Global Warming is causing trouble for the Residents of Greenland

• Recent research has shown that north-central Greenland experienced its highest temperatures between 2001 and 2011 over the last 1,000-year period.

• Scientists came to this conclusion after reconstructing climatic conditions over the past millennium by analyzing ice cores from the Greenland ice sheet.

• The study could provide a foundation for future studies of ice melt and sea level rise, the authors said.

• Under a 'business as usual' scenario, experts estimate that the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will raise sea levels by about 50 cm. Rising sea levels will submerge island nations and flood coastal cities. The world as we know it today will change.

It is not an easy task to collect core samples from Greenland (ice sheet). The scientists and drilling experts boarded a plane equipped with ski equipment and flew to a site about 3,000 meters above sea level in north-central Greenland.

Then they drilled into the ice sheet with special equipment and packed the extracted core into insulated boxes which they loaded into the plane's cargo hold.

"It's tedious and difficult work to get to this location," explains Bo Møllesøe Vinther, a physicist from the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark. He was involved in this expedition. "The weather has to be very good for us to be able to do this."

Back in the laboratory, the scientists then analyzed the isotopic composition of the ice core to reconstruct the climatic conditions in the ice sheet over the past millennium, from 1000 to 2011.

The result, according to a study published in Nature, is that 2001 and 2011 were the warmest years of the millennium. The region is now 1.5° Celsius warmer than the long-term average.

"The impact of [climate change] has even reached the most remote areas of Greenland that can be visited," said Vinther, one of the scientists on the study at Mongabay. "So this is, of course, bad news. However, you could say this is not too surprising.”

Vinther said the study only includes results up to 2011 due to the difficulty and practicality of collecting enough core samples for statistically significant conclusions to be drawn. However, he said his team plans to continue to obtain and analyze more data about the Greenland ice sheet.

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Katastropi Global

The melting of the Greenland ice sheet could have a dramatic impact on the global climate system. Scientists say changes in ice cover could disrupt ocean circulation, impact weather patterns, and raise sea levels. In turn this will increase beach erosion and storm surge.

It is estimated that sea level has risen 21-24 cm since 1880 which will continue to increase in line with greenhouse gas emissions.

Under a 'business as usual' scenario, experts estimate the melting of the Greenland ice sheet would raise sea levels by about 50 cm. Or combined, with the melting of the Earth's southern permafrost, the continent of Antarctica, rising sea levels will submerge island nations and flood coastal cities. The world as we know it today will change.

Thomas Laepple, a co-author of the study and professor at the German Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Ocean Research, said that although this study does not immediately provide new findings about sea level rise, it provides a basis for future studies on ice melt and surface sea.

From a melting perspective, the observations in this study suggest that sea level rise will be 'within the predicted model range'.

"This is certainly not a good sign, very worrying," Laepple told Mongabay. "These findings provide independent evidence that warming and temperature rise is occurring in Greenland."

Heating in north-central Greenland is also a concern for local people. Especially for those who depend on hunting for a living.

"They're going to be in trouble. When the ice melts, there will be times when the sea ice is completely unusable for transport. They can no longer go to hunting locations," said Vinther.