Greenland: Hill's New Stop To See Global Climate Change
Melting ice is making Greenland, the world's largest island, the with-it new stop for those who want to highlight the risks of global climate change. The latest such visitor is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led a congressional delegation that stopped off in Greenland last weekend. Afterward, she said that she saw "firsthand evidence that climate change is a reality."
NASA scientists believe that ice is dropping into the North Atlantic at double the rate of a decade ago. Over the past 20 years, the air temperature in southeastern Greenland, for instance, has increased by 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Polar bears in the island's Arctic realms are thought to be facing greater risks as ice vanishes. Glaciers are flowing faster than in the past, with one now moving at 8 to 9 miles per year.
The melting in Greenland is of global concern: The quantity of ice and snow on Greenland is so vast that a complete rendering to water would raise world sea levels more than 20 feet.
Few, if any, scientists are predicting that sort of catastrophic outcome. But the vivid and beautiful backdrop for global warming that Greenland provides has made the island a hot destination for European and now American politicians. Sen. John McCain and other senators visited earlier.
"There is no doubt that there are huge changes and huge challenges out there," Lars-Emil Johansen, Greenland's foreign secretary, told U.S. News in an interview in Washington. "Up there [in the north of Greenland] everybody will tell you stories about ice that used to be 3, 4 meters thick--20 years ago--and now are 70 centimeters today, which is . . . reduced from 10 feet to 2 feet."
Johansen said native hunters have also felt pressure from the ice melt, though the receding of ice and warmer temperatures in some cases are opening up opportunities. The short growing season is expanding. And foreign firms are looking into projects that would aim to recover everything from oil and gas to diamonds, gold, and minerals in and near Greenland.
A self-governing part of Denmark with fewer than 60,000 residents, Greenland is keen on attracting tourists who are looking for an exotic locale or interested in ecology. Tourism is still tiny but booming. That growth is likely to be furthered by the start in May of nonstop flights on Air Greenland between Baltimore and Kangerlussuaq, a town in the southwest.
"My main message is, 'Welcome to Greenland,' " says Johansen. "And the 'Welcome to Greenland' title is not only directed toward tourists but also to invest in us."
By Thomas Omestad