These huskies might appear to have mastered an amazing trick, but they’re actually trudging across melting ice in Greenland—and that’s not a good sign.
The image above was snapped earlier this year by a climate researcher. It was quickly shared and reshared on social media because it illustrates the alarming effect that global warming is having on the Arctic region.
Greenland is a massive island territory of Denmark. Most of its surface is covered by ice. But midway through 2019, temperatures soared well above average there, causing about half of the island’s ice sheet to experience melting.
If the warming trend continues, the island is on track for record levels of melting ice this year. That could have a serious impact on rising sea levels around the world—and on local communities that rely on the ice sheet for transportation, hunting, and fishing.