Don't forget Florida. The entire state will be underwater by 2050. Well, except for maybe about 10 square miles in the northern part of the state.

Me, I walk to work and frequently walk to buy groceries. I take the bus when I can.

Not "if", Erica. When. When the Greenland ice sheets melt. They're going to melt, and US energy policy has zero impact on it.

I thought it was an interesting article. What's so bad about learning how global warming affects those in the coldest climates? It's false to say there's "no" positive side to global warming. Warm weather is pleasant, and that's a positive. Being able to grow crops in Greenland is a positive. It's just that the negatives (eg, polar bears dying, coastal cities drowning, desertification) FAR outweigh the positives.

Although Florida underwater might be a good thing.

but warm weather in greenland equals extreme heat in austin, tx, which is also a very, very bad thing. if people in greenland want warmer weather, they can move south.

um, the point of the article in the WSJ (I get the print edition, nice pic of the guy), is that the Greenland Ice Sheet IS MELTING - NOW!

Personally, I thought it was a fine article. Remember, in those days Labrador was Vinland (covered in wine-bearing grapes) and Greenland really was green - back during the last global warming.

And California was a hot burning desert. And Texas was too.

texas is already too damn hot. i dont know about hippie ass austin, but i was in mcallen and brownsville a couple of years back and i swear even phoenix seems cooler in comparison to the rio grande valley.

if that place became any hotter, people would start dropping like burro turds in the middle of the street. even the dogs walk in the shade in mcallen. if you dont have ac down there, you can kiss your ass goodbye.

My favorite big-picture/small-picture match-up in the article:

"If the layers of ice and snow holding billions of tons of water were to melt, scientists warn that global sea levels would rise by 40 feet, submerging lower Manhattan, the Netherlands and much of California.

But to many of the people who live here in Greenland, the warming trend is a boon, not a threat."

And an *imaginary* boon, at that. While the global sea level rising is a known effect, what Greenland's climate would look like after the Big Melt isn't.

One thing that could happen is that runaway warming could trigger a major ice age, turning Greenland into a completely uninhabitable ice cube -- along with much of the Northern Hemisphere. But, well worth the risk if it keeps the sheep farmers happy. Besides, their children may need all the wool they can get.

Kimberley's post is hilariously clueless.

If not for engineering, the Mississippi River would have chewed up the land that New Orleans sits on long before now. Nature eventually consumes some land masses, while creating new ones (think volcanoes near the sea).

While we've accelerated it, there's no assurance that global warming wouldn't happen at all if not for us. In fact, history shows that the temperature has naturally, steadily risen over the last 768432483243 years. The aforementioned locales, Amsterdam, Manhattan, SoCal... would likely end up underwater at some point no matter what. There are arguments to support combatting global warming... but this one ain't it.

Actually, Gomez, if we hadn't put in all those retaining walls, New Orleans would be covered by a new layer of silt each year, raising the height of the land, so technically it wouldn't sink at all.

And, bonus part, the protective floodplains would protect the city even more, because we can see what happens (bad stuff) when you choke them off from their normal silt load.

The reality is that we are at an unusual point in history where man-made inputs are becoming the majority of the inputs into global climate change, whereas before the industrial revolution, manmade inputs were not even measurable.

And it's global climate change as someone prior pointed out - the acceleration and larger amplitude of massive climate temperature shifts on both the local and global scales - which can result in things like London's Thames river freezing over almost year round or Scotland suddenly becoming a good place to grow Cabernet Sauvignon.

Will, how does that happen if you've covered the city in buildings and concrete? Wouldn't the silt collect around the city, rather than beneath it? Wouldn't the city sink regardless?

Where did the WSJ get the stats that say the Netherlands will be submerged? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that a one-meter rise in sea level will submerge 6 percent of the Netherlands.

Why don't you read it and find out? They have copies at the local public library if you can't buy it.

And it's not my fault they didn't build NoLa on stilts.

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