Uunartoq Qeqertaq
Uunartoq Qeqertaq, Greenlandic for "The Warming Island", is an island, that was only acknowledged as such in September 2005, by an American explorer Dennis Schmitt, off the east central coast of Greenland, 550 km (340 mi) north of the Arctic Circle. It was attached to the mainland of Liverpool Land by glacial ice even in 2002, when the ice shelves began retreating rapidly in this area, so that by 2005 it was no longer attached to the mainland. Members of the scientific community believe this newly discovered island is a direct result of global warming. The island has three large peninsulas, and thus resembles the letter W.
Controversy
Patrick Michaels, a climatologist and prominent global warming skeptic, created a controversy over the history of Warming Island in a post on his website, World Climate Report, in which he argued that the island had been previously uncovered in the 1950s toward the end of a brief warm period in Greenland.
Despite a general lack of suitably detailed maps, Michaels found a map published by Ernst Hofer, a photographer who did aerial surveys of the area in the early 1950s, which showed the Warming Island landmass unconnected to Greenland. Michaels concluded therefore that Warming Island was also a separate island when observed by Hofer in the 1950s, and more broadly that Warming Island is an example of unjustified concern about the future outcomes of global warming.
