Monday 16 September 2013

Danish scientist: Climate change "will provide new opportunities for the Greenlanders"

A hint to investors: Time to invest in beach side property in Greenland?
(image Wikipedia)

A bright future is in store for Greenland thanks to climate change:

Climate change could bring about the greening of Greenland by the end of the century, scientists predict.
Today only four indigenous tree species grow on the island, confined to small areas in the south. Three-quarters of Greenland, the world's most sparsely populated country, is covered by a barren ice sheet.
But by the year 2100 swaths of verdant forest could be covering much of its land surface, according to experts.
"Greenland has .. the potential to become a lot greener," said lead scientist Professor Jens-Christian Svenning, from Aarhus University in Denmark. "Forest like the coastal coniferous forests in today's Alaska and western Canada will be able to thrive in fairly large parts of Greenland, for example, with trees like sitka spruce and lodgepole pine.
"It will provide new opportunities for the Greenlanders."
The research showed that with expected levels of warming a majority of 44 species of North American and European trees and bushes will be able to thrive in Greenland.
Many species could already flourish in Greenland today, according to the analysis published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

And this is not all. Greenlanders also have a chance to enjoy economic prosperity in the near future:
Bright future for Greenland: World's largest deposits of rare earth metals likely to be opened up for mining soon

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