glaciers, once dismissed as alarmist, turned out to be conservative, too. On-site climate research is costly and funds are limited. So Box turned to the internet, seeking crowd-sourced funding. Testing of his theory that wildfires and soot from pollution are darkening snow and adding fissures, a feedback loop that quickens melting in Greenland, is underway. Box would also like to develop a global force of researchers, funded by philanthropists, to study climate disasters in real time. – YaleGlobal