The conference I am attending will begin later today.
The inland ice and sea ice in Greenland continues to melt. The development creates both challenges and opportunities for the Greenlandic society and the rest of the Arctic. Scientist from more than 15 countries will gather in Ilulissat June 2-5 to take the pulse on the changes of the inland ice and sea ice in Greenland and discuss the consequences. The conference begins with an open event in Ilulissat Hall with both Greenlandic and international talks (interpretation to Greenlandic is being planned).
The melting of the inland ice and the withdrawal of sea ice in Greenland continue. This is shown by satellite and flight measurements through several years. Even though Greenland has had cold winters the past years, the summer periods have given a record-breaking melting of several icebergs.
Special focus on the consequences for the Greenlandic population
More than 180 participants from most of the world will meet in Ilulissat June 2-5 to exchange the latest knowledge about the changes of the Greenlandic ice masses.”Ilulissat Climate Days was originally planned as a smaller workshop related to collaborations with Nordic partners and the European Space Agency regarding Greenland. The expansion of the workshop to an international conference once again confirms the large international political and research interest in understanding changes in the Arctic sea and land ice,” says René Forsberg, professor at DTU Space and main organizer of the conference.
Locally in Greenland the melting is reflected by increased risk of flooding and longer periods of unstable foundation which some places have devastating consequences for constructed roads and buildings. Also globally the impact of the melting is being felt through the increasing of the sea water level.
On the other hand the smaller amount of sea ice creates opportunities for the Greenlandic population in the form of increasing accessibility and new business opportunities within extraction of raw materials, fishing and tourism.
”Ilulissat Climate Days is a follow-up on the similar event Nuuk Climate Days 2009, which attracted over 150 scientists and political stakeholders. Once again we wish to address the future changes of the ice in and around Greenland with a special focus on the consequences for the Greenlandic people,” says René Forsberg.
Below – you may not have heard of Ilullisat, but if you’ve seen pictures of Greenland glaciers and icebergs, quite likely they were taken near here. A gigantic calving event of the nearby Ilulissat glacier was the centerpiece of the “Chasing Ice” movie :
Latest graph over at NSIDC shows Arctic sea ice extent has dropped below 2 standard deviations from the 30 year average again.
If this keeps up, we could see another record low. NSIDC has started tracking sea ice volume in near-realtime and THAT should be very interesting to see.
2015 may indeed show us a record low for Arctic sea ice extent and volume as well as record high global temperatures. The Greenland ice sheet may also start to go over the cliff more rapidly. Those are my two personal “canaries in the coal mine”.
I have tried many times to get our resident village idiot paid denier Russell Cook to engage on the actual topic of global warming as it relates to exponential Arctic sea ice decline, but he just keeps chanting “prove it, prove it, prove it” about how deniers are not whores for the fossil fuel interests. Since he is a propagandist that has little science knowledge, I guess that’s to be expected.
PS I mention Russell only because of the contrast between what is likely to occur at the Ilullisat Climate Days conference and what takes place at the Heartland conferences Russell attends. Ilullisat will likely give us much truth, while Heartland and Russell will continue to provide lies.