Could global warming solve Greenland’s problems?

Melting icecaps could turn Manhattan‘s streets and avenues into canals someday, but why focus on the negative? This could be a real perk for the 57,000 people who live in Greenland. For now, the Inuit are stuck hunting seals and freezing most of the year. As the permafrost recedes, though — thoroughly screwing up their environment — the locals are finding oil and mineral resources. So, the hunting trips are getting more dangerous, literally putting the Inuit on thin ice at times, but at least they can make some real cash!

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, more than 18 billion barrels of oil and natural gas can be found under the sea between Greenland and Canada, with another 31 billion barrels off the coast of Greenland itself. The same situation exists in the North Sea, and Norway hasn’t been shy about tapping into it to make a fortune.

For Greenland, which is at best quasi-independent from Denmark, finding some natural resources could help it sever the $680 million-a-year umbilical cord that connects it to the mother ship. But, we’re not there yet. So far, no oil has been found in the waters around Greenland, and the optimists don’t see that happening for at least another 10 years. It will take time to develop the infrastructure, but that’s only part of the problem.

Greenland still has to pierce the ice.

Eighty percent of Greenland is covered by a sheet of ice that can be up to 2 miles thick, effectively preventing oil and mineral exploration. This is where global warming comes into the equation. As we pump out our fossil fuels and change the climate, we’re helping Greenland melt that slick coat of ice and access its key to financial independence. Again, the heavily populated coastal cities of the United States may get screwed, but we’ll be able to access oil and minerals in Greenland.

In all seriousness, Greenland has struggled with economic growth. Mostly hunters and fishermen, they lack the skilled resources needed to kickstart just about any operation. Alcoa is thinking about building an aluminum smelter and two hydroelectric plants, but it would need to import construction workers from Europe or China, because Greenland lacks the appropriate labor. Engineers would have to come from other countries, as well.

Further, the small population is continually battered by a variety of social problems. It has the world’s highest suicide rate, according to the World Health Organization (100 per 100,000 residents). Residents over 15 years of age drink an average of 12 quarts of pure alcohol a year — a bar in Tasiilaq now sells only beer, since liquor was banned. The ban has helped, according to local officials.

Is global warming really the answer? That might be a stretch, but something has to give.

Don’t let illness wreck travel: Be prepared

If you read Gadling’s travel series Catching the Travel Bug about being sick on the road, you found stories that attest to the fact that even seasoned travelers get sick from time to time. Travel to a new place and there are germs that your body is just not used to. But, if you’re prepared, whatever bug you catch won’t stick around to totally ruin a vacation or linger with continued health problems once you return.

Before you embark on a trip, make sure you’re immunizations are up to par. According to the World Health Organization, only 34% of the people who travel to places with hepatitis A get immunized against it. Dumb. When heading to places with malaria, only 8% take malaria prevention pills. Double dumb. The result of this neglect is that 30,000 travelers get malaria every year. Gad!

Considering that even a cold can put a damper on a vacation, malaria would do a real number. Typhoid wouldn’t be too swell either, another disease that’s preventable with a shot. In the Columbus Dispatch article where I read about this laxness towards immunization, one doctor told about a family who refused to get immunized when heading to a country in Africa known to be a high risk area. The teenage boy came home with typhoid as a result. He ate street food, and worse, drank local water.

In general, I think street food is not a problem if it’s being served cooked, it’s hot–meaning coming right off a grill, and you can see it being prepared, but local water? Nope.

Although getting immunized can add to the sticker price of a trip, it’s money well spent. Both malaria pills and immunizations have a certain time frame to be administered in order for them to be effective. If you’re planning on going to a country that is high risk where these treatments are recommended, don’t wait until it’s too late.

By the way, if you do get those shots, hang onto the record of when you got them. Some are good for several years so you can make the sticker price of shots go down by taking another trip to one of these locations before a shot expires.

Here is a link to a resource for what health details need to be taken care of before you travel to most African countries. And, here’s a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that has other travel health information.

India to put an end to public defecating

If you travel through India there’s a couple of bodily-function issues you might notice (outside your own, that is). One is that there’s a large poor population that doesn’t have access to any form of plumbing. Railroad tracks tend to become the local slum toilet — at least that’s what I noticed while traveling by rail. The other is that areas where public toilets are in place, the stench is often overwhelming (I’m thinking back to some roadside urinals I constantly passed en route to my guesthouse in Delhi).

The World Health Organization estimates that 2.6 million people live without access to a proper toilet, and more than half that number live in India. It’s difficult to imagine a solution to a problem that huge, but India is working on it. The government aims to eradicate “open-air defecating” by 2012, promised Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad at the World Toilet Summit.

Only problem is, he didn’t say how.

Read the report here.