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Baked Alaska
mithras the prophet writes "Global warming stories usually focus on the hotbutton politics, scientific debate, or latest disturbing anecdote of receding ice. A very interesting New York Times story takes a different tack, highlighting the reality of climate change for small-town Alaskans. Whatever the cause, temperatures in Alaska have risen by seven degrees in the last 30 years. This has very real consequences for ordinary citizens; the rest of us would do well to consider their stories. Lucy Eningowuk and her 600 fellow citizens of Shishmaref will vote next week whether to move their town to the mainland. Despite community efforts, thawing of permafrost and wave action from melting ice has eroded away most of the land the village is built on. Residents of Barrow (warning: MIDI-enabled page), on the North Shore, are swatting mosquitos for the first time in their lives. In an ironic twist, managers of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline are putting in supports to keep the pipeline from breaking as permafrost thaws."
Ever wonder why Greenland is called Greenland? Hint: it used to be a greener when they named it a few centuries back.
Bzzzzzt! Try again. Erik the Red called it Greenland in an attempt to make it sound more attractive to the settlers he was trying to convince to migrate there.
Edith Keeler Must Die
Actually, I thought it was the other way around. They had found iceland, but no one wanted to go because they thought it was a big floating block of ice. They found greenland next, and named it such to entice those who would be willing to go..
I'm sick of all the global-warming deniers who say that just because the climate fluctuates over long time scales, we aren't having an effect on the planet.
Couldn't have put it better myself - please mod the parent up!
True. That is some evidence that the increase in the number of ice cream cones sold in New York is related to the rise of global temperatures.