GOOD! Maybe they can start growing their own ethanol now. That's energy independence baby. (:^*)
Posted on 07/19/2006 11:13:06 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Average temperatures in Greenland have risen by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 30 years -- more than double the global average, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute. By the end of the century, the institute projects, temperatures could rise another 14 degrees.
The milder weather is promoting new life on the fringes of this barren, arctic land. Swans have been spotted recently for the first time, ducks aren't flying south for the winter anymore and poplar trees have suddenly begun flowering.
Greenland represents one of the largely unrecognized paradoxes of global warming. In former Vice President Al Gore's recent film "An Inconvenient Truth," the melting of Greenland's ice cap, along with a similar cap in the Antarctic, is portrayed as one of the greatest threats of global warming. If the layers of ice and snow holding billions of tons of water were to melt, scientists warn that global sea levels would rise by 40 feet, submerging lower Manhattan, the Netherlands and much of California.
But to many of the people who live here in Greenland, the warming trend is a boon, not a threat.
It is no small feat to get things living and growing in Greenland, an arctic and sub-arctic country at the northern tip of North America whose frigid landscape is often confused with Iceland, a smaller, greener European island nation to the southeast.
More than 80% of Greenland is covered in ice. Temperatures in the south regularly drop to 22 degrees below zero during the long, dark winters when the sun shines for as little as five hours a day. Intermittent frosts during the four-month growing season make it difficult for anything to thrive.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
BTTT!
Thats a shame about Manhattan but the Netherlands and much of California being gone? Well...GOOD!
ckick my name for my adventure as a weaterman on the Greenland icecap.
Considering that it's been proven the
Far North frigid zone was once a tropical
zone, wherein is the amazement about its
going through another cycle? At what
level did these global warming geeks
abandon the fundamentals of education
and skip to the "Mother Nature is Doomed"
philosophy?
Global warming is a win-win situation. First, we've finally thwarted the Vikings! Second, when California is submerged, we can hand it over as a homeland for the illegals.
Too bad the floods and famine won't affect only those with their fingers in their ears saying La La La.
GOOD! Maybe they can start growing their own ethanol now. That's energy independence baby. (:^*)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2840137.stm
11 March, 2003
BBC
Greenland is significantly cooler now than it was 40 years ago.
Data taken from eight stations
While scientists report warming trends in many parts of the globe, it seems this northern polar region has been moving in the other direction.
The finding is based on an analysis of historical meteorological data collected by Danish researchers.
It shows that during the period 1958 to 2001 average temperatures in the southern part of the island fell by 1.29 C. Sea-surface temperatures in the Labrador Sea also fell.
Globally, temperatures have risen over this period (+0.53 C) and in Greenland itself scientists have recently reported fairly dramatic thinning of the island's ice sheet. ...
______________________________
It appears in 2006 some new Danish researchers were found to massage the data.
Perhaps it is true that over the past several decades the average temperatures have risen, but up here next to the Arctic Circle we've had the "summer without a summer." Right now it is about 52 degrees outside under gray skies, which is more typical of mid-August than mid-July. June was a bust - lots of cold weather and rainy skies. It might have snowed on the north slope last night.
All of which says nothing about global warming, since one season is not a trend. However, I can tell you that 5,000 years ago the treeline was significantly north of its present location, and 18,000 years ago, the forest in my backyard was replaced by a grassy plain like central Asia.
Even if the dire predictions are the ones that are real, the best response is based on free-market capitalism and a society based on individual liberty and human freedom. However, having been raised on dire predictions all of my life, starting with "The Population Bomb" when I was in junior high school and concluding with an overheated planet, I simply don't believe the scaremongers. Climate changes have taken place for millions of years - and are apparently especially marked during ice ages, in which we are in the middle of one episode. I expect change. One day, when Antarctica moves away from the South Pole and the Atlantic opens up sufficiently to allow warm water to wash into the Arctic Ocean, then we can all bask in the same warmth as the dinosaurs as redwoods and oaks circle the lukewarm water at the top of the world.
All I can say is that I'm glad I didn't try corn and watermelon this year (which worked great last summer, which was a hot one). Maybe next year.
The Netherlands is no surprise since
most of the north is already below
sea level.
I've been hearing about New York City
and California being inundating, falling
into the sea, and being torn off their
plates at the coastlines due to earthquakes
since I was a kid.
Now, there's rumors on the internet that
rebuilding New Orleans might not take
place at all because of huge undersea
oil deposits located in that area of
Louisiana.
Suffice it to say, I'm happy for
the Greenlanders.
I've been saying this for months. When we are forced to migrate to Alaska we'll be thankful for the couple of degrees.
They're growing potatoes and trying to introduce cows, so they may finally be back near where they were during the Medieval Warm Period.
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