This summer's heat wave in Europe is causing massive ice melts of Greenland's glaciers. The problem is being compounded by the affect that the melt is having upon the glaciers themselves--it is causing the ice to become denser. This as Nature reported a few days ago is making the ice less permeable. Consequently the water from the ice melt is not being able to be absorbed by the ice and the surface below, and instead runs off into the ocean. In other words, if the ice was less dense and more permeable much of it would seep to the surface below, instead it is running off into the ocean. This new phenomenon is increasing the amount of runoff and increasing sea levels in an unanticipated way.
As I posted a month ago Rate of Climate Change has been underestimated--It's Much Worse--the changing consequences of Greenland's ice melt is another example of how we have radically underestimated the consequences and the rate of climate change.
National Geographic had a good article about the ice melt in Greensland: Something Strange is Happening to Greenland's Ice Sheet.
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