ADVENTURE DESTINATION | GREENLAND; As Ice Recedes, Interest Surges

By ETHAN TODRAS-WHITEHILL

FOR those who find that Discovery Channel documentaries and Al Gore's PowerPoint presentations don't adequately capture the phenomenon of global warming, another option is now more readily available: pulling on a fur-lined parka and watching the ice melt in Greenland.

Highlighted as a focal point of global warming in scientific reports and apocalyptic films like ''The Day After Tomorrow,'' Greenland is beginning to draw attention from tourists who want to see the effects of climate change for themselves.

And the accessibility of Greenland for Americans got a boost last summer when Air Greenland started the first nonstop flight between the United States and Greenland, a five-hour flight out of Baltimore (airgreenland.com). In 2008, the airline is scheduling weekly service out of Baltimore/Washington International Airport from late June to early August, with round-trip fares starting at 6,335 Danish kroner, about $1,265 at 5 kroner to the dollar. (Previously, travelers had to fly through Nunavut in northern Canada, Iceland or Denmark.)

Visitors fly into Kangerlussuaq, the site of a former United States military base. The foot of the polar ice cap there is a popular picnicking spot for tourists, where they stare at a 250-foot wall of ice that, if it melts, has the potential to raise the world's oceans by 24 feet, some researchers have estimated.

The most popular destination for Americans is the Ilulissat ice fjord, a 45-minute flight from Kangerlussuaq and the site of the fastest retreating glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. A few years ago, the fjord was 25 miles long, but the melting of the glacier has lengthened the fjord to 31 miles, a change that has made it one of Greenland's most visible examples of climate change. The fjord is full of icebergs, calving from the bordering mountains of ice, and cruises to see the ice crack and fall are popular. Among the cruise lines offering Greenland sailings this summer is Hurtigruten (www.hurtigruten.us), which has an eight-day excursion to Disko Bay, departing from Kangerlussuaq, including a visit to the Eqip Sermia glacier. Prices start at $3,673 a person, including airfare from Baltimore.

A melting Arctic means that its ecosystem will not last forever, and the threatened wildlife is another draw. Polar bears, which have gotten the most attention as victims of global warming, are rarely sighted, but excursions to see whales -- including the narwhal, with its nine-foot unicorn horn -- and musk oxen are usually successful. These animals are not yet endangered, and tourists can enjoy many of them, including seal and reindeer, in the wild during the day and on their plates at night. Perhaps the greatest visual evidence of global warming in Greenland is Warming Island, a hand-shaped island off the east coast discovered in 2005 by an American, Dennis Schmitt. In years past, it was connected to the mainland by ice and presumed to be part of the same mass. A California outfit, Betchart Expeditions (www.betchartexpeditions.com), offers a September voyage to visit the island with Mr. Schmitt, a 12-day boat expedition that starts at $5,745 plus airfare.

''It's the visual symbol of climate change,'' Mr. Schmitt said. ''If global warming needed a poster child, here it is.'' Global warming, of course, is a delicate topic. Mr. Schmitt has been criticized by many because of the emissions such trips generate, and Greenland is careful not to stress climate change too strongly in its marketing. ''We don't want catastrophe tourism, like 'Come see it before it's too late,' '' said Jesper Kunuk Egede, a spokesman for the Greenland Group, which promotes tourism in Greenland. But Mr. Schmitt thinks that's precisely part of the appeal. ''People sense the Arctic is going to change,'' he said. ''There is something in human nature that likes to watch things die, a morbid curiosity of human beings. And I think there's a touch of that.''

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Senin 19 February 2008, 16.03 sore)

Re-publish by Jacob Paradox from link (www.nytimes.com)