ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 18, 2023
A sharp spike in Greenland temperatures since 1995 showed the giant northern island 2.7 degrees hotter than its 20th-century average, the warmest in more than 1,000 years, according to new ice core data. The jump in temperature after 1995 is so much larger than pre-industrial times before the mid-19th century that there is “almost zero” chance that it is anything but human-caused climate change. “That region has a dozen sleeping giants in the form of wide tidewater glaciers and an ice stream,” Danish Meteorological Institute ice scientist Jason Box said. When awakened, it will ramp up melt from Greenland. That means “rising seas that threaten homes, businesses, economies and communities,” said U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center Deputy Lead Scientist Twila Moon.