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View Full Version : Global warming changes the face of Greenland


twilyth
Sep 18, 2011, 03:11 AM
It's interesting to note that when Lief Ericson named the island, it may have been at a time in history when it was actually green rather the ice bound wasteland we tend to think of today.

Anyway, the story her (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/09/16/new-atlas-makes-it-official-greenland-is-a-different-shape-now-thanks-to-warming/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+80beats+(80beats))e is that the Time Comprehensive Atlas has officially noted the changing face of Greenland in their latest edition.

The pic on the left is from the 1999 edition while the other one is from the 2011 edition.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/files/2011/09/Greenland.jpg

Greenland glaciers have had a hard time of it lately, what with all the warming and disintegrating, and in their latest edition, the folks at the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World have decided to illustrate the island’s new look: as you can see above, lots and lots less white. The warming has even created a new island off the east coast: look closely just under the “Gr” in “Greenland Sea,” and you can see the words “Uunartoq Qeqertoq (Warming I.)”

If we are looking at a radically reshaped world in the next hundred years or more, maybe atlases will have to be more like dictionaries from here on out, recording the dynamic nature of their subject matter.

entropy13
Sep 18, 2011, 03:13 AM
It's interesting to note that when Lief Ericson named the island, it may have been at a time in history when it was actually green rather the ice bound wasteland we tend to think of today.

Nah it was actually a bit cooler during his time. It was named Greenland so that the other Vikings would go there instead of Iceland (where they did settle).

Fourstaff
Sep 18, 2011, 06:33 AM
Nah it was actually a bit cooler during his time. It was named Greenland so that the other Vikings would go there instead of Iceland (where they did settle).

Bait and hook marketing ;)

Think about all the farming area we get when Greenland becomes ice free!

MRCL
Sep 18, 2011, 06:58 AM
created a new island off the east coast

Aha! So floods may destroy flat islands and areas (poor Dan), but the warmth also reveals new habitable land. Which may was habitable once anyway.

techtard
Sep 18, 2011, 08:46 AM
Last time it was habitable was before the last ice age.
The whole landmass, anyway.