That's the rather boring headline from the NASA website and you can read that article here.   You can read the treatment in the popular press (Guardian U.K.) here.  The upshot is that in a four day period, as the result of a "heat dome" that settled over the two million square kilometer island, the melting of the surface ice in Greenland grew from around 40 percent of the ice sheet to 97 percent.   

Scientists were surprised and scrambled to confirm their data.  University of Georgia climatologist Thomas Mote said: "What we are seeing at the highest elevations may be a sort of sign of what is going on across the ice sheet.  At lower elevations on the ice sheet, we are seeing earlier melting, melting later in the season, and more frequent melting over the last 30 years and that is consistent of what you would expect with a warming climate."    

Scientists attribute  about 1/5 of annual sea level rise (which is currently at a rate of three mm per year) to melted ice from Greenland, water that had previously been held on land, now transferred to the ocean.   Three millimeters seems small, doesn't it?, but in ten years that's a three centimeter rise; in twenty-five years, that's three inches.  If three inches still sounds small, we should also remember:

• that even the amount to date is still enough to multiply storm surges, coastal erosion, and saltwater infusion (king tides) on low-lying islands like Tuvalu and Kiribati.
• that the current rate of annual sea level rise is posed to increase, not only because of greater ice melt like shown in NASA's study, but also because of "thermal expansion" of the oceans--when water molecules get warmer, they expand.
• we still have those scenarios--which some dismiss as "science fiction"--of the Greenland ice shelf collapsing and sliding into the sea (or the West Antarctic ice shelf or half of each).  As a result, ocean temperatures worldwide would increase by ten feet.

If you have a scientific bent the current operative study on sea level rise is Overpeck and Weiss (2009).  Their conclusion: "The take-home point of the new work  and independent previous work is that it would be wise to assume that global sea-level rise could significantly exceed 1 m by 2100 unless dramatic efforts are soon made to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions." 

The average elevation of Tuvalu is only one meter above sea level.  But only 40-60 centimeters of sea level rise will make this sovereign nation uninhabitable.   

And so we pray for the Polynesian peoples of Greenland:

• Oh Lord, we beseech you, please help the nations address the greenhouse gas emissions which through rising average global temperatures contribute to sea level rise.
•  Hear our lament O Lord over Rio +20.
• Help the peoples of Tuvula, Kiribati and other low-lying islands as they adapt to the sufferings caused by even small levels of ocean rise.
• O Lord, please, keep us from the catastrophic scenarios.
• Please help your Church know what love should look like in this situation.
• Now, O Lord, now please exalt the hope which is ours in Christ Jesus.
• Please assist CEF and other Christian organizations which seek to deepen the discipleship of these Christianized South Pacific islands.  

Photo: NASA