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From NASA’s eyes in the sky, this is a view of the west coast of Greenland downloaded earlier today, looking down on the Ilulissat Icefjord — the outlet for the Jakobshavn Isbrae, the biggest outlet glacier in Greenland and the largest in the northern hemisphere.

I’m posting it to show the numerous large lakes of glacial meltwater that have appeared on top of the ice sheet over recent weeks. At the edge of the ice sheet, the winter snow has melted revealing the greyer ice underneath, but as you climb up the ice away from the coast you get back up into unmelted snow (bottom right). And there are lakes like this a very long way up the west coast, all primed to deliver their water down through moulins to the base of the sheet and thence out to sea, or over the surface in glacial rivers.

global warming is also having a profound effect on Iceland economically — and in many ways the effects have actually been beneficial. Warmer weather has been a boon to Iceland’s hydroelectric industry, which is producing more energy than before as melting glaciers feed its rivers.

There are more immediate signs of climate change, though, and these are worrying Iceland’s residents. This winter, Reykjavik experienced double-digit swings in temperature, as the normally sub-zero conditions suddenly turned balmy. the capital was flooded. “I don’t think it’s even a question,” said Asta Gisladottir, asked whether the freak weather was caused by global warming. “We’re so close to the North Pole,” the 36-year-old hotel worker said. “It’s just in our backyard.” Gisladottir recalled winters during her childhood in the village of Siglufjordur, on the island’s north, as very different. then there was snow from November to April. Now, it is mostly rain. Geophysicist Johannesson, who has studied climate change since the early 1990s, said the evidence was not just anecdotal.

“What we see here is an overall warming from a rather cold 19th century,” he said. “As a general rule, this is sufficient for us to have many significant changes in the environment.”

Sumdoh,