Greenland is a key area in the global climate process. The Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest body of freshwater ice in the northern hemisphere. In recent years it has become very clear that global warming is causing the ice sheet to lose mass. Increased melting and ice discharge would have major consequences for global sea level. The warming climate is also already having a considerable impact on the lifestyle of the people of Greenland.
During the next few weeks the Ice Blog will be written from an expedition to Greenland, beginning with a visit to Zackenberg Research Station in remote North Eastern Greenland. Zackenberg is an ecosystem research and monitoring facility at 74°30’N/21°W. The station is owned by the Greenland Home Rule and is operated by the National Environmental Research Institute.
The Ice Blogger will also be visiting the interior ice sheet and the coastal glaciers, finding out first hand about the work of scientists monitoring climate change and its effects, the latest research results, and the implications both for the people of Greenland and for the rest of the world.
Deutsche Welle’s Ice Blog is part of an international broadcasting collaboration to mark the International Polar Year, partly founded by the National Science Foundation. I am extremely grateful to the NSF, Moira Rankine of Soundprint Media Inc. USA who coordinates the international project and my own organisation Deutsche Welle for making all this possible.

I have mixed feelings about what has been happening at the G8 summit. On the one hand, agreeing on the 2 degree limit and including the key players India and China is definitely positive and a step in the right direction. But it comes very late – and we still don’t know how we’re actually going to get there.
WWF’s climate and energy chief Regine Günther came out with the adaptation of the Neil Armstrong quote I’ve used in the title. An 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is all very well, she says, but there’s still ambiguity about the reference year and no clear 2020 goal.
Of course we know this is especially to accommodate US President Barack Obama. He wants more time to get regenerative energy in place and do a bit more PR at home. By comparison with the bad ol’ Bush years, we have to be thankful the new administration has finally brought the US on board the climate ship. But time is running out.
According to the EU, to keep the temperature rise to a maximum 2°C (which would already have disastrous consequences for people in some areas of the globe), emissions would have to peak by 2020 and be halved by 2050 as against 1990 levels.
The Arctic sea ice is melting – decreasing in surface area and thickness – at an alarming rate. (Well it alarms a lot of us, anyway).
The Greenland Ice Sheet – the largest body of freshwater ice in the northern hemisphere – is losing mass. Leading ice scientist Dorthe Dahl-Jensen describes the ice sheet as the “awakening giant”. Increased melting and ice discharge would have major consequences for global sea level. Greenland is a key area in the global climate process. The warming climate is also already having a considerable impact on the lifestyle of the people of Greenland.
And that is why I’ll be spending the next 3 weeks travelling in Greenland, interviewing scientists and locals about what’s happening to the climate there, how we measure this and likely consequences for the population of Greenland and the areas of the world whose coastal areas are likely to “go under”.

People have been asking why there have be no ice blog entries for a few weeks. Sorry, but I have been out of action. Yes, I know, we missed lots of opportunities to talk about the latest climate change developments, from international politics to alarming sea ice measurements and a record number of species under threat. But – sadly – these problems will stay with us for quite some time to come, so we’ll still have plenty of opportunities for debate.
A quick reply to KwanLam Wong, who has been asking how he can contribute to the blog from California. Please keep following it and commenting Kwanlam, and keep us posted on how climate change is affecting California. Your state’s financial problems seem to have been stealing the limelight (as well as Michael Jackon, of course). Otherwise California has the reputation of being a leader in the USA on environmental issues. How do you see that from the inside? An as an architect, are you designing buildings with a minimal environmental impact?
The big Ice Blog news is that I am off to GREENLAND, via Iceland next Monday. That will be my 3rd Arctic trip. More in the Ice Blog in the days to come.

The latest round of UN climate talks are underway here in Bonn.
I came across this “beggar” outside the swish hotel in Bonn where the conference is taking place. I think his motto says it all:

Apologies from the Ice-Blogger for a lack of news over the past couple of weeks. I have been away on climate-related business, visiting a couple of renewable energy projects, one in southern, one in northern Ireland.
The first involves a resource that is more than common in Ireland:

These are graduate scientists from University College Dublin, out in the field at Oak Park, the National Centre for Arable Crops Research, near Carlow. They are monitoring the progress of different types of grass, with the ultimate aim of finding out whether they can be used viably to produce energy in the form of bio-gas. I’ll have a bit more to say about this and Ireland’s attempts to reduce emissions by using bio-energy soon. I talked to Dr. John Finnan from the Centre, Dr. Cara Augustenborg from UCD (you may remember Cara as the Irish “climate ambassador” on the Climate Change College Arctic field trip) and Professor Christoph Müller, from UCD.I also talked to the researchers pictured here braving the wet and windy Irish weather.
There’s more information on the UCD projects here:

More information on the UCD bioenergy project

The Centre’s website is also worth a click:
Oak Park Crop Research Website

More on this and the project in northern Ireland, which involves the world’s first commercially viable tidal generator, located in Strangford Lough, over the next couple of days.
Meanwhile, thanks to Donna for encouraging comments on the Ice Blog, and to my Irish colleague Mary P. (let me know if you’re happy for your name to be mentioned), a committed environment journalist I met on my trip, who also tells me she likes the blog.Thanks for some interesting conversations on the state of the planet and just how much of the land we would have to use if we wanted to supply Ireland with electricity from biomass, Mary. You are a kindred spirit and I look forward to a continuing exchange of views.
More on the “Irish Projects” soon…