A study has revealed that the Greenland ice cap is losing an average of 30 million tonnes of ice per hour due to the climate crisis, which is 20% more than previously estimated, The Guardian reports.
The study used satellite photos analyzed by artificial intelligence to map extensive glacier retreat around Greenland, totaling a trillion tonnes of lost ice from 1985 to 2022.
This additional freshwater entering the north Atlantic could potentially trigger a collapse of ocean currents called the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc). The Amoc is already at its weakest in 1,600 years, and a collapse could occur as soon as 2025.
The influx of freshwater is not considered in current oceanographic models, raising concerns about disruptions to global weather patterns, ecosystems, and food security.
