Greenland Expedition          
             
             
   
 
 
 
 
“When I visit my friends in the villages,” Steffen says, “I realize it’s not just about the melting ice cap. It changes the climate along the coast, and it changes everything going along with it.”
 
 
 
Seasonal surface melt extent on the Greenland Ice Sheet has been observed by satellite since 1979 and shows an increasing trend. The melt zone, where summer warmth turns snow and ice around the edges of the ice sheet into slush and ponds of meltwater, has been expanding inland and to record high elevations in recent years 2007 being the worst on record. (Source: Arctic Impacts of Arctic Warming, Cambridge Press, 2004).
 
 
             
             
 
In May 2008 as part of the Greenland Arctic Alert Initiative, Bernice Notenboom and John van Giels will fly to Uummannaq at 70 degrees. From Uummannaq they will ski across to the small settlement of Ikerask (pop:250) situated at the base of the icecap. They will ascend onto the glacier to appr. 1200m. From here they will ski south pulling sledges weighing approximately 80 kilo’s for roughly 14- 20 days. They ski to Swiss Camp – a scientist camp close to Illulissat and The Jacobshavn Glacier. Illussiat lies on the west coast of the ice sheet and is the major Greenland outlet glacier, draining roughly 8% of the ice sheet and has sped up nearly twofold in the last decade. Arctic Alert’s objective is to observe and report about the rapid climate changes taking place in polar regions and to maintain an interactive expedition blog with children who can participate during the expedition. Prior to the teams partial north – south traverse - they will spend time in Uummannaq and Ikerask with Inuit children in the classroom to hear and record about their experiences with climate change in Greenland. These reports will be posted on Arctic Alert.nl, Arctic Alert.com and Volkskrantreizen.nl. Preparations are being made to conduct a live feed interaction where Inuit children communicate directly with children in classrooms via the educational site Teleac of the Dutch National Television.

During their expedition they will post daily blogs and podcasts to update the reader of their different findings. Arriving on the south side, the team will once again spend time with the Inuit in Illussiat and compare and document their experiences with the Inuit in Uummannaq.