The topic of climate change is a hot subject.  This is an important topic because as the climate changes it has drastic effects on the environment and can negatively affect many of the ecosystems that currently exist including that of humans.   The United States as well as researchers from 14 other nations have all collaborated with the University of Copenhagen to explore the Greenland ice coring effect.  Researchers are undertaking Greenland ice coring expenditures in the hopes that it may help them to be able to better understand future climate changes.  Read more about Global Warming Insurance

The giant ice research project is called the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling or NEEM.  The entire purpose of the Greenland ice coring is to attempt to recover ice that is from the Eemian Period.  During the time period about 120,000 years ago, researchers know that the climate that existed was warmer than the temperatures experienced today.  Greenland, which today is known for its ice, also was extensively covered in ice during that period and the overall height of the sea levels was substantially higher.  This period is of interest for Greenland ice coring because the climate characteristics described are very similar to those that may eventually afflict Earth as its climate increasingly warms.

Greenland ice coring has been done in the past and ice layers were retrieved that represented the period however researchers were never able to obtain any conclusive data.  Despite this, Greenland ice coring  has continued and researchers have found more usable ice sheets from the Eemian Period.  Greenland ice coring is a great science because the massive amounts of compressed snow and ice can provide a lot of helpful information.  From Greenland ice coring scientists can get details such as past temperatures and even approximate precipitation levels.  Some of the results from Greenland ice coring even give important and interesting details about the atmospheres of ancient periods.  The results have shown drastic changes in climate temperature over the last few decades.

The NEEM researchers have made progress with their Greenland ice coring work and have revealed ice layers that are believed to be from an extremely cold period that the Earth experienced.  They believe that continuing with the Greenland ice coring down several thousand more feet they are likely to find samples from the warm Eemian period.  Greenland ice coring has also been linked to the well known greenhouse gases.  Researchers have found evidence from Greenland ice coring that if there is a sudden or abrupt increase in greenhouse gases this tends to cause a direct increase in the climate temperature.  As the climate continues to warm and the big glaciers present begin to melt this causes the sea levels to rise.

The Greenland ice coring project has and continues to be instrumental in helping researchers to understand the climate changes that the Earth has gone through.  However, it is important to note that unlike past climate changes which are detailed from Greenland ice coring the current climate warming is linked to the activities of humans.