An island made by global warming

[jefferson_dem]

Source: The Independent

An island made by global warming
By Michael McCarthy, Environmental Editor
Published: 24 April 2007

The map of Greenland will have to be redrawn. A new island has appeared off its coast, suddenly separated from the mainland by the melting of Greenland's enormous ice sheet, a development that is being seen as the most alarming sign of global warming.

Several miles long, the island was once thought to be the tip of a peninsula halfway up Greenland's remote east coast but a glacier joining it to the mainland has melted away completely, leaving it surrounded by sea.

Shaped like a three-fingered hand some 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it has been discovered by a veteran American explorer and Greenland expert, Dennis Schmitt, who has named it Warming Island (Or Uunartoq Qeqertoq in Inuit, the Eskimo language, that he speaks fluently).

The US Geological Survey has confirmed its existence with satellite photos, that show it as an integral part of the Greenland coast in 1985, but linked by only a small ice bridge in 2002, and completely separate by the summer of 2005. It is now a striking island of high peaks and rugged rocky slopes plunging steeply to a sea dotted with icebergs.

As the satellite pictures and the main photo which we publish today make clear, Warming Island has been created by a quite undeniable, rapid and enormous physical transformation and is likely to be seen around the world as a potent symbol of the coming effects of climate change.

<SNIP>

Read more: http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2480994.ece

[rodeodance]

1. Ironic that this 'created island"--something Visible--will be the 'potent

symbol of global warming------rather than the all the islands/land that has is disappearing.

[ohio2007]

6. If you melt it ,t hey will come.......

440-carat ruby discovered in Greenland


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c3hCnQXk4c&mode=related&search=

[liberal N proud]

2. Past - Present - Future:

Yesterday under ice, today exposed tomorrow underwater

[truthisfreedom]

7. Yeah, sad, huh? much of that island will disappear in the coming (few?) years.

Who knows how fast it will happen? 2 years? 5 years? 10?

[corporatemedia]

3. This VIDEO of the new island was posted on YouTube on January 21, 2007..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhpwabMaazE

[Flirtus]

13. and that video links to

www.warmingisland.org with even more info

Greenland's ice when melted raises the world's oceans by 23 feet.

[Neshanic]

4. Repubs: "See? Global warming is good, it's making MORE land!"

Soon there will be land ALLLL over...so much we won't know what to do with it.

Of course entire Southern New Jersey will be gone, but who said there was not trade offs.

[ohio2007]

5. hmmm... any Viking settlements in those fjords?

They say the land and oceans were more calm 500 years ago. Greenland reminded them of their native Norway but the life was harsh and they wouldn't adapt to the way the natives survived

[Gregorian]

8. I was furious yesterday.

I see earth day as hypocritical, and a total and complete waste of time. I see it as nothing more than a feel good symbol.

To me earth day is like painting a car that has a blown engine.

I doubt people will understand my rage. I think so many people see good in things positive. I don't. I see good in acts that accomplish real objectives.

I want change. I want it now. I don't want to wait until there is a crisis.


It's time to start talking about limiting family size AND allotting BTU's.

We either change now, or we go down. We don't need technology to start the change.

Also, we need to implement a system of carbon footprint units on products. Some grapes are flown from across the planet. Some are grown locally. We need to know. It needs to be on products.

It's time to be proactive and intelligent. And not concerned with what our "rights" are. Our rights mean nothing when we're all treading water.

PS- I bike ride with another mechanical engineer. The guy is in denial that global warming even exists. If engineers aren't in agreement, we're in BIG trouble.



Edit- Two examples of things I've seen just this week. I'm in a Porsche forum. The 928 is celebrating the 30th year of it's unveiling. Members of that forum are already scheduling flights to Germany for the celebration. Weeee! Off we go! I say it's fucking brainless. I belong to a bike forum. There's a thread about riding the fantastic 401 trail in Crested Butte. There are members who can't break up their schedule of traveling to even travel to it. Oh, I'm in Bali that week. I even have a friend who is a big bicycle frame designer. He's back and forth between Santa Cruz and his new home in Taiwan. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And in case it sounds overly hypocritical of me to have a sports car, I have had it three years and driven it 400 miles. I had to have it towed home because the gas gauge reads 1/3 full all of the time and I ran out of fuel, because I drive it so seldomly.

OK, enough. No one cares enough to sacrifice. I'll just go back to my espresso. :) I love DU. Don't let me alienate myself.

[ramapo]

9. I was thinking the same thing

Earth Day is a bad joke. The Climate Concerts (or whatever they're being called) are just as bad. Everybody can drive their SUVs to Giants Stadium here in NJ and feel good that they're in tune with climate change/global warming. Raising awareness?

Save the Earth...as long as I don't have to change a single, blessed thing about my life.

[Gregorian]

10. The real earth days are Christmas and Superbowl Sunday.

Having closely observed with my eyes and ears, I can say without any doubt that those two days are when the fewest cars are on the road. People stop and sit. Those were the two days I could actually go outside when I lived in the San Francisco bay area. The huge low frequency rumble was gone. The streets, quiet.

[Blue_Tires]

12. very true nt

[IndianaGreen]

11. very striking picture