Sir Jean-P
Mon, Jul-02-07, 16:16
... and we are just at the beginning of Summer !... Brought to
you courtesy of Sir Jean-Paul Turcaud
GREENLAND'S ICE MELTDOWN QUICKENS
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer Click byline for more stories
by writer. First published: Sunday, July 1, 2007
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=602471&cat-
egory=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=7/1/2007 timesunion.com
Kangerlussuaq, Greenland -- A slab of pale blue ice the size
of a semitrailer broke off the side of the Russell Glacier
and splashed into a rushing stream of meltwater some 100
feet below.
The thunderous sound of splintering ice was frightening
enough, especially after hearing a guide describe how a huge
chunk of plummeting glacier killed several tourists and
injured dozens near here with its icy shrapnel in the 1970s.
But the truly scary part was that we had witnessed another
ominous reminder that the ice sheet of Greenland is melting
twice as fast as it was just 10 years ago. The vast ice cap is
up to 2 miles thick and covers 80 percent of the world's
largest island, which is three times the size of Texas.
"The glaciers are disappearing and a lot of people say they
want to see the Greenland ice sheet before it's gone," said
Kim Peterson, a Danish glacier tour guide based here. He's
watched the same section of the Russell Glacier at the end of
the Sonde Stromfjord gradually melt over the past 22 years.
Peterson is keenly aware of a cruel irony: a recent spike in
tourism may portend the beginning of the end for an ancient
way of life among 56,000 Greenlandic people scattered across
the treeless and harsh landscape. Inuit hunters, who rely on
cold ocean temperatures and extensive winter sea ice to stalk
seals, whales and polar bears, may soon come up empty-handed.
The Greenland ice sheet, second only to Antarctica in the
volume of water locked in its deep freeze, has been a
barometer for researchers measuring the effect of the
world's growing consumption of coal, oil and gas on heating
up the planet.
What their instruments have confirmed is that the news out of
Greenland is bad -- and getting worse.
The National Science Foundation is funding a record number
of research projects in Greenland, with roughly 30 studies
under way as part of NSF's $400 million annual budget for
polar research.
Climate change and global warming caused in part by increased
emissions from vehicles and industry are no longer open to
debate, as it had been somewhat in 1985, the last time a Times
Union team visited Greenland with the New York Air National
Guard's 109th Airlift Wing.
"There is broad consensus now that global warming is very real
and that it's accelerating," said Greg Huey, professor of
atmospheric chemistry at Georgia Institute of Technology who
completed two months of field work last week, his third trip
to Greenland.
Huey is investigating high levels of NOx -- the same stew of
nitrogen oxide gases found in urban smog from New York City to
Los Angeles -- that form near the snow's surface on sunny days
across the Greenland ice cap.
"We've measured much more NOx than anyone would have believed
just a few years ago," Huey said. "It's less than you'd find
in rush-hour Atlanta traffic on a summer day, but it's still
alarming."
It's important to put the rise in temperatures and rates of
glacial melt in Greenland in context over millions of years of
geologic time, said Simon Stephenson, director of NSF's office
of polar programs.
you courtesy of Sir Jean-Paul Turcaud
GREENLAND'S ICE MELTDOWN QUICKENS
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer Click byline for more stories
by writer. First published: Sunday, July 1, 2007
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=602471&cat-
egory=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=7/1/2007 timesunion.com
Kangerlussuaq, Greenland -- A slab of pale blue ice the size
of a semitrailer broke off the side of the Russell Glacier
and splashed into a rushing stream of meltwater some 100
feet below.
The thunderous sound of splintering ice was frightening
enough, especially after hearing a guide describe how a huge
chunk of plummeting glacier killed several tourists and
injured dozens near here with its icy shrapnel in the 1970s.
But the truly scary part was that we had witnessed another
ominous reminder that the ice sheet of Greenland is melting
twice as fast as it was just 10 years ago. The vast ice cap is
up to 2 miles thick and covers 80 percent of the world's
largest island, which is three times the size of Texas.
"The glaciers are disappearing and a lot of people say they
want to see the Greenland ice sheet before it's gone," said
Kim Peterson, a Danish glacier tour guide based here. He's
watched the same section of the Russell Glacier at the end of
the Sonde Stromfjord gradually melt over the past 22 years.
Peterson is keenly aware of a cruel irony: a recent spike in
tourism may portend the beginning of the end for an ancient
way of life among 56,000 Greenlandic people scattered across
the treeless and harsh landscape. Inuit hunters, who rely on
cold ocean temperatures and extensive winter sea ice to stalk
seals, whales and polar bears, may soon come up empty-handed.
The Greenland ice sheet, second only to Antarctica in the
volume of water locked in its deep freeze, has been a
barometer for researchers measuring the effect of the
world's growing consumption of coal, oil and gas on heating
up the planet.
What their instruments have confirmed is that the news out of
Greenland is bad -- and getting worse.
The National Science Foundation is funding a record number
of research projects in Greenland, with roughly 30 studies
under way as part of NSF's $400 million annual budget for
polar research.
Climate change and global warming caused in part by increased
emissions from vehicles and industry are no longer open to
debate, as it had been somewhat in 1985, the last time a Times
Union team visited Greenland with the New York Air National
Guard's 109th Airlift Wing.
"There is broad consensus now that global warming is very real
and that it's accelerating," said Greg Huey, professor of
atmospheric chemistry at Georgia Institute of Technology who
completed two months of field work last week, his third trip
to Greenland.
Huey is investigating high levels of NOx -- the same stew of
nitrogen oxide gases found in urban smog from New York City to
Los Angeles -- that form near the snow's surface on sunny days
across the Greenland ice cap.
"We've measured much more NOx than anyone would have believed
just a few years ago," Huey said. "It's less than you'd find
in rush-hour Atlanta traffic on a summer day, but it's still
alarming."
It's important to put the rise in temperatures and rates of
glacial melt in Greenland in context over millions of years of
geologic time, said Simon Stephenson, director of NSF's office
of polar programs.