By Flemming Emil Hansen, Dow Jones & Co, Image by Jeff Shea/NY Times
COPENHAGEN—Denmark this week launched its first formal strategy for the Arctic region, a plan intended to facilitate private investment and help international companies enter the far north as the ice melts and vast natural resources become accessible, the country’s foreign minister said in an interview.
The Arctic, which covers more than a sixth of the Earth’s landmass, plus the vast Arctic Ocean, has long been treated as a highly fragile ecosystem that must be protected against commercial exploitation. Denmark’s new strategy marks a shift in priority to focus on economic development and improving the living standards of local people, Lene Espersen told The Wall Street Journal.http://gcaptain.com/commercial-exploitation-greenland?29889&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Gcaptain+%28gCaptain.com%29
The peer-reviewed study, funded by the National Science Foundation is the first to attribute a specific proportion of the ice melt to greenhouse gases and particulates from pollution.
The study used supercomputers and one of the world's most sophisticated climate models to reach its conclusions, said lead author Jennifer Kay, a staff scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The paper was published last week in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Kay said her study was an attempt to learn how much Arctic Ocean melting can be attributed to "natural variability" -- complex changes wrought by nonhuman forces -- and how much has been caused by greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and by atmospheric particulates.
