"How It Is [in Greenland]"

August 16, 2019 Update: According to Jon Henley in today's The Guardian "Donald Trump may have expressed an interest in acquiring Greenland for the US, but Denmark thinks the idea is frankly insane and Greenlanders have pointed out their home is not actually for sale." The article continues "'It must be an April Fools’ Day joke … but totally out of season,' tweeted the former prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen." See this Sept. 20, 2018, Greenland Melting (360°) | FRONTLINE interactive video for a "360-degree documentary" report of the melting ice.

Seth Doane at cbsnews.com reported "Søren Espersen, a member of Denmark's parliament joked Friday [. . .] 'Maybe we should buy California.'"

This week Greenland melting is in major news headlines, on video news, and on the radio. Bill McKibben's Twitter page linked a story from DW noting  "The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Twitter that this year's July had 'rewritten climate history books.' And what's more, it came after the hottest-ever June [in Europe]." News media including The New York Times, euronews.com, reuters.com, nationalgeographic.com, and cbc.ca (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) reported that heatwave moved north over Greenland. Jason Box spoke about this August 2, 2019, on Democracy Now! 

As a reminder, President Niinistö of Finland said in a Joint Press Conference with President Trump, August 28,2017, “If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe.” Scientists report a loss of Arctic ice means "less than 1 million square kilometers" [or 386,102 square miles] "because it is very difficult to melt the thick ice around the Canadian Arctic Archipelago" according to Wiki. Loss of Arctic ice brings concerns of rapid global heating and less food production short-term, and increased risk of sea level rise and more climate refugees long-term.

Below is a repost of my poem from my 2015 book Industrial Oz.  As you can see, I was more hopeful in 2015. Below that is a repost of Ludovico Einaudi - "Elegy for the Arctic" Video (1,797,334 views as of August 2, 2019).

In a related matter, here is a video for my friends and students misled to believe sunspots cause climate change.

How It Is

“For several days this month, Greenland’s surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations.”

—Maria-Joseé Vinñas, NASA’s Earth Science News Team, July 24,2012, at www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/greenland-melt.html

Sometimes you forget Greenland exists

like two pages stuck together in a novel

or a speed sign missed on a dark highway.

Then it melts and Holland disappears.

At this point everyone wonders,

“Will humanity survive?”

and I think of Butterfield Concrete Company

when I was a boy, and how,

even in the harshest neighborhoods

with metal bars on windows,

words in sidewalks were mostly about love.