Warming Island

1
Warming Island
2
Warming Island
New York Times, Jan. 16, 2007 John Collins Rudolf
A peninsula long thought to be part of Greenl
ands mainland turned out to be an island when a
glacier retreated The ominous implications a
re not lost on Dennis Schmitt, who says he
hopes that the island he discovered in Greenland
in September will become an international symbol
of the effects of climate change. Mr. Schmitt,
who speaks Inuit, has provisionally named it
Uunartoq Qeqertoq the warming island.
3
Warming Island
I wrote a story about the new island for The New
York Times, which my editors gave the dramatic
title The Warming of Greenland. Dozens, and
eventually hundreds of newspapers around the
world picked up the story. A short video posted
on the Internet by my fellow expedition member
Eric Ristau also drew attention, with clips
appearing on ABC, BBC, CBC, ITV and many local
affiliates. In May 2007, Dennis Schmitt returned
to Warming Island with Anderson Cooper of CNN for
a live broadcast about climate change. When I
received an email in June 2007 from a 10-year-old
boy in Monaco who was making his class science
project about Warming Island, I realized we had
impacted the thinking on climate change and the
Arctic in a special way. -John Collins Rudolf
4
Warming Island
5
Warming Island
From www.warmingisland.org For unknown
centuries, the island had been bound to the
mainland by a glacial shelf, and was represented
on maps of the area as the tip of the peninsula.
Now, due to rising Arctic temperatures, the ice
shelf had shattered into icebergs and the glacier
was in retreat, uncovering the hidden sea beneath
and revealing a new island.
Sept. 5, 2002
Sept. 4, 2005
Aug. 11, 1985
New York Times, Jan. 16, 2007 A peninsula long
thought to be part of Greenland's mainland turned
out to be an island when a glacier retreated.
(source USGS Landsat photos)
6
Warming Island
7
Warming Island
For unknown centuries, the island had been bound
to the mainland by a glacial shelf
Aug. 11, 1985
Sept. 4, 2005
??
8
Arctic Riviera by E. Hofer, 1957
Ernst Hofer spent 4 summers in the early 1950s in
eastern Greenland serving as an aerial
photographer to support ground-based geologic
research and mapping efforts. Hofer spent many
hours flying over the vicinity of warming
island. His favorite photos were reproduced in
his book, Arctic Riviera. The map, on the books
first page, was meant for setting the book rather
than for navigational purposes, but clearly,
Hofer presents warming island as an island back
in the early 1950s. There were likely few people
with as much first-hand knowledge of the
geography of eastern Greenland at the time than
Ernst Hofer.
9
Warming Island in the early 1950s
North East Greenland
Warming Island
(Source Arctic Riviera, E.Hofer, 1957)