Will all of the ice on Greenland melt and flow out into the sea, bringing about a colossal rise in ocean levels on Earth, as the global temperature rises?
The key concern is how stable the ice cap actually is and new Danish research from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen can now show the evolution of the ice sheet 11,700 years back in time – all the way back to the start of our current warm period. The results are published in the esteemed journal Nature.
Numerous drillings have been made through both Greenland’s ice sheet and small ice caps near the coast. By analysing every single annual layer in the kilometres long …

Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.13 C per decade
August temperatures (preliminary)
Global composite temp.: +0.23 C (about 0.41 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for August.
Northern Hemisphere: +0.28 C (about 0.50 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for August.
Southern Hemisphere: +0.18 C (about 0.32 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for August.
July temperatures (revised):
Global Composite: +0.41 C above 20-year average
Northern Hemisphere: +0.21 C above 20-year average
Southern Hemisphere: +0.61 C above 20-year average
(All temperature variations are based on a 20-year average (1979-1998) for the month reported.)
Notes on data released September 8, 2009:
The tropics continued to respond in August to warming caused by the El Niño Pacific Ocean warming event, with the average temperature in the tropics warming from …

The global composite temperature during June 2009 was flat, according to figures from The University of Alabama in Huntsville. Northern Hemisphere experienced a slight increase — +0.03 C (about 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for June. Meanwhile, the Southern Hemisphere was cooler by the same amount — -0.03 C (about 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) below 20-year average for June.
Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.12 C per decade
June temperatures (preliminary)
Global composite temp.: ±0.00 C (about 0.00 degrees Fahrenheit) above/below 20-year average for April.
Northern Hemisphere: +0.03 C (about 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) above 20-year average for June.
Southern Hemisphere: -0.03 C (about 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit) below 20-year average for June.
May temperatures (revised):
Global Composite: +0.05 C above 20-year …