Earth Equity News

Greenland's Giant Island of Ice Could Threaten Offshore Platforms. By Karl Ritter, AP, August 8, 2010. "It's been a summer of near Biblical climatic havoc across the planet, with wildfires raging in Russia and floods claiming lives across Asia. But the moment the Petermann glacier cracked -- giving birth to the biggest Arctic ice island in half-century -- may symbolize a warming world like no other... Few images can capture the world's climate fears like a 100 square mile (260 sq. kilometre) chunk of ice breaking off Greenland's vast ice sheet, a reservoir of freshwater that if it collapsed would raise global sea levels by a devastating 20 feet (6 metres)... Greenland's glaciers pump out thousands of icebergs into Arctic waters every year, but scientists say this is the biggest in the northern hemisphere since 1962. It stores enough freshwater to keep the Hudson River flowing for more than two years... Researchers are in a scramble to plot the trajectory of the floating ice shelf, which is drifting toward the Nares Strait separating Greenland's northwestern coast and Canada's Ellsemere Island. If it makes it into the strait before the winter freeze -- due to start next month -- it would likely be carried south by ocean currents, hugging Canada's east coast until it enters waters busy with oil exploration and shipping off Newfoundland."