• Greenland was about 2 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in 1200 AD than it is today (during the height of the Viking settlements)
• The total ice mass is actually increasing

• The glaciers are melting because of Global Warming
• In the last 5 years, the glaciers are melting faster than ever before
• If all the ice melts, the sea level will rise 23 feet

• Greenland was warmer in 1920 than it is today
• In 1200, the whole planet was warmer than it was in 1920
• Because the climate of the North Atlantic area varies independent of the rest of the planet, what happens in Greenland neither supports nor refutes the Global Warming theory

Note that the graph indicates that it is still cooler today that it was in 1200 AD.

The Earth Institute at Columbia University provides

• An NAO temperature chart showing 1860 to 1998
• 2 additional graphics showing that various parts of Greenland are wetter or dryer based on the NOA cycles

The National Weather Service's North Atlantic Oscillation site contains fairly technical data and a few interesting charts.

• Monthly data from 1950 to 2006
• The standardized seasonal mean NAO index (1950-2005) indicates quite clearly that the North Atlantic warmed from 1960 to 1990 and cooled significantly from 1990 to 2005.

The NAO suggests that the Greenland glaciers are currently melting because the area is dryer. In fact, the data shows that the glaciers are melting faster as the North Atlantic is currently getting colder (the exact opposite of what I hear in "news" reports). As a result, the obvious connection between the NAO and melting glaciers must be discredited before any Greenland data can be used to support the Global Warming theory.

A Google search for "North Atlantic Oscillation" (in double quotes) returns about 300,000 hits. However, many of the sites I visited don't show the cooling trend for the last 5 to 10 years. (That's right, the data that supports the "wrong" conclusion is simply missing.)

Global Warming and the Greenland Ice Sheet - March 2004, Climatic Change

A considerable and rapid warming over all of coastal Greenland occurred in the 1920s when the average annual surface air temperature rose between 2 and 4 °C in less than ten years (at some stations the increase in winter temperature was as high as 6 °C). This rapid warming, at a time when the change in anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases was well below the current level, suggests a high natural variability in the regional climate.

Unfortunately, since the full text of this article is $40, I did not read it and the quote above is only from the abstract.

I should also note that many articles in Climatic Change magazine imply that Global Warming is a fact.

MSNBC Feb. 16, 2006 - Greenland's glaciers losing ice at faster rate

Satellite observations indicate that Greenland's glaciers have been dumping ice into the Atlantic Ocean at a rate that's doubled over the past five years

This is the first sentence - it is written to imply it is now too late

[These] conclusions are based on nearly a decade's worth of radar data

This really says it all - predict a 12,000 year climate model on only 10 years worth of data

The Greenland melt currently contributes about two-hundredths of an inch (0.5 millimeters) to the annual 0.12-inch (3-millimeter) rise in global sea levels

Sorry, but I am not going to worry about two-hundredths of an inch per year

Virtually everyone agrees that the complete disappearance of the 2-mile-thick (3-kilometer-thick) Greenland Ice Sheet would cause an estimated 23-foot (7-meter) rise in global sea levels.

Then it continues that it will take centuries for it to melt

The Greenland Ice Sheet's role in climate predictions is not crystal-clear, however. Researchers have to account not only for the loss of ice around the edges of the sheet, but also for the buildup of ice in Greenland's interior.

I was a little surprised to see this statement - it basically says that what happens in Greenland is really irrelevant and it implies that the amount of ice in Greenland may be actually increasing

"industrial greenhouse-gas emissions"

Interesting phrase - the general "scientific" term is "anthropogenic greenhouse gases"

Greenland went through a rapid warming trend starting in the 1920s, which was followed by cooling temperatures.

I have a more complete reference to this above

• Greenland is currently cooling, not warming
• The total ice cover is increasing
• Reduced humidity (not local warming) causes most glaciers to shrink, that is why glaciers are shrinking faster as the temperature drops

URL: http:// questionable-science.com / Global_Warming / Greenland.html