SeaKeepers Visit Greenland on Fact-Finding Voyage
 In August (2007), an 11-person group of SeaKeepers and associates visited Greenland to learn about the melting glaciers and possible sea level rise from leading scientists. SeaKeepers Admiral’s Club Members Charles and Diane Gallagher helped organize the trip from Denver non-stop to Greenland. Mr. Gallagher explained that bringing two of his eldest grandchildren, Charles P. II and Mary, were his primary motivation, as their generation would be most impacted by any climate change now occurring.
Leading the fact-finding tour was SeaKeepers CEO John Englander and Dr. Robert W. Corell, a scientific adviser to SeaKeepers and a noted Arctic climate change authority. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan first asked Dr. Corell to investigate climate change. He has been committed to this study ever since. Recently Dr. Corell was appointed as the new Global Change Director for The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. In 2005 Dr. Corell chaired the 300-person science team from eight nations with territory within the Arctic region that published the recent “Arctic Climate Impact Assessment,” the definitive report on the effect of climate change on the Arctic.
Throughout the trip attendees had briefings from Dr. Corell, as well as local scientists, on the effects of climate change. Interestingly enough, in Greenland the prospect of global warming is not alarming. Due to their steep shoreline, Greenland would not suffer major problems from the projected sea level rise. They already see a longer growing season and have enjoyed the expanding areas of farmland in a country that traditionally has been 90 percent covered by glacial ice. Greenlanders’ major concern from climate change is the impact it might have on the ocean currents and on the key fisheries on which they depend. That scenario is far from clear.
 The SeaKeepers group witnessed receding glaciers at close range. The journey required a jet helicopter trip into the center of the ice cap itself to see how the rapidly melting moves down into the bedrock, forming an underground river that has significantly sped up the glaciers’ movement and calving of icebergs. As a result of this experience Mr. Gallagher said, “It is quite clear that we all have a much better understanding of the effects of the surface melt and how this water is assisting in the accelerated movements of the glaciers by lubricating the bottom.”
The final evening in Nuuk provided a rare opportunity to meet with local leaders, including Aqqaluk Lynge, President of ICC Greenland. The ICC is the Inuit Circumpolar Council, an international organization representing approximately 160,000 Inuits living in the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka, Russia. In addition to talking with international scientists and leaders, the SeaKeepers group had the opportunity to converse with many local Inuits who articulated their experience with climate change, from their own and from their ancestors’ perspective. The local community made it very clear that the warming experienced during the last decade is quite profound and unprecedented in the oral or written history of their people.
Anyone interested in future trips should contact tours@seakeepers.org. 
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