Climate experts are sounding the alarm over a troubling new report showing Greenland is getting greener. A new major analysis of satellite data shows Greenland has lost 11,000 square miles of ice between the mid 1980s and the 20 tens. That's about 36 times the size of New York City. Scientists say warmer air has turned giant swaths of the North Atlantic territory into vegetation and wetlands, and it's presenting serious consequences for climate change and rising sea levels. We're joined now by B
ill Nye, the Science Guy. He, of course, is a science educator, making all of this so clear to those of us who want to understand it better. Bill, tell us about this report. It's so alarming. Well, everybody, people have been concerned about this business of Greenland's ice for decades. So there's two big, big problems. As the ice falls off of this island, Greenland, it makes the sea level go up. By putting ice in a glass of water, you can get it to overflow. For example, ice that was on land is
now in the ocean. And then as the ocean itself gets warmer, it expands. So both of these things make sea level rise. And when sea level rises. The problem is about half the people in the world live on coasts, on sea coasts. So they're the infrastructure, the housing, warehouses, roads. We have one on the shore will get overwhelmed by tidal forces, by the ocean. Okay, that's a problem. But the other thing that's very serious is the circulation of the ocean, which goes all over the world. These t
he circulation of water that sinks near Greenland goes along the ocean floor around the world, and back is being disrupted because it's not sinking in the same way. When you add all this ice, which is freshwater, not salty water, then it doesn't sink because what makes what makes this circulation start is evaporation. Even in cold ocean water, it evaporates, becomes increasingly salty and sinks. Well, that Thermo Halen heat salt flow, Thermo Halen is being disrupted by all this ice falling off o
f Greenland. And I should mention, we were looking back and we saw that you were on CNN back in July of 2012 and you were discussing the ice melt in Greenland, saying that this was proof of climate change, sounding the alarm there. And so this is something we've been watching for a long time, and it's also this cycle, right, of releasing the gases as the permafrost thaws. It seems like this vicious, vicious cycle. Is there any way to, I guess, do anything to avert this or is it really just a mat
ter of slowing it down? Two things to avert. Okay. And then the other thing, proof, it's a consequence of climate change. And people have talked about this for a long time. So the if you want to get technical, which is fun, the Gulf Stream is what happens on the surface. It's this clockwise circulation that keeps Europe warm. And so on. But then there's this overturning this AMOC Atlantic Meridional overturning circulation. Well, if you want to do something about it, two things I tell everybody,
talk about it. If we were talking about climate change or we talk about a bunch of other very important issues, we'd be doing something about it. And then the thing to do about it really is to vote. You know, we have we have people running for president in the world's most influential country who won't even talk about climate change, let alone talk about what they're going to do about it. So it's happening. It's happening faster and faster because the so-called feedback mechanisms are both goin
g the wrong way. As we lose ice, we lose sunlight reflecting into space, which makes things warm up faster and faster. And then when we release this ancient methane, which ancient swamp gas that was covered with ice, that methane is also very powerful greenhouse gas. So these are troubling things, but the sooner we get to work on it, the better. And the latest research is that there isn't really a turning point. There isn't like a click where it's all going to go to heck. Instead, it's just goin
g to get worse and worse and worse and and that getting worse will accelerate. So the sooner we get to work, the better. Yeah, we need to get to work. Bill Nye, thank you so much for explaining it to us. And hopefully it's hitting home for a lot of people. We appreciate you being with us. We can do this, people. Thank you. We can do this.
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"Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money". ~Chief Seattle
I’m surprised Bill is still alive. I used to watch him in elementary school with my teachers on PBS. Wish him to live a long and happy life. Man, he brings back nostalgia 😞.
No matter how unused your car is or how ethically you eat, the common person doesn’t do this much damage.
I like the ending when he says “We can do this people” finally someone who will speak out and not care what people think
i live in central Canada, a place during the winters that usually would get LOTS of snow Lots of snow, and bitter cold, insanely cold. this year we've had almost no snow. Temperatures so warm most days you could wear sweaters outside. I'm 45 years old. Never have i ever experienced this here ever. its going to be one smokey summer.
I’ll never stop loving how when he explains something I AWAYS understand, he’s so good at explaining confusing topics in the most basic way
Floridians : Who cares if ocean levels are rising? Also Floridians: Why is my home insurance going up 400%?
I reckon we had a good run.
It's amazing how different winter is this year from just 2 years ago.
I love that he explains things like we’re still in elementary school. He never lost that teaching touch
We already have spring temperatures over here in Belgium, when it should still be freezing. I can remember the harsh winters from 30 years ago.
The media keeps treating this issue as if it's a result of not enough people being warned about the global warming crisis to resolve it. We're collectively already so desensitized to scientists sounding the alarm that this achieves nothing. We need to come up with ways of disassembling the oil industry so that this planet can move on. That's our only path forward to liberate this plant from fossil fuels.
We could do something about it but shareholder value is more important than human lives.
Why isn’t this covered every evening on network national news? They cover individual storms, but never show the big picture. It’s like covering the sinking of the Titanic by saying “huh, now another stateroom has flooded, but nothing to worry about folks”
Antarctica just lost a piece of ice a month ago bigger than the state of Rhode Island. Also, they are finding Viking artifacts under the ice in Greenland. There wasn't much ice when the Viking were there.
So if adding freshwater to the ocean doesn’t sink but gets evaporated- won’t the issue be more about severe weather patterns not the ocean level rising?
Subsidence is too long term to worry about but long term losing that ice from Greenland counts twice because the land without the ice on it rebounds and the coasts raise the sea levels. The oceans will act as if the island just got much larger, because the crust rises when unloaded of ice. Long term effect, as in Canada is still bouncing back from the last ice age, but there is an unknown rate of surge after a major loss of glacial mass. Canada probably gained over a meter of altitude per year immediately after the major icea age glacial decline.
Winters have definitely felt warmer than they used to be. Still cold but not as much
It’s not going to get any better. All you have to do is look at a YouTube comments section. For every reasonable and well informed person, there are as many or more who are either against fixing the problem or flat out don’t believe there is one. By the time they come around it’ll be way too late, because they won’t admit that they are wrong until they are suffering horribly. Even then, greed or pride will keep some in a business as usual mentality. It’s just a matter of time now.
What people don't mention, is that when the ocean water stops circulating it will cause major temperature disruptions as the Northern hemisphere won't get as much warmth from the Southern waters anymore. This will throw the wind currents off, while also bringing about a refreezing of the world as it tries to reset the cycle.