GWPF | 17 March 2015
Norse Settlers Adapted To Cold Conditions
A new comprehensive Danish research project has debunked the myth that Norse settlers were forced to abandon Greenland because of the adverse climate conditions. The research by Christian Koch Madsen, a PhD student at the National Museum of Denmark, showed that the Norsemen actually stayed on the island for as much as 200 years longer, despite living in a hostile environment that continued to get colder. “The stories we’ve heard until now – about the Vikings leaving because the climate worsened – are simply not correct,” Koch told the science website Videnskab.dk. “They actually stayed there a long time and were far better at acclimatising that we previously believed.” –Christian Wenande, The Copenhagen Post, 16 March 2015
1) Danish Researchers Debunk Climate Myth: Norse Settlers Adapted To Cold Conditions – The Copenhagen Post, 16 March 2015
2) Green Energy Policy Is Destroying Europe’s Competitiveness, Employers Federation Warns – Bloomberg, 16 March 2015
3) EU Member States Reassert Sovereignty Over Energy Policy Ahead Of EU Summit – EurActiv, 17 March 2015
The European Union is being outpaced by the rest of the world on business conditions, a trend that hampers the economic recovery and limits future growth, according to a study from employers’ federation BusinessEurope. “In the race to attract global investment, we more than halved our share.” Overall on energy, “we have much higher political costs in Europe,” Beyrer said, citing renewable-energy policies that cause “market distortion” and environmental efforts that are out of sync with global standards. If the rest of the world doesn’t sign on to the EU’s ambitions for reducing emissions targets, he said it may be time for Europe to “discuss our level of ambition” to avoid economic damage. –Rebecca Christie, Bloomberg, 16 March 2015
European Union governments have reasserted their authority over their national energy policies, before leaders meet to discuss the bloc’s plans for Energy Union on Thursday (19 March). The new design should ensure “the right of Member States to decide their own energy mix is respected,” states the leaked paper, which is dated yesterday (16 March). “Energy security can also be increased by having recourse to indigenous measures, as well as safe and sustainable low carbon technologies,” the new conclusions say. Environmental campaigners fear this keeps the door open for national governments to frack for natural gas, and mine and use other fossil fuels. —EurActiv, 17 March 2015
1) Danish Researchers Debunk Climate Myth: Norse Settlers Adapted To Cold Conditions
The Copenhagen Post, 16 March 2015
Christian Wenande
A new comprehensive Danish research project has debunked the myth that Norse settlers were forced to abandon Greenland because of the adverse climate conditions.
The research by Christian Koch Madsen, a PhD student at the National Museum of Denmark, showed that the Norsemen actually stayed on the island for as much as 200 years longer, despite living in a hostile environment that continued to get colder.
“The stories we’ve heard until now – about the Vikings leaving because the climate worsened – are simply not correct,” Koch told the science website Videnskab.dk. ”They actually stayed there a long time and were far better at acclimatising that we previously believed.”
Endured and adapted
Despite enduring a period of ten years of extremely cold winters and summers due to the beginning of the Little Ice Age (1300-1870), the Norse settlers managed to stay the course on the isolated island despite losing much of their cattle and not having enough lumber to build ships.
It has long remained a mystery why the Norsemen abruptly left Greenland and researchers had believed that they had been driven away by the cold. But Koch’s research showed that the Norse settlers didn’t leave Greenland for good until around 1400-1500, at least a century after it began to get colder.
The research reveals that the Norsemen were very adept at utilising the landscape around them and adapting to conditions they were unaccustomed to.
“Instead of having one field to farm intensively, they use the entire landscape, and that it quite unique,” Koch said. ”They used the outer fjords and larger areas. They travelled far and adapted in respect to the landscape’s options – in areas dominated by thickets they began keeping sheep and goats.”
Gone for good
Koch contends that when the colder climate began to manifest itself and the landscape became less conducive to keeping stock, the outer farms were abandoned and the Norse settlers centralised their holdings.
Eventually, the Norsemen were forced to abandon farming and become trappers, which saw them switch to eating marine-based food. Previous research has shown that the diet of the later Greenlandic Norse settler consisted of up to 80 percent seal.
Koch speculates that the Norsemen ended up finally departing Greenland for good because of a dwindling demand for walrus tusk combined with fewer Scandinavian merchants sailing the Greenland route, which was becoming more arduous due to the increased presence of ice.
It could also have been the less-than-friendly meeting with the Inuit in Greenland, who began moving south to the areas the Norse settlers lived because of the increasing cold in around 1300.
“It was probably down to a collection of unfortunate events. We haven’t got any closer to saying why they disappeared,” Koch said.
“But with these results we can definitely remove some of the focus on the climate mechanism, which we previously have put a lot of weight on – because it doesn’t look like it was the deciding factor.”
2) Green Energy Policy Is Destroying Europe’s Competitiveness, Employers Federation Warns
Bloomberg, 16 March 2015
Rebecca Christie
The European Union is being outpaced by the rest of the world on business conditions, a trend that hampers the economic recovery and limits future growth, according to a study from employers’ federation BusinessEurope.
“We need to significantly raise our game in order to make sure in 10, 15 years we will still have the place we want,” Markus Beyrer, the group’s director general, told reporters in Brussels on Monday.
EU energy prices are twice as high as in the U.S., it’s harder to start new companies, and the EU is the only major economy where investment in broadband infrastructure has declined, according to the BusinessEurope’s 2015 Reform Barometer report, to be released Wednesday. Meanwhile, the EU’s share of foreign direct investment flows fell to 17 percent in 2013 from more than 40 percent in 2000, according to the report.
“We further fall behind our major competitors,” Beyrer said. “In the race to attract global investment, we more than halved our share.”
EU economic output remains below its pre-crisis peak, while the financial and sovereign debt crisis continues to take a toll. Beyrer said the EU needs to keep its 19-nation currency bloc intact as part of efforts to create a stable environment for business. […]
EU energy policy has the potential to make a big difference, especially in areas like security of supply, Beyrer said. The EU won’t be able to do without Russian gas in the near term and needs more efforts on other sources, he said.
BusinessEurope is calling for an energy chapter in the proposed Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the U.S., and also supports improved interconnections between France and Spain so that Portugal can play a bigger role in liquified natural gas, or LNG.
“We need to come to a stable situation with Russia, and at the same time we would like to diversify,” Beyrer said.
Overall on energy, “we have much higher political costs in Europe,” Beyrer said, citing renewable-energy policies that cause “market distortion” and environmental efforts that are out of sync with global standards. If the rest of the world doesn’t sign on to the EU’s ambitions for reducing emissions targets, he said it may be time for Europe to “discuss our level of ambition” to avoid economic damage.
3) EU Member States Reassert Sovereignty Over Energy Policy Ahead Of EU Summit
EurActiv, 17 March 2015
EXCLUSIVE / European Union governments have reasserted their authority over their national energy policies, before leaders meet to discuss the bloc’s plans for Energy Union on Thursday (19 March).
A more effective, flexible market design is needed that will integrate renewables, according to draft summit conclusions, obtained by EurActiv.
Any public energy subsidies at national level must not unbalance the internal market, the text says.
But the new design should ensure “the right of Member States to decide their own energy mix is respected,” states the leaked paper, which is dated yesterday (16 March).
In the weeks before the summit, diplomats thrash out a draft agreement, which is subject to change. EU heads of state and government usually agree on a set of political conclusions at the end of each European Council.
The reference to national sovereignty, added since the last draft, is significant. Especially as the latest conclusions now stress that national resources can add to energy security.
“Energy security can also be increased by having recourse to indigenous measures, as well as safe and sustainable low carbon technologies,” the new conclusions say.
Environmental campaigners fear this keeps the door open for national governments to frack for natural gas, and mine and use other fossil fuels.
Safe and sustainable low carbon technologies could be code for nuclear power or natural gas, they warned. NGOs Friends of the Earth Europe and Greenpeace EU told EurActiv the conclusions were a backwards step. […]
UK and Poland
Sacrificing some national sovereignty over the energy mix was vital to create the Energy Union, MEP Claude Turmes told delegates at a conference in Brussels today (17 March).
“Come on! How can you build an Energy Union over the borders, if you won’t give up a millimetre on your national energy mix?” he asked at the EU Leading on Renewable Energy Policy event.
Turmes, a Green from Luxembourg, named the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Poland as the biggest culprits among Member States jealously guarding their energy mix. Poland, whose former premier Donald Tusk is now European Council President, is keen to protect its coal and investigate fracking. France has an influential nuclear industry.
The UK government has agreed to expand its Hinckley nuclear power plant and is keen to look into fracking. It also does not want to be seen as ceding any more powers to Brussels, especially in the run up to May’s national elections. The UK’s relationship with the EU is a major issue in that vote, which could lead to a “Brexit” referendum.
“The latest draft looks like a UK/Polish wish list for nuclear and fracking,” Brook Riley, campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe, said.
