What is it about?
Re-examining a thirty year old sample of soil collected from beneath two miles of ice in the center of Greenland, we found bits of plants, soil fungus, and an insect eye - proof certain that Greenland's ice was replaced by hardy arctic tundra sometime in the last million years.
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Photo by Andre Boysen on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Finding these fossils matters because it can mean only one thing - Greenland's ice sheet is fragile. It melted away long before humans began warming the climate with heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. If we allow Greenland's ice to melt over the next centuries, global sea level will rise over 20 feet, dramatically reshaping our planet's coastlines. Hundreds of millions of people will see their cities, farmland, and homes flooded by the encroaching sea - forcing the largest migration in human history.
Perspectives
This was one of the most fascinating and publicly accessible pieces of research of which I've been part. Finding those fossils was so unexpected and it's research that matters to people all around the world. It tells me that we need to get started right now reducing our emissions of greenhouse gasses and we need to work to reduce their concentration in the atmosphere. There's no time to waste.
Paul Bierman
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Plant, insect, and fungi fossils under the center of Greenland’s ice sheet are evidence of ice-free times, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2407465121.
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