Pristine Alaskan Glacier Turns Into Tropical Wasteland

(Frosty Cove, Alaska) Few places on Earth have suffered the ravages of global warming more than Alaska. While recent news reports have highlighted accounts of the native Inuits' snowmobiles falling through the ice, threatening their traditional way of life, there are isolated parts of Alaska have been completely transformed by global warming.

Possibly the most frightening example of this climate catastrophe that continues to unfold before the eyes of humanity is the case of Frosty Cove, Alaska. Once dominated by a pristine ice field, with a slowly advancing glacier dumping its frigid cargo into the sea, the Cove's original beauty has been forever lost.

Totally devoid of the ice and magnificent rock outcropping that once adorned the lanscape, Frosty Cove has become the poster child for the ravaging effects of global warming. In the accompanying pair of photographs, taken only twenty years apart, the environmental degradation is immediately obvious. Types of vegetation totally foreign to Alaska have invaded the region, upsetting the delicate ecological balance that once existed. Clouds of mosquitos, once so abundant in the cool moist climate of Alaska, have all but disappeared.

"We have been astounded by the environmental degradation that has occurred at Frosty Cove", said Dr. John Striker, director of Alaska's Cold Preservation Institute. "This level of transformation in only twenty years is sobering -- clearly, global warming has gotten out of hand in Alaska, and now other fragile ecosystems in polar regions are threatened as well".

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EDITOR'S NOTE: We have been informed by an astute and observant reader, Mr. R. Erle, that the story above might not be entirely accurate; Mr. Erle writes:

"I have been in my life five times in the north including twice in the high arctic so I appreciate its desolate beauty, I have kayaked the 375 mile Horton river in NWT alone and loved every moment...but the photo of the change in Frosty Cove is a phoney (if there is such a place with that as its official name.) If one studies the upper photo a range of hills can be seen. Then behind that range, very dimly seen, is one farther and higher. The lower photo taken on a bright sunny day, probably while on someone's semi-tropical or tropical vacation, shows palm trees (go find ONE palm tree in Alaska, even in a hotel or restaurant!) and no in indication of any hills."

We would like to thank Mr. Erle for his keen eye and intuitive grasp of the obvious.
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