Final reflection on Greenland ... by gimleteye

Greenland stays in one's mind like the after-pattern of a bright image when one's eyes are closed.

It is a difficult place to get to, from the east coast of the United States with few connections from Iceland or Denmark often interrupted by bad weather. Because of harsh weather conditions, even in the summer, the tourism infrastructure is lagging, but the remoteness is more than made up by the awe-inspiring and majestic beauty of the place.

The ice cap of Greenland is melting fast. Computer models of sea level rise are ...

The Greenland Ice Cap Is Melting: One Photo Shows How ... by gimleteye

I took this photo a few days ago on top of the Greenland ice cap, from a helicopter 50 miles inland from Ilulissat, a fishing village on the west coast. The photo captures global warming in two visible phenomena. First; the lake atop the ice cap. It shouldn't be here. Abnormally high temperatures are creating lakes like this and rivers because the ice is melting everywhere, contributing to the massive release of cold fresh water into the North Atlantic and sea level rise. The second is the visibly darkened surface of the ice. Much of the ice cap looks exactly like this: instead of white, which would reflect light back into the atmosphere, a darkened ice cap absorbs heat. The darkened surface of the ice in Greenland is largely due to carbon particles caused by the combustion of fossil fuels, not just oil and coal but also from the ferocious fires occurring throughout the world's arboreal forests as a result of global warming. "Black carbon is a bigger cause of the melting of the polar ice cap in the Arctic than carbon dioxide due to its effect on the albedo." In other words, there is a feedback loop in place that assures the continued warming and accelerated melting of the Greenland ice cap. A decade ago, conservatives ridiculed Al Gore for pointing to these phenomena, but everything Gore said is not only true but happening much faster than even climate scientists predicted. Still, there is one political party in the United States that is defined by climate change denial. Just look at this photo. Only voters can change the outcome of politicians who refuse to see.

The Greenland ice cap is a continent of slush and melting snow ... by gimleteye

The helicopter took off from Ilulissat airport and headed west, up and over the coastal ridge to the ice cap that covers Greenland. The airstrip is so close to the coast that icebergs float only a few hundred feet from the runway. We flew about 60 miles inland. Although I had flown over the ice cap for hours, I wanted to step outside and feel the impact of climate change on my feet. When I stepped outside, my foot sank in the slush. The entire ice cap is melting. Instead of solid snow and ice, rivers and lakes are in a process of continuous transformation to fresh water. I didn't feel curiosity or excitement. I felt a sense of dread and instability. Like most glaciers in the world, on the southwest coast of Greenland the glaciers are thinning at the edge of the ocean. As they retreat, the calving fronts where icebergs are made may also disappear. Right now, scientists say that these vast rivers of water on top of the glacier are finding their way down into the ice cap and creating huge rivers beneath flowing to the sea; convection routes for fresh water that will eventually contribute to rapid sea level rise. The greatest story in the history of the world is unfolding in our time, and at least one political party in the United States denies it is even happening.

In Greenland, Tourism Is Booming ... by gimleteye

Watching the ice melt is turning into big business in Greenland. Three years ago, Ilulissat felt on the cusp of great change but still a small and isolated fishing village. My guess is the volume of tourism business has doubled since that time. Today, hotels are packed. Tour guides are scrambling to find enough staff. The cruise ships have started; the kiss of death for local culture although dodging icebergs could be a tricky part of the exercise. I'm guessing there are not many dissenters in the local chamber of commerce. In Greenland at least, global warming is good business. More to come ...

In case Donald Trump and Big Sugar's dirty political war in Florida hasn't fried your brain: a few words from Greenland ... by gimleteye

July 2013, Eqi glacier photo by Alan Farago

Later this morning, a friend in his small plane is picking me up in Maine. Four hours later, we will be in Labrador, a province on the far eastern coast of Canada. Another four hours, we will have reached a remote mining town in northeastern Canada, and four hours beyond that, on the other side of Baffin Bay: Greenland.

A group of friends made a similar trip to Greenland four years ago.

Here is a link to posts from that visit in July 2013. To those who can't go, the beauty and serenity of Greenland is readily available through photos and videos on the internet. What these don't capture is the remoteness and distance between civilization and the polar extremes.

The northern route on a passenger jet to Europe flies over or within site of Greenland. Because passengers fly by at an altitude of 30,000 feet, Greenland is little more than an afterthought between international airports, baggage carousels, and anticipated destinations that have nothing to do with ice or snow, glacier melt and icebergs. Moving slowly in a small plane from the urbanized east coast, a few thousand feet above a vast Canadian wilderness, the weight of geography begins to sink in. Greenland leaves it imprint on what we take for granted.

According to "May Marks One More Record Hot Month For The World", the warmest May on record blew through the temperature target of 2 degree celsius; established by scientists as a metric to keep the climate from spiraling into the unknown.

"Through April, the global average temperature was 2.6°F (1.45°C) above the average from that earlier period. Nations have agreed to limit carbon dioxide emissions to keep warming under 2°C (4°F) by the end of the century, but have discussed trying to achieve an even more ambitious target of 1.5°C (3°F)."

It is not going to be 113 degrees where I am traveling, but it will bring the dissonances swirling around the refusal of the Republican Party of Florida to acknowledge global warming. GOP leaders including Marco Rubio, Pam Bondi, Gov. Rick Scott and Agriculture Secretary Adam Putnam are part of a brilliantly coordinated disinformation campaign -- straight out of the Donald Trump reality TV / political horror show. They ignore the realities of climate change in our backyards, on our coastlines, and through the massive rainfall and flooding events that are wrecking our rivers, estuaries, bays and Everglades.

To some, it may seem I write only about the Everglades and global warming. Here is how the two are connected. Global warming is the greatest story in the history of the world.  Fixing the Everglades should be the model of science and engineering in the service of a sustainable economy and restored natural resources. That is what is at stake in Everglades restoration. That is the ideal and principle on which billions of taxpayer dollars are being invested.

However, the reality is dismal. Like so many, I am watching the figurative conflagrations within the Republican Party and the literal fires consuming iconic California with a sense of anxiety and alarm.

What is happening in Tallahassee is that politicians afflicted by addiction to campaign cash from Big Sugar -- the same flood of Dark Money the Koch Brothers have been paving the road for anti-science ideologues in the Republican party -- are all-in on the game of kicking the can down the road. The unwillingness and inability of politics to shape itself to an efficient, clear outcome on the Everglades portends poorly for our existential fight on climate change.

There is no Plan B, says the bumper sticker. One of our Everglades advocates, Joe Podgor, said it another way: "Restoring the Everglades is a test. If we pass, we may get to keep the planet." I'll be writing about what the planet looks like from the perspective of Greenland next week.