Greenland: Glaciers Melt, Economy Heats Up

(CBS)  There's no mystery about the effect global warming is having on the great glaciers of Greenland. More ice breaking off and floating out sea than has ever been observed before.

CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports Greenland's most active glacier now sheds enough ice each year now to cover Manhattan almost a mile deep.

Photos: Mark Phillips' Greenland Pictures

Space imagery of the glacier shows how it has been shrinking back over the years - supporting the scientific consensus that the Greenland ice-cap is thinning, the melt-water causing sea levels around the world to rise. Levels that are feared may rise another two feet or more this century by the most widely accepted estimates.

The mountain-sized icebergs have been called the best evidence of global warming on the planet.

Mark Phillips' Greenland Blog

What was once the edge of a glacier has been receding at an ever-quicker rate so that now you've got to travel some 50 miles straight up the fjord until you hit the glacial wall itself.

For Johannes Mathaussen and the 4,500 people who live in Ilulissat, warmer weather means having to adapt. If the sea ice doesn't freeze up solid, allowing them to go out to hunt seals and to fish, they can make money taking intrepid tourists on dog sled trips into the spectacular, if stark, hinterland.

Climate Change Threatens Maldives
Mark Phillips' Maldives Blog

The winters around here just aren't what they used to be. In the old days, it used to get to minus 50 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. Now, just minus 13, Fahrenheit.

Yet Greenlanders - all 5,700 of them - share a quiet little secret. For them there may be a silver lining in the climate change cloud.

The glacier is speeding up, running twice as quickly as it was just five years ago. There's another thing that may be speeding up here: the economy.

Where Greenland's traditionally lived off fishing and a massive subsidy from the colonial authority, Denmark - there's now a construction boom going on in the capital of Nuuk, a town of about 17,000 people.

Mining companies are lining up to explore the rich deposits of gold, copper and iron ore that are becoming more accessible as the ice recedes from coastal regions.

And there are good signs as well of significant oil reserves offshore. Inside their mittens, Greenlanders may have their fingers crossed that their future looks bright.

(CBS)

The trick will be to preserve their traditions while adapting to the changes. There is a worry here that too much wealth too soon may not be a good thing.

"I am afraid of getting rich right away because it will affect a way of thinking," said Stina Berthelsen of the Inuit Circumpolar Youth Council. "I do trust our people that we're going to figure it out. We're survivors."

Back on his dogsled, Johannes Mathaussen may be concerned that the old ways will have to change here. And he's not yet thinking of himself as a Sled Dog Millionaire. But, whatever devastation climate change may cause elsewhere in the world, you get the sense Johannes thinks that here, on the edge of civilization, there may also be good times ahead.

[lakota2012]

by Factsman:
"Greenland -- like Iceland -- is an island sitting on top of volcanic pipes which spew up hot molten rock from deep inside the earth's interior."
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Not at all true, so your "facts" can not be substantiated.

You seem to have confused EAST Greenland with WEST Greenland, and something that happened 55 million years ago, during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum, or PETM, a period of intense warming that lasted roughly 220,000 years.

A team of scientists announced confirmation of a link between massive volcanic eruptions along the east coast of Greenland and in the western British Isles about 55 million years ago and a period of global warming that raised sea surface temperatures by five degrees (Celsius) in the tropics and more than six degrees in the Arctic.

The study is important, experts say, because it documents the Earth?s response to the release of large amounts of greenhouse gases ? carbon dioxide and methane ? into the atmosphere, and definitively links a major volcanic event with a period of global warming.

"There has been evidence in the marine record of this period of global warming, and evidence in the geologic record of the eruptions at roughly the same time, but until now there has been no direct link between the two," said Robert A. Duncan, a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University and one of the authors of the study. Other authors are Michael Storey, from Roskilde University in Denmark, and Carl C. Swisher, from Rutgers University.

The international science team was able to link the PETM with the breakup of Greenland from northern Europe through analyzing the ash layers deposited toward the end of the peak of the volcanic eruptions. Using chemical fingerprints and identical ages, they were able to positively match ash layers in east Greenland with those in marine sediments in the Atlantic Ocean.

"We think the first volcanic eruptions began about 61 million years ago and then it took another 5 million years for the mantle to weaken, the continent to thin and the molten material to rise to the surface," Duncan said. "It was like lifting a lid. The plate came apart and gave birth to the North Atlantic Ocean."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/osu-vea042307.php

[anti-global3]

So you agree climate change is not caused by human behavior???
I'm glad you understand this, Then I am sure you will agree there is no reason to redistribute the wealth of Americans to those in poor and developing countries since it will not stop climate change which is not caused by humans.

[lakota2012]

by anti-global3:
"So you agree climate change is not caused by human behavior?"
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Obviously, there has been other forces shaping our planet tens of millions and especially billions of years ago, when continents were pulling apart and huge volcanic eruptions were normal.

Trying to compare our planet from 61 million years ago, when it took another 5 million years to form the North Atlantic Ocean, to the huge increase in greenhouse gases over 150 years of industrialization that is causing accelerated warming in just a few decades, is past ludicrous and just shows the extent that you DENIALISTS have fallen over the cliff!

[lakota2012]

"There's no mystery about the effect global warming is having on the great glaciers of Greenland. More ice breaking off and floating out sea than has ever been observed before."

"Greenland's most active glacier now sheds enough ice each year now to cover Manhattan almost a mile deep. Space imagery of the glacier shows how it has been shrinking back over the years - supporting the scientific consensus that the Greenland ice-cap is thinning, the melt-water causing sea levels around the world to rise."
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Only the delusional DENIALISTS continue to deny the growing PHYSICAL EVIDENCE of global warming, especially in the Arctic which has seen average temperatures increase over 5 degrees, causing tremendous land ice melt -- not just sea ice disappearing!

[ubrew12]

Greenland's ice field is melting.
Will this cause sea levels to rise?
Maybe, but more importantly, Greenland's economy is going to go through the ROOF!! (lol)

[rf35]

For some, climate change is not all bad. There will be those who benefit as well as those who suffer from the natural adjustment in Earth's average global temperature. Some plant and animal species will adapt to their new environments, some will alter their territories, and some will fail to adjust and face extinction (like 99.9% of all species that ever existed). This will include large numbers humans, since it appears many will refuse to adapt and instead just whine and make futile attempts to alter the planet's climate until they, too, become "extinct."

[SarahW3]

I completely agree rf35, some species of plants and animals will prosper in the changing environment and some will go extinct. This is the way of nature, natural selection allows superior species to fill the niches that have been vacated by other species who were not able to sustain themselves. Nature always comes out on top.
What is different in this story, is they are not talking about natural processes, they are talking about "money" and large scale mining. Saying that any humans will benefit in a monetary system at the expense of global warming, while it may be true, it is wrong. No amount of money can ever make up for the lose of life that will occur from these events.
Also, while nature has always been able to survive, filling in vacant niches, it will be harder this time. The changes that are occurring now are happening at such a fast rate that nature may not be able to keep up. This is not saying that all life will die, but since such a vast amount will be wiped out so quickly, it will take a very long time for new species to evolve into those niches.

[ubrew12]

SarahW3 is right. Extinction events, such as the one earth is going through now, eventually recover. But for millions of years (or at least hundreds of thousands), its a pretty bare and uninteresting landscape.

[eclecticman1]

The speed at which the glaciers are melting and the quickness of the temperature change shows man's hand. Climate change used to take 100's if not thousands of years, now it is being measure in years.

[roach9703]

Wait a minute, it was called Greenland in the middle ages for a good reason. It was only after the start of little ice age around 1300 AD that Greenland was not green any more. In 1304 the entire Baltic Sea froze over according to the book, " The Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuckman.

[porcine_aviator]

@ Roach:
Greenland was only green for a short period (maybe 300 years).And even then, the greenery was restricted to the edges of fjords and coastal areas. Inland Greenland has had massive glaciers for well over 100,000 years.

[jeannieb43]

I agree, Richard, with the apostrophe problem. It bugs me no end.

But here I think it's valid. "Where Greenland's traditionally lived off fishing..." is really saying "Where Greenland HAS traditionally lived...." The contraction is appropriate there.

[newsterl]

Admiral Perry who explored Greenland in the 1890's found fossilized trees in the Northern part, proving Greenland once had a lush forest. WHatever changed, caused the climate to create a mile thick sheet of ice over it, now it's melting.

[Factsman]

Settlements thrived for centuries but disappeared some time in the 15th century, perhaps at the onset of the Little Ice Age. Interpretation of ice core data suggests that between 800 and 1300 AD the regions around the fjords of southern Greenland experienced a mild climate, with trees and herbaceous plants growing and livestock being farmed. What is verifiable is that the ice cores indicate Greenland has experienced dramatic temperature shifts many times over the past 100,000 years ? which makes it possible to say that areas of Greenland may have been much warmer during the medieval period than they are now and that the ice sheet contracted significantly.[Wikipedia extract]

Greenland -- like Iceland -- is an island sitting on top of volcanic pipes which spew up hot molten rock from deep inside the earth's interior.

Take a look at the Dicovery & History Channels shows for example -- "Fire and Ice" -- Greenland's glaciers are melting like Iceland's but not because of any human activity allegedly causing climate change; furthermore there is nothing people can do about it.

[SarahW3]

First of all "Factsman," starting your comment with a quote from wikipedia shows that you obviously do not care where your "facts" come from.
Second of all, yes, all areas of the planets have experienced ups and downs when it comes to climate change. What is different in this situation is that the change is much more dramatic and is happening over a much shorter span of time. Which implies that there is some other force acting this time, the other force is mankind.

[newsterl]

And there are good signs as well of significant oil reserves offshore. "

LOL just what we need, find MORE oil to burn which contributes to the problem to begin with...

[SarahW3]

I would like to express my outrage at this story. Even the thought that something good could come out of global warming is ridiculous. The fact that you're pitting one population's potential monetary benefits against the destruction of the world environment as a whole is preposterous. Not only that, but the fact that the potential benefit to their economy is through the continued raping of the planet. In no way is the destruction of world ecosystems "okay" because someone might get some money out of.

I'm sorry but whoever came up with this story needs to get a reality check; global warming is BAD, no matter what spin you put on it. It's a simple matter of weighing pros and cons; big positive for a tiny human population vs REALLY big negative for the entire human population and all other life on the planet as well.

[Bash08]

SarahW3,
Bless your heart but that is part of the human condition and Cap & Trade does the same thing on a scale of global genocide, but you need to read the book Heaven and Earth, Global Warming: The Missing Science. You would fined that you have been mislead by swindlers. For less that $25 you'll get a great education, what a buy. You'll love the book! Take a chance, unlock your mind.
Don't be angry at Greendland, its not their fault that the glacers have been melting for 14,000 yrs and we are just getting to the end of it. They can't put it back, the sun drives climate change, not Co2. What can they do, streech a fire hose up to the sun and cool it down?
The glaciers will come back, they have before with 4 global periods of total glaciation. The last one almost rubbed mankind out. Don't be upset, it will rub them out and teach them a lession in maybe 10,000 yrs or so. But its worth the wait!
All the best

[SarahW3]

Bash08,

I am well versed in this department and have read the book you speak of, as well as many others on the topic. I have come to my own conclusions from the data I have dug up from reputable research facilities and have not simply "been mislead by swindlers." What I can tell you, is that the book you place so highly as the "real" answer was written by a gentleman in the mining business. I'm not saying that this means that his opinions are any less valid, I'm just saying to take it with a grain of salt.
And please, my heart does not need your blessings.