Latest news with #Bierman
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Researchers uncover growing dangers lurking beneath Greenland's ice: 'Damaging critical infrastructure'
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has not been coy about its interest in Greenland — not only for its strategic value, but for its plethora of oil and minerals. During the congressional hearing on the world's largest island, however, no one seemed concerned about the rapidly melting ice and whether it could prove to be a huge oversight. Greenland has been losing ice mass at an increasingly accelerated rate since 2002, according to NASA. Geoscientist Paul Bierman pointed out, in an article published by The Conversation, that the climate change-induced phenomenon has created landslide-prone terrain that would make any sort of extraction dangerous. Per the speed at which the Arctic climate is warming is four times faster than the rest of the world, which only exacerbates the degree of risk, both economic and personal, to pull resources. Bierman, who studies the environmental history of Greenland, emphasized how unpredictable the land is, often called the "land of extremes." The harsh climate and massive ice sheet create natural hazards that have grown exponentially worse as the planet continues to get warmer each year. Bierman wrote, "As the climate warms, permafrost — frozen rock and soil — which underlies the island, thaws. This destabilizes the landscape, weakening steep slopes and damaging critical infrastructure." Rockslides are capable of triggering catastrophic tsunamis, some of which have taken out nearby villages. With the constant threat of landslides, the conditions are uncertain at best, deadly at worst. Because of the land's instability, the infrastructure for what the United States has in mind simply doesn't exist. In fact, the article stated, "Greenland's government banned drilling for fossil fuels in 2021 out of concern for the environment." There are no routes connecting the coastal communities. Exporting minerals and oil would have to be done by sea, which would leave equipment and operations vulnerable to the elements, including icebergs, which are more prevalent with the warmer temperatures. The monumental risk and cost must be taken into consideration with the future in mind. What source of air pollution do you worry most about at home? Wildfires Gas stove Fireplace Something else Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. What's happening in Greenland isn't just devastating locally — it's bad news for all of us. When ice melts into the ocean, sea levels rise. This causes coastal erosion, threatens fresh water, and impacts ecosystems globally. If all of Greenland were to melt, it would raise the global sea level by around 23 feet, as the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported. Furthermore, the melting ice is being replaced by vegetation growth, creating a wetland of methane production. Methane has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide in its first 20 years in the atmosphere, per the Environmental Defense Fund. This is a direct cause of human-induced changes to the climate, which propel extreme weather events. Scientists and researchers are keeping a keen eye on Greenland, but to prevent a total meltdown, global temperatures need to go down, which will require a massive reduction of planet-warming pollution. That means less production and use of dirty energy and more focus on clean energy sources, like solar, wind, and hydro. Individually, it's important to educate yourself on critical climate issues. Being a part of the solution starts with understanding the problem. Use less plastic, walk when you can, use your car as efficiently as possible, and support circular brands to reduce your carbon impact. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
National Geographic
28-01-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
What this secret nuclear base in Greenland can tell us about climate change
While Kovacs focused on his research, other men serviced the reactor or studied the movements of snow. At the bottom of the base, one team was busy drilling a hole deep into the ice. In 1966, after several years of steady labor, the men punched through the bottom of the glacier to the very surface of Greenland itself. They'd drilled more than 4,000 feet, gathering in the process the first ice core to ever penetrate an ice sheet. And almost on a whim they went farther too, collecting 11 and a half feet of ancient, frozen soil. They only stopped when a drill bearing burned out. That soil would form one of Camp Century's most haunting legacies—though at the time no one thought much of it. For years after the base was abandoned, the soil was stored in jars in a freezer in Buffalo, New York, before being moved to a freezer in Denmark. There was little to suggest that something enlightening might be inside those jars—and few if any tools could help unlock their significance. It was only in 2019 that Paul Bierman, a geoscientist and professor at the University of Vermont, and several of his colleagues began to study the contents of the jars. What they found has revolutionized our understanding of Greenland's ancient climate—and offered a glimpse of our own possible future. Trapped in the soil, Bierman's team discovered, were bits of leaves, twigs, mosses, even insects. The remains could only have come from a time when the region was free of ice, not smothered in a mile-thick glacier. The discovery painted a new picture of Greenland's past. 'There are things we can learn about ice sheets that we can never learn from the ice itself,' says Bierman. 'It comes from the stuff below the ice.' The soil samples provoked a radical departure from earlier, vaguer thinking that Greenland's ice cap was a couple of million years old. Working with dozens of other scholars, Bierman showed that the ice cap was younger than anyone had imagined—the soil providing evidence that the land under Camp Century was ice-free about 400,000 years ago, during a period in which the landmass had been slightly warmer than it is today and when sea levels were significantly higher. What emerges from the data, he explains, isn't merely an image of the past but also, perhaps, a clearer vision of a future in which quadrillions of gallons of fresh water currently locked up in the Greenland ice cap melt into the ocean. If that happens, the impacts will be felt nearly everywhere, as coastal cities and farms are inundated, potentially turning billions of humans into climate refugees. 'It's easy to compartmentalize Greenland—to say, 'Oh, that's the Arctic. It doesn't matter to me,' ' says Bierman. But the long-forgotten soil from Camp Century draws a straight line to the critical issue of our age. 'It takes you from 1966 to global climate change and onward to the effects of Greenland's melting. That's pretty profound.'
