[Vision2020] Paleoclimate of Greenland Ice: Ice Free Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum & Human Greenhouse Gas Emission Rate: Was: World's Largest Island Close to Independence

nickgier at roadrunner.com nickgier at roadrunner.com
Thu Jul 9 08:00:14 PDT 2009


Hi Ted,

Thanks for the slight correction.  I will now move GOP mind-set and Greenland's forests to the Middle Pleistocene.

Nick

---- Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com> wrote: 
> According to a "Science" journal article from July 6, 2007, data is
> presented suggesting southern Greenland was forest covered less than a
> million years ago, between 450,000 to 800,000 years ago:
> 
> http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/317/5834/111
> 
> From article above:
> 
> It is difficult to obtain fossil data from the 10% of Earth's terrestrial
> surface that is covered by thick glaciers and ice sheets, and hence,
> knowledge of the paleoenvironments of these regions has remained limited. We
> show that DNA and amino acids from buried organisms can be recovered from
> the basal sections of deep ice cores, enabling reconstructions of past flora
> and fauna. We show that high-altitude southern Greenland, currently lying
> below more than 2 kilometers of ice, was inhabited by a diverse array of
> conifer trees and insects within the past million years.
> --------------
> Article on these findings above:
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6276576.stm
> --------------
> As to when the last time Greenland was mostly or entirely ice free, the
> research presented in this "Nature" journal article June 27, 2008, suggests
> it was around 3 million years ago:
> 
> http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7208/abs/nature07223.html
> 
> It is thought1,
> <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7208/full/nature07223.html#B1>2<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7208/full/nature07223.html#B2>that
> the Northern Hemisphere experienced only ephemeral glaciations from
> the
> Late Eocene to the Early Pliocene epochs (about 38 to 4 million years ago),
> and that the onset of extensive glaciations did not occur until about 3
> million years ago3,
> <http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7208/full/nature07223.html#B3>4<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v454/n7208/full/nature07223.html#B4>
> .
> ------------------
> http://www.livescience.com/environment/080827-greenland-ice.html
> 
> From article above on the "Nature" journal article on this subject:
> 
> Around 3 million years ago, there was an increase in the amount of rock and
> debris deposited on the ocean floor around Greenland. The stuff must have
> been deposited by ice that had originated on land and then become icebergs,
> indicating that large amounts of ice on Greenland only began to form around
> that time, scientists say.
> 
> "Prior to that, Greenland was largely ice-free and probably covered in grass
> and forest," said Dan Lunt of the University of Bristol in England.
> ------------------
> The Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum, about 55-6 million years ago, featured
> a world with no ice caps at all:
> 
> http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/316/5824/587
> 
> From "Science" journal article above:
> 
> The Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) has been attributed to a sudden
> release of carbon dioxide and/or methane. 40Ar/39Ar age determinations show
> that the Danish Ash-17 deposit, which overlies the PETM by about 450,000
> years in the Atlantic, and the Skraenterne Formation Tuff, representing the
> end of 1 ± 0.5 million years of massive volcanism in East Greenland,
> are coeval.
> The relative age of Danish Ash-17 thus places the PETM onset after the
> beginning of massive flood basalt volcanism at 56.1 ± 0.4 million years ago
> but within error of the estimated continental breakup time of 55.5 ± 0.3
> million years ago, marked by the eruption of mid-ocean ridge basalt–like flows.
> These correlations support the view that the PETM was triggered by
> greenhouse gas release during magma interaction with basin-filling
> carbon-rich sedimentary rocks proximal to the embryonic plate boundary
> between Greenland and Europe.
> ------------------
> 
> Article below ("Nature" journal, Jan. 17, 2008) suggests that current
> anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are at a rate that "almost equals"
> the greenhouse gas release rate that triggered the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal
> Maximum:
> 
> http://es.ucsc.edu/%7Ejzachos/pubs/Zachos_Dickens_Zeebe_08.pdf<http://es.ucsc.edu/~jzachos/pubs/Zachos_Dickens_Zeebe_08.pdf>
> 
> From article above:
> 
> The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum lasted around 20,000 years, and was
> superimposed on a 6 million year period of more gradual global
> warming,[6]peaking later in the Eocene at the "Eocene climatic optimum".
> Other "hyperthermal" events can be recognised during this period of cooling,
> including the Elmo event (ETM2). During these events, of which the PETM was
> by far the most severe, around 1,500 to 2,000 gigatons of carbon were
> released into the ocean/atmosphere system over the course of 1,000 years.
> This rate of carbon addition almost equals the rate at which carbon is being
> released into the atmosphere today through anthropogenic activity.
> ------------------------------------------
> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
> 
> On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 12:03 PM, <nickgier at roadrunner.com> wrote:
> 
> > Greetings:
> >
> > This is my radio commentary/column for this week.  I think the Danish queen
> > may have overdone it a little bit by showing up in Inuit costume, complete
> > with sealskin pants and boots.
> >
> > For a picture of Queen Margrethe II handing over power see the full
> > version, attached as a PDF file.
> >
> > Nick Gier
> >
> > WORLD'S LARGEST AND COLDEST ISLAND CLOSER TO INDEPENDENCE
> >
> > Adding to the ignorance many Republicans display about global warming,
> > party chairman Michael Steele recently pontificated that Greenland got its
> > name because it was once just as green as Iceland was.
> >
> > When Iceland was settled in the 9th Century, glaciers covered only 10
> > percent of the land mass, but Greenland's ice sheet extended over 80 percent
> > of the island.  Fugitive Eric the Red told tall tales about verdant
> > landscapes in order to get people to settle there.
> >
> > Greenland was heavily forested one million years ago; and, come to think of
> > it, Early Pleistocene would be a good way to describe many GOP personalities
> > and policies.
> >
> > The Norse emigrants (5,000 at their peak) eked out a living in the warming
> > period before the "Little Ice Age" cooled the Northern Hemisphere during the
> > 15th-18th Centuries. Ice eventually blocked the fjord to the Western
> > Settlement and all the people there died by 1350.  The last recorded event
> > in the Eastern Settlement was a wedding in 1408.
> >
> > On orders from their bishop, the Norsemen were forbidden to trade with or
> > learn from the Inuit.  Rather than sewing warm clothing from skins, the
> > settlers  insisted on wearing the latest European fashions.
> >
> > The first recorded encounter found the Norsemen stabbing captive natives to
> > see how they would bleed.  Understandably, the Intuit fought back and the
> > Norsemen, desperately recycling worn-out iron implements and weapons, simply
> > could not defend, let alone, feed themselves.
> >
> > Denmark took over the island in the early 18th Century and ruled it until
> > the Greenlanders were granted home rule in 1979. The Danish colonists
> > survived primarily because they dressed, ate, and transported themselves as
> > the Inuit did.
> >
> > Greenland's oil and mineral reserves are massive, and Canadian, Danish, and
> > Russian military ships are staking out new Arctic oil fields.  It is
> > estimated that Greenland alone may have 50 billion barrels.
> >
> > In the November 2008 election, 76 percent of Greenlanders voted for
> > independence, and last month the Danish government handed over control of
> > everything except defense, currency, and foreign policy.
> >
> > Dressed in native costume complete with seal skin pants and boots, Queen
> > Margrethe II of Denmark made it official in a ceremony in Nuuk, the island's
> > capital.  The country will now be called Kalaallit Nunaat (Land of the
> > Greenlanders) and Kalaallisut will become the official language.
> >
> > The 2008 election also saw the turning out of Social Democrats, who had
> > dominated the Kalaallit parliament for 30 years.  Their members had lived it
> > up a little too much in the bars and restaurants of Copenhagen.
> >
> > The Socialist Party, led by people in their 20s and 30s, received 44
> > percent of the vote.  American defense officials were relieved to hear that
> > the new prime minister Kuupik Kleist will allow the U.S. to stay at its base
> > in Thule, which is now part of America's missile defense system.
> >
> > In 2007 the increase in temperatures on Kalaallit, depending on the
> > location, was a dramatic 2.3-4.8 degrees Fahrenheit. All of Kalaallit's
> > glaciers are in major retreat and the largest, the Jakobshavn Glacier, has,
> > according to Oregon State scientists, "nearly doubled its flow speed in the
> > past decade."
> >
> > In 2007 24 cubic miles of the ice sheet broke off into the sea.  The
> > melting and breaking up of Kalaallit ice is responsible for a quarter of the
> > alarming increase in sea levels since 1996.
> >
> > Global warming is bad news for Kalaallit's people in the north.  Their life
> > style, which depends on hunting and traveling on ice, has been severely
> > disrupted, not only for Greenlanders but Arctic people all across the top of
> > the world.
> >
> > With 56,000 people Kalaallit will be the 9th smallest country in the world,
> > but most of those in group (South Pacific and Caribbean islands, Monaco, and
> > Liechtenstein) are doing quite well despite their size.  We should wish the
> > people of Kalaalit the very best in their new adventures in nationhood.
> >
> > Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.
> >
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