Greenland's melting ice sheet has 'passed the point of no return' - Business Insider

That means that the Greenland ice sheet — the world's second-largest ice body — would continue to lose ice even if global temperatures stop rising.In their study, published Thursday in the journal Nature, the scientists reviewed 40 years of monthly satellite data from more than 200 large glaciers that are draining into the ocean across Greenland."What we've found is that the ice that's discharging into the ocean is far surpassing the snow that's accumulating on the surface of the ice sheet," Michalea King, the study's lead author and researcher at Ohio State University's Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, said in a press release.Complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet could raise sea levels 23 feet by the year 3000. That's why tipping points like Greenland's accelerate ice loss so much.Rising global temperatures and certain human activities can bring about tipping points in other parts of the world, too.In the Arctic, ice melt is exposing permafrost — frozen soil that releases powerful greenhouse gases when it thaws.