As Greenland gets warmer, glaciers retreat

Ice-free Arctic?
In August, the National Science Foundation’s Arctic System Science Committee issued a report saying the rate of ice melting in the Arctic is increasing and within a century could for the first time lead to summertime ice-free ocean conditions.

With warmer temperatures, some bacteria, plants and animals could disappear, while others will thrive. Polar bears and other animals that depend on sea ice to breed and forage are at risk, scientists say, and some species could face extinction in a few decades.

The thinning of the sea ice presents a danger to both humans and polar bears, said Peter Ewins, director of Arctic conservation for the World Wildlife Fund Canada.

“The polar bears need to be there to catch enough seals to see them through the summer in open warm water systems. Equally, the Inuit need to be out there on the ice catching seals and are less and less able to do that because the ice is more unstable, thinner,” he said.

When NASA started taking satellite images of the Arctic region in the late 1970s and computer technology improved, scientists noted alarming patterns and theorized that the culprit was gases emitted by industries and internal combustion engines to create a “greenhouse effect” of trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Politics of climate change
Inuit leaders are trying to draw attention to the impact of climate change and pollution.

“When I was a child, the weather used to be more stable. It worries me to see and hear all this,” Greenland Premier Hans Enoksen said on the sidelines of a meeting of environmental officials from 23 countries in Ilulissat. The meeting ended with statements of concern — and no action.

The Kyoto Protocol that took effect in February aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the 140 nations that have signed the pact don’t include the United States, which produces one-quarter of the gases.

The Bush administration says participation would severely damage the U.S. economy. Many scientists say that position undermines the whole planet and they point to Greenland as the leading edge of what the globe could suffer.

“Greenland is the canary in a mine shaft alerting us,” said Corell, the American meteorologist, standing on the edge of the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier which he is studying. “In the U.S., global warming is a tomorrow issue. ... For us working here, it hits you like a ton of bricks when you see it.”

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