By Devin Powell
Time-lapse snapshots showing Greenland’s glaciers racing toward the sea in recent years have turned up some good news, and some bad news.
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As the island’s glaciers disintegrate over coming decades, they won’t raise the world’s oceans as much as the most pessimistic forecasts had shown possible, researchers report in the May 4 Science. But the blocks of ice are still melting rapidly and may contribute worrisome centimeters to sea level rise by the end of the century.
“We’re certainly looking at significant rises in sea level, but some of the worst-case scenarios that people have imagined don’t seem likely,” says glaciologist Twila Moon of the University of Washington in Seattle.