Climatic Change - A Snapshot

When flying home from our European Adventure, I was very excited to find out that our flight path would be over southern Greenland. Like many people, I was taught at school, and still believed, that Greenland was white and that a few Eskimos lived there. I think it was a friend called Isabella , who fishes in North Sea, made some comment that Greenland was actually brown!

There, sure enough, was the world’s biggest island, with its grey/brown scoria laiden mountains, dipping into green/blue waters, below me. And not a dot of snow in sight!

Greenland, in spite of looking huge on the map is only about the size of Mexico and 75% the area of Denmark. It boasts one of the world’s largest fiord complexes and apparently 80% of it is covered by ice.

It was first inhabited by the Saqqaq culture in around 2000BC. Then in the 10th century the Norwegian Eric the Red, who had to quit Iceland, 175 miles away, because of his involvement with a murder, discovered it. The church built by his wife Thorhild still stands today.

Since the 1500’s Greenland was governed by the Danes and in 1953 changed from a Danish Colony to become part of the Danish kingdom. By 1979 it has had its own local government at the inhabitants’ request.

Today the population is more than 56 thousand and has many tourists who enjoy the unique arctic climate and the outdoor activities it offers.

The country, which is environmentally friendly towards green plants because of geothermal hot spots, has been called “An Arctic Laboratory.” Indeed Danish Scientists had made it the “most completely explored arctic land in the world.” However, the land is poor in natural resources.

Fishing is Greenland’s main industry of Shrimp (peeled prawns) followed by Greenland halibut, crabs, scallops and cod.

The capital of Greenland is Nuuk, or Godthaab, which means “Good Hope,” was founded by Hans Egede. Its population of 15 thousand is made up of the Inuits, and Danes. The average temperature averages from –1 to 18 degrees centigrade, in winter there are 4.5 daylight hours while in summer there is light for 24 hours from May until August.

Greenland and Climatic Change

Greenland and it’s neighbouring Arctic Circle countries seem to be the most vulnerable countries to climatic change. But action is being taken.

In January 2008 Nuuk will be hosting the Mayors of Winter Cities Bi-annual Winter Cities Conference and Expo.
The theme “Mother of the Sea” - a local folk story, reflects the conference’s focus of Global Warming and in particular, Climatic Changes in the Arctic. Reports from various surveys in local and nearby countries reported that 75% of all indigenous adults reported that climatic change is an environmental problem for them, as many, in spite of being satisfied with their lives, and jobs, spend a significant amount of time in traditional subsistence activities, including hunting and fishing.

There are, however, mixed reactions to Climate Change, or Global Warming in Greenland. It is been seen as a local boom, not doom for the world, as Al Gore suggests in his movie, “An Inconvenient Truth.” According to an article in the Wall St Journal in July 2006, a reindeer rancher says the glacier on his property has retreated 300 metres and his reindeer now feast on wild thyme and purple Niviarsiaq flowers. And he is planning to harness his ‘new’ river for hydroelectricity.

Average temperatures in Greenland have risen by 2.7 degrees Farenheight over the last 30 years. Swans have appeared, ducks are no longer migrating, farmers are getting larger crop yields and more vegetables can be grown.

Climatic change in Greenland is not new, according to oxygen isotope samples taken from Greenland’s ice core. Apparently in 1100, when Eric the Red discovered and settled here it was warm. The following 300 years represented the height of the Norse farming era, then the Norse inexplicably vanished. Farming faded and disappeared in the 17th century, but was practised again by the Inuit farmers in the 19th century, combining Norse and modern practices. The cold spell from 1950 – 1975 slowed farming, but now it is expanding rapidly.

Greenland’s fishers are benefiting from the return of warm water loving cod, which disappear from the waters when there are long cold spells. However, the shrimp – Greenland’s largest export may disappear, because not only do they enjoy cold water, they are eaten by cod!

No matter what happens to the temperatures, the Greenlanders are determined to make the most of the benefits they bring.

Climatic Change and the International Scene

Scientific Watchdogs

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was formed by governments who were members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programmed (UNEP) in 1988 to provide assessments of available scientific and technical information on climatic change. The most recent assessment was released in 2007, and can be seen on www.ipcc.ch

It has three separate working groups examining the physical science of climatic change, the effects on nature and society, and the methods of mitigation - that is, how humans can respond, adapt, survive and prosper to climactic change, and limit the effect of future warming by reducing the release of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. There is also a task force which is responsible for the IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme. New Zealanders David Wratt from Niwa, is a vice chair of the Climatic Change group, while Helen Plume, from the Ministry for the Environment, is a member of the Task Force.


Educating the Masses - An Inconvenient Truth – the movie we love and hate

“Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.”

No matter what we think about global warming I am sure that most of us who saw the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” with Al Gore would agree that it is worth watching, even if we tire of the many facts, figures and diagrams with tails disappearing into thin air. However he does have many points, which make us think twice about what is happening on our planet, and what we can do, in our own patches.

Life at the Edge
The National Geographic, June 2007, as well as providing some spectacular photos of the wildlife which depend on the ice, talks about the significant shrinking of ice covering the Arctic Ocean in summer, over the last 25 years. What will happen to it if the ice shrinks much more?
Fewer icebergs and thinner ice covering the sea and warming it will result in changes in food supplies and shelter.

*“Ice is part of the biology of every creature that lives in this frozen vastness” Paul Nicklen

There is also alarming information about the thawing and receding of glaciers, in both the Arctic and Antarctic areas. For it is not just a case of the ice melting, there are multiple processes, which speeds the process. The processes include;
- the white snow melts, exposing the dark ice underneath. The dark ice absorbs heat and melts, whereas the white snow reflected the heat.
- Summer meltwater forms in pools in the ice, fractures it and pours below, speeding flow.
- Thinner ice has a weaker grip on the land and can’t hold the accelerating glacier
- Warmer oceans erode floating ice at its base, weakening it and causing it to break up.

The melting season in Greenland is starting earlier and ending later. Much of the bedrock has been forced below sea level, so rising seas may follow. However “Greenland alone could push *up sea level by three feet or so over the next century, if global warming does not let up.” Tim Appenzeller

Over the last 14 years Greenland researchers have had first hand experiences of rising temperatures. The seasonal melts have started earlier and ended later, snowmobile tracks have been full of slush and instead of snowing, it has been raining.

What are the Facts about Climate Change?
Participants in the 2007 IPCC assessment summarized some climatic arguments in the Scientific American magazine.

“Scientists are confident that humans have interfered with the climate and that further human-induced climatic change is on the way. The principle driver is greenhouse gas emissions…global warming has been caused by human activities as much as 90%…the magnitude of expected change depends on what humans choose to do about greenhouse gas emissions.

Eleven of the past 12 years have been the warmest since reliable records began in around 1850.
In conclusion, the article says that what is certain – plants, animals and humans will be living with the consequences of climatic change for the next thousand years at least. But what is uncertain – we have limited knowledge of the response of natural systems and human society to the growing impacts of climatic change.

In silence Greenland’s green waters and dramatic mountains slide out of my aircraft window’s view and for a short while and we fly over the waters of Davis Straight Davis Strait towards Nunavut, Canada. But look at that! A tidal Sea of Ice! Now I bet there is an interesting story here….


References include:
Scientific American August 2007
National Geographic June 2007
www.ipcc.ch
http://mytrip.dk/eindex.html. (great pics here)
http://jensjk.dk
http://www.wintercitiesnuuk.gl
ttp://www.climatecrisis.net/aboutthefilm
http://www.danishexporters.dk
http://en.wikipedia.org