For Ole Egede warmer temperatures in Greenland mean his potato farm, the country's largest, will continue to thrive. For Stefan Magnusson, they mean extended grazing seasons for his reindeer who will become fatter before being killed. Magnusson's farm features a glacier that has retreated 300 feet in the past 10 years.
According to a thorough article by Lauren Etter in the July 18 Wall Street Journal, though 80 perecent of Greenland is ice-covered, the joint is warming up--more than 2.7 F degrees over the past 30 years. Farmers are planting broccoli, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage, those crops the rest of us thought were cold weather plants in the first place. And they are looking to grow strawberries and apples if the heat wave continues.
Warm water cod are arriving in droves now, too, though shrimp--the big island's biggest export--prefer colder water. The thinning ice is hard on polar bears, however, as well as their pursuers.
Siberia and Canada are hopeful, too.
Posted by: Cynthia | July 28, 2006 at 09:44 AM
That's good news indeed. Because when the Gulf Stream collapses due to the melting glaciers, we won't be able to grow anything here. So Greenland can make up the diff!
See? Global warming's not so bad after all!
Although with temperatures in the 90s it is hard to imagine having to buy clothes for 20 below.
Posted by: KathyF | July 25, 2006 at 11:55 PM