On Svalbard, 600 Miles From N. Pole, Glacier Disappears, Birds Return Early - Reuters

[hatrack]

INSIDE LONGYEARBYEN GLACIER, Norway (Reuters) - A Norwegian glacier has shrunk on an island 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, a usually frozen fjord is ice-free and snow bunting birds have migrated back early in possible signs of global warming. At the tail end of the Arctic winter, polar sea ice extends less far south than normal around the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in what may be linked to a warming widely blamed on greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels.

EDIT

Snow buntings, which arrive from Siberia at the end of the winter, turned up about a week earlier than normal. Little auks also migrated to the islands early, residents say.

People have been little affected by the melt. The main business is a coal mine and food is imported from the Norwegian mainland to the south. Buildings are already built on high stilts to protect against any thaw of permafrost.

The Norwegian Polar Institute says that a melt of glaciers in western Svalbard, such as Longyearbyen glacier, has clearly accelerated in recent years. Others have held their ground.

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKL2550064920070426

[phantom power]

1. It may be linked.

It might. Just maybe. It is, after all, widely blamed on GHGs. But not by everybody. No, no.

Teach the controversy.
:eyes: