In the past 30 years, old farmlands have reappeared around Breidamerkurj kull - most of it pockmarked with holes gouged by receding glaciers. The land is simply being returned to its old use,' said Evans. Whether this restoration of agricultural land and the loss of the glacier is being triggered solely by natural climatic variation, or is being speeded up by the effects of man pumping industrial gases into the atmosphere, has yet to be determined. Either way, the fate of Breidamerkurj kull is our starkest warning that global warming now has a direct impact on our continent. The heat is on, whether we like it or not.
Winter is in retreat.
Europe's growing season is 11 days longer than it was 35 years ago. Sea levels have crept higher throughout the last century at the rate of a millimetre a year. Hot summers . Declining ice sheet . The Arctic ice cover is shrinking by an area the size of the Netherlands every year.