Whisper it quietly, but the Greenland ice sheet may have made a net gain in size in the year to August 2022. A massive boost of 471 billion tonnes of ice was created on the surface during the last recorded year, the 10th highest increase in 42 years, and much higher than the 1981-2010 annual average of 368 billion tonnes. This year’s surface gain, known as surface mass balance (SMB), continues the spectacular recovery seen on the ice sheet from 2012, when a low of 38 billion tonnes was reported. This year’s figure, while high, was beaten in 2017 and 2018 when over 500 billion tonnes were created on the surface. The 2022 figures and comparisons can be seen in the graph below, compiled by the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI).
The news of course has been ignored by COP27-fixated media operations who are concentrating all their efforts on catastrophising natural cycles and bad weather events. But this line of work is getting harder and increasing scepticism is afoot. Coral has recently grown back in record amounts on the Great Barrier Reef. In the wider Arctic, the summer sea ice has shown further impressive growth. Wherever you look, it seems bears and penguins are thriving in their polar habitats. The Greenland ice sheet news is rounding off a very bad year for those in the pseudoscience-based, doomsday business.
Surface mass, of course, is not the whole story on the Greenland ice sheet. There is also natural loss around the edges of the country dramatically displayed by the ‘calving’ of ice at the shore and the release of icebergs into the North Atlantic. According to the green activist site Carbon Brief, annual calving losses have averaged around 500 billion tonnes this century. But this estimate, which doesn’t seem to change much year-on-year, is a computer-modelled figure. There are enormous difficulties involved in computing a realistic figure. Ice loss is caused by many little-understood processes, such as warming and friction below the surface. Satellites can provide useful input, but limited observations mean they miss a great deal of the action. Various ocean currents react with water pouring down from fjords, while the ice flowing from this internal source can help or hinder calving.
As with most climate models, given the impossibility of producing accurate projections from incomplete and often estimated original data, a generous allowance must be made for margins of error. Carbon Brief recently reported that the losses reached over 550 billion tonnes this year, which meant an overall deficit of 84 billion. But the previous average estimate of 500 billion tonnes would lead to a loss of only 29 billion.
It can reasonably be suggested that both of these loss figures are within a margin of error for measuring this natural process, and as a result the Greenland ice sheet may be starting to increase in size. But even if the 84 billion tonnes loss is accurate, it would still take around 34,000 years for the ice sheet to disappear. The total amount of ice in Greenland is estimated at 2.85 quadrillion tonnes, so with a 29 billion loss there will still be some around in 100,000 years, by which time another major glaciation will probably be underway. Admittedly we are starting to delve into the realms of fantasy here, but none of these figures would seem to justify the horrendous economic and societal costs of pursuing the truly fantastical command-and-control Net Zero agenda within less than 30 years, premised in part on the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
The recovery in the Greenland ice sheet in recent years has sent scientists scrambling to find explanations. On October 2nd, the Daily Sceptic published the findings of three Japanese climatologists, who found “frequent occurrence of central Pacific El Niño events has played a key role in the [abrupt] slow-down of Greenland warming and possible Arctic sea ice loss”. Changes around Greenland can be attributed to “natural variability, rather than anthropogenic forcing”, noted the scientists, “although most climate models were unable to reasonably simulate the unforced natural variability over Greenland”. Of course these explanations suggesting considerable natural involvement in climate change trends do not accord with those who preach a ‘settled’ view of the matter, and claim humans are responsible for all climate change over the last 150 years.
Greenland gains ice from September to around June each year. Surface losses therefore only occur during the short summer, and this year that season was cold and snowy. The summer was said to have been brought to a stop in mid-August with a 20 billion-tonne snow dump on the south of the island. According to a report on the Electroverse website, this summer chimed with recent years and was characterised by “several monstrous, record-smashing snowfall events”. Fresh snow is noted to reflect sunlight better, and as a result the onset of melting on the ice sheet was two-and-a-half weeks later than normal.
None of this was particularly unusual. It’s called weather. A couple of thousand miles to the east, the U.K. had a pleasant and at times hot summer. Two days were very hot, causing a feverish Piers Morgan to tell his TV audience that “we are heading for an apocalypse”. It is also called weather.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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There seems to be a trend going on and it starts to make the situation a decade ago look like the outlier.
In the article, it says, “…but the Greenland ice sheet may have made a net gain in size in the year to August 2022.”, but in the source quoted, the opening paragraph states,
“The end of the northern-hemisphere summer brings to a close the Greenland ice sheet melt season and with it confirmation that 2022 was the 26th year in a row where Greenland lost ice overall.”
Surely net and overall mean the same thing?
Can someone please tell me what I failed to see…
Greenland gains mass every year. The melt season is just over 2 months long, while the ‘mass gain’ season is 10 months long. The graph from the DMI always ends higher than at the start and then the graph starts again each year. So there is a constant flow of ice off Greenland because there is a near constant dumping of snow. In 1942 a P38 Lightning crash landed on the Greenland Ice sheet and in 1992 she was brought to the surface having been buried under 268 feet of ice. Incidentally, research into the age of the ice cannot find much ice dating from before the last inter glacial, the Eemian, which was 120,000 years ago and hotter than the Holocene.
In addition. The assertion that Greenland is losing mass has been derived from models – need I say (write) more?
Thanks for replying; but I still don’t understand why the above article says the opposite to the article quoted.
When you say that “the assertion that Greenland …derived from models“, do you mean that they use models when talking about the last 26 years?
It says “the Greenland ice sheet lost 84Gt of ice over the 12 months from September 2021 to August 2022.” Surely the 84Gt figure is not derived from a model.
I’m not an espert, and only recently became a sceptic: I’m just trying to understand.
I don’t know how they come to that conclusion because according to polarportal.dk Greenland gained 600 Gt from Sept 21 and up to June, and then lost 150 Gt between June and Sept 2022 – Overall a gain of 450 Gt.
Please see Tony Heller on Youtube such as the following “Extreme Melt In Greenland” – “Scientists Cherry Picking In Greenland”
Thanks for taking the time to reply
SILENCE———There is a “Climate Emergency” and that is all there is to it. The BBC says so. The Daily Climate Show on SKY NEWS says so and that should be good enough for everyone so go and enjoy your Netflix and Coronation Street because there is a “Climate Crisis” and everything you do needs to stop to avert it. Soon you won’t have any notes in your wallet, and your spending will be monitored to make sure you have not exceeded your carbon footprint limits. ——Wakey Wakey people. You are being played. ————–“Climate Emergency” is political speak masquerading as science.
It’s children that are the most vocal about the ‘Climate Emergency’ and ‘Climate Crimes’.
“I’m not young enough to know everything” – J. M Barrie
“Every fourth euro spent within the EU budget will go towards action to mitigate climate change… I am glad to see that young people are taking to the streets in Europe to raise visibility of the issue of climate change.” – Jean-Claude Juncker
And children who are most susceptible to propaganda.
Yes, and the tyrants know this:
“And to anyone who still disagrees with me, I say that you no longer matter. We are now educating your children.” – A. H.
Ooh, Germany’s reopening an opencast coalmine (Nigel Farage, GB News).
Taking the Chinese and the Ukrainian route are they? Meanwhile, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland bans fracking. Hmm…
Germany has a choice: start behaving sensibly or watch their manufacturing sector disappear.
They’ve chosen sense.
Much as its good news to hear that the planet does actually know best, the so called climate emergency is just a ruse to sweep away our society and replace it with communism. If the ice sheets were 50 metres thicker, it wouldn’t matter one jot…
The Vikings gave Greenland it’s name for a good reason; it was Green, and warm enough to grow crops. Climate crisis is a globalist scam.
Many thanks Chris. Keep it up.
No, no this cannot be true. St David of Attenborough hasn’t made mention of this!!
Another great article, Chris. If only we could get you on the MSM to show the masses they’re being duped.
If you’ve got about 38 billion pounds…