Original version

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Science in Action

Science In Action

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

The BBC brings you all the week's science news.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service East Asia

Science In Action: Trouble in Greenland

Magazines & Reviews

Trouble in Greenland

20/08/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Science In Action, Trouble in Greenland

Has the loss from Greenland’s vast ice sheet reached a tipping point?

Greenland Ice Sheet; stalagmites and climate change; world temperature record; the dimming of Betelgeuse

Has the loss from Greenland’s vast ice sheet reached a tipping point?   According to glaciologist Michalea King, the rate at which its ice flows into the sea stepped up about 15 years ago.  The process of glacial retreat is outpacing the accumulation snow and ice in Greenland’s interior and the loss of Greenland’s ice to the Ocean is set to continue for many years to come.  

An international study of past climate changes during the last ice age reveals how fast changes to weather patterns and climate states can reverberate around the world.  During the last ice age, when temperatures rose suddenly in Greenland a series of changes to the climate in Europe and the monsoons in Asia and South America occurred almost simultaneously - within decades of each other.    Climate scientists Eric Wolff and Ellen Corrick have discovered this through studies of stalagmites from caves around the world.   It’s a demonstration of how rapidly and dramatically the Earth’s atmospheric system can change when it’s perturbed.

Was the hottest temperature ever on Earth recorded last weekend?  A weather station in Death Valley in California recorded a temperature of 54.4 degrees C.   Roland Pease discusses the controversy with extreme weather historian Christopher Burt.

Andrea Dupree of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reveals the latest on the giant star Betelgeuse which to everyone’s amazement dimmed dramatically at the beginning of the year.  At the time some people wondered whether it was about to explode as a supernova but Andrea’s new findings suggest an event at the star which is almost as extraordinary.  

(Image: Masses of ice break off from the edge of a glacier. Credit: Press Association)

Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Science In Action

Trouble in Greenland

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

About BBC World Service