Thursday, July 05, 2007
Back when Greenland was green
On the one hand, it is now obvious that there is no a priori reason why Greenland "should" be covered with ice, even if we consider all human-induced change to be deleterious.
Ice-covered Greenland really was green a half-million or so years ago, covered with forests in a climate much like that of Sweden and eastern Canada today.
An international team of researchers recovered ancient DNA from the bottom of an ice core that indicates the presence of pine, yew and alder trees as well as insects.
On the other hand, all of human settlement has occurred since that time, much of it in reliance on the sea-level that has prevailed for only the last four centuries.
7 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Jul 05, 04:30:00 PM:
Suppose we were able to eliminate *all* greenhouse gasses emitted by human activity. When the climates changes, as it has constantly done over the last few billion years, what then?
How is it established what is the "normal" and "ideal" climate?
RPD
By 
Purple Avenger, at
Thu Jul 05, 04:41:00 PM:
How is it established what is the "normal" and "ideal" climate?
Just use the time tested scientific method of "make shit up".
By , at
Thu Jul 05, 10:26:00 PM:
Excerpts from the BBC website, an article dated 9-7-2004:
North Pole 'was once subtropical'
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent
An international scientific team which has been drilling beneath the bed of the Arctic Ocean says it enjoyed a sub-tropical climate 55 million years ago...It says fossilised algae in the cores show the sea temperature was once about 20C, instead of the average now, -1.5C...The cores they have extracted show the Arctic Ocean was once a subtropical, shallow sea. The evidence, Acex says, is in the form of tiny algal fossils found in the cores, which were once marine plants and animals...They date back to a period known as the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum, a brief period that occurred around 55m years ago...It was characterized by an extremely warm climate that created a natural greenhouse effect, which caused massive amounts of carbon to be deposited in both sea and air...
Atmospheric carbon levels then are thought to have been about 2-3,000 parts per million (ppm), compared with almost 380 ppm today.
The algae found in the Lomonosov cores, which lived only in subtropical conditions, prove how warm the Arctic once was, Acex says. It says the ocean's temperature was once similar to the waters off New York in August.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3631764.stm
Published: 2004/09/07 10:13:54 GMT
-Mystery Meat
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Thu Jul 05, 10:52:00 PM:
We need to start using rickshaws in our major cities. More employment. Less pollution.
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Thu Jul 05, 10:55:00 PM:
DEC: ;-)
I suspect stability of weather has some advantage for human survival. Tough thing to ask of the earth, though.
By , at
Fri Jul 06, 12:49:00 AM:
Yeah they did,nt call it GREENLAND for nothing it was green at one time but if you lstened to the eco-wackos you would think it was a real estate trick
By , at
Fri Jul 06, 06:40:00 AM:
It's nice to see Greenland finally getting itself into the news. I've been posting this here and there for over a year.
