The Fate of Greenland: Lessons from Abrupt Climate Change
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About this book
Viewed from above Greenland offers an endless vista of whiteness interrupted only byscattered ponds of azure-colored melt water. Ninety percent of Greenland is covered by ice; its icesheet the largest outside Antarctica stretches almost 1 000 miles from north to south and 600miles from east to west. But this stark view of ice and snow is changing -- and changing rapidly.Greenlands ice sheet is melting; the dazzling photogenic display of icebergs breaking offGreenlands rapidly melting glaciers has become a tourist attraction. The Fate ofGreenland documents Greenlands warming with dramatic color photographs and investigatesepisodes in Greenlands climate history for clues about what happens when climate change is abruptrather than gradual. Greenlands climate past and present could presage ourclimate future. Abrupt climate change would be cataclysmic: the melting of Greenlands ice shelfwould cause sea levels to rise twenty-four feet worldwide; lower Manhattan would be underwater andFloridas coastline would recede to Orlando. The planet appears to be in a period of acute climateinstability exacerbated by carbon dioxide we pour into the atmosphere. As this book makes clear itis in all of our interests to pay attention to Greenland.
