Greenland Ice ‘could be gone in 10 years’

New data compiled by the European Space Agency (ESA) has suggested that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting much faster than previously thought.

Officials said that new satellite images from ice-measuring radar firm Cryosat were combined with NASA IceSat images, which revealed that the landmass is currently losing ice at the rate of around 900 cubic-km each year.

Experts say that although ice melt figures vary greatly, the new results are nearly 50 percent higher than the majority of findings and have sounded new alarms among scientists.

According to the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling’s Dr Seymour Laxon, the new figures have been cross-checked with data from aircraft and buoys in the region and are believed to be accurate with a 10cm (3.5in) buffer.

However, Dr Laxon told the BBC, “We have to be cautious until our data has been properly analysed as part of a climate model, but this does suggest that the Arctic might be ice-free in summer for a day at least by the end of the decade. But the past is not always a guide to the future.”

The news comes a month after NASA report said that the US agency was seeing unprecedented levels of Greenland Ice Sheet Surface melt. Although many say the news suggests that manmade climate change is the culprit, glaciologist Laura Koenig confirmed that it’s too early to tell and that similar events are recorded around every 150 years. However, she said that if the trend continues it would be more worrying.