Arctic 21: Understanding the history of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Dr. Paul Bierman, Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Vermont, presents on a major paper released last month. Within the past million years, the center of Greenland – currently buried under a 3-kilometer-thick sheet of ice – supported plant life, indicating that it was completely ice-free even when CO2 concentrations were far lower than today’s levels. Authors examined ancient remains of soil from the base of an ice core drilled at Summit Station decades ago, and nearly miraculously preserved. They found unmistakable remains of a tundra plant ecosystem that could only have formed in the absence of ice; and when the ice is gone at the summit, at least 90% of Greenland’s ice must have melted. Link to the full paper is below. Dr. Bierman recently published a popular science book on this effort ("When the Ice is Gone") and shares about his experience translating "hard" science into something for a more general public. Full paper: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas... When the Ice is Gone: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324020677 #Greenland #SeaLevelRise #Glaciers