Glacier Extent
Ice(Glacier) is the canary in the global coal mine. It is the place where we can feel climate change in action. A tremendous amount of ice has been retreated and deflated. These changes are accelerating. This is because the precipitation patterns and the temperature patterns are changing as we see above.
The smaller the ice mass, the faster it responds to climate change. Greenland took a little while to start reacting to the global warming of the past century, but it really started to react rapidly about 20 years ago, which is the time when a tremendous increase in the temperature.
Greenland is a big place. Greenland is all ice. The one glacier up in Greenland that puts more ice into the global ocean than all the other glaciers in the northern hemisphere combined is Illulissat Glacier. Some glacier experts put some cameras on the southern edge of the llulissat. We can see dramatic retreat of glaciers through these clip.
This glacier has doubled its flow speed in the past 15 years. This accelerated speed is twice the rate it did 20 years ago. It is an immediate evidence of ongoing climate change right now.
Arctic Sea Ice Volume 1979 - 2012