IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Al Roker travels to the epicenter of climate change — see his journey to Greenland

Greenland's melting glaciers will impact millions of Americans and people worldwide.
/ Source: TODAY

This summer — which brought the hottest June and July on record — is coming to an end. But the devastation climate change is having on one of the planet’s most important environmental sites is far from over.

By the end of this warm season, at least 440 billion tons of ice will have melted or split off Greenland’s giant ice sheet. It's a record for the country, known as ground zero for climate change. And its effects will be felt worldwide.

TODAY co-host and meteorologist Al Roker traveled to the Arctic Circle to report on what this means for the planet, following environmental experts and NASA as they collect information.

Al Roker visited Greenland to see climate change impact
Al plotted statistics with the research team to understand how the data-collecting process works.NBC

New York University professor David Holland invited Al on his research vessel to see how his team is studying the rapidly melting glaciers.

Holland explained that the top several hundred feet of cold water is coming from the Arctic Ocean. Underneath it, however, is warm water from the tropics, specifically the Gulf Stream. When the warm water hits the glaciers, he said, “It melts them like crazy.”

Al Roker visited Greenland to understand climate change impact
David Holland and his wife, Denise, established the Center for Global Sea Level Change at New York University in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. On his fact-finding trip, Al Roker worked with students from New York and Abu Dhabi on their research boat.NBC

Holland and other scientists take daily measurements of the ocean’s temperature, level of salt and depth to see how thick that layer of warm water is getting.

After retrieving measurements, the team plots the data and begins the yearlong process of analyzing its exact effects on the glaciers.

While out with Holland's group, Al witnessed a new discovery.

NASA climate change graphic shows warm ater from the tropics reaching Greenland glaciers
NASA scientists explained how warm water from the tropics comes in contact with a typical glacier in Greenland, melting it.NASA

The team found out that the water directly in front of the Helheim Glacier was warm from the ocean floor to the surface, lapping at the edge of the glacier. It was the first time the NYU team witnessed warm water at the surface of the glacier, a sign that melting could potentially be occurring at an even faster rate than expected.

In addition to seeing how researchers work to collect data deep in the sea, Al got to travel with NASA scientists to explore from the air.

Greenland has enough ice to raise sea levels globally by 25 feet.

NASA scientist Josh Willis and his team drop probes from airplanes to measure how much the oceans are warming. Al joined them on a mission, seeing the disturbing view of thousands of broken pieces of glacier.

“Greenland has enough ice to raise sea levels globally by 25 feet, which is an enormous amount,” Willis said. “If that much sea level rise happened today, hundreds of millions of people around the world would be affected.”

Al Roker visited Greenland to see climate change impact
Al flew in an aircraft with NASA scientists as part of their Oceans Melting Greenland mission.NBC

Their operation is called Oceans Melting Greenland mission, aptly nicknamed “OMG.”

To get a complete picture of climate change’s impact on the Arctic, Al traveled to what’s left of the Apusiaajik Glacier, where chunks of ice come falling and crashing down by the hour.

Climate change in Greenland
"Greenland is a bit of a canary in the coal mine kind of scenario," NYU professor David Holland said.NBC

“It's very important here, standing on ice, to realize that we are on the first step of a domino effect that then later we call climate change,” said glacier guide Nicco Segreto.

The extent of ice melt in Greenland will eventually help determine just how high sea levels, globally, will rise.

Erin McGarry, NBC Climate & Weather unit senior producer, contributed to this article.