Greenland is Melting

By Madeline Hendl

Greenland, a country where its entire land mass is two-thirds ice, is melting at a rate that could alone raise the sea level anywhere from three to five inches by 2100 (Samuelson). Climate change not only affects the monstrous ice sheets of the country, but the people and their economy as well. Greenlanders recognize the impending doom that climate change brings in their everyday lives, and without the help of the rest of the world, it will only get worse.

Currently, the Earth is in a stage known as Holocene, also know as the current geological epoch. In the beginning of this age, about 12,000 years ago, the Earth experienced the warmest weather ever recorded. Scientists are able to calculate this using climate proxies known as ice cores. Similar to tree rings and ocean sentiments, ice cores can infer how climate has changed in the past. Scientists are unable to measure the exact temperatures of the ice cores; however, they use an oxygen isotope which imperfectly correlates with temperature. By studying how the oxygen isotopes have changed overtime, scientists are able to infer how climate has changed.

Recently drilled ice cores in Greenland’s ice sheet have shown that the current temperature of the country is higher than any other time in the last 2000 years. However, it has not yet exceeded any temperatures in the early part of Holocene. Due to the current output of greenhouse gases and combustion of fossil fuels in industrialized nations, temperatures in Greenland and globally will exceed anything seen in the last 125,000 years by 2050.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists first noticed a drastic change in Greenland’s ice sheets in the 1990s. Scientists knew that Greenland and Antarctica were negatively responding to climate change, but believed that noticeable impacts would take decade or centuries to see. Even with the rise in air temperatures caused by man, the ice sheet remained stable until 1997.

In 1997, NASA scientists started to notice that a “tongue” of ice protruding out from the Jackobshavn Glacier began to shrink. The tongue of the glacier measured 15 kilometers in 1997 and was completely gone in the early 2000s.

Melting Ice Sheet, Rising Sea Levels

Today, Greenland’s ice sheet is losing ice six times faster than in the past few decades. In the past 50 years, the ice sheet has melted enough to add half an inch of water to the world’s oceans, and that number is only increasing. From 2005 to 2016, melting of the ice sheet was the single largest cause of rising sea levels worldwide (Borunda).  

The 2019 summer heatwave turned half of the surface of the ice sheet into slush and expelled enough melt into the ocean that sea levels increased by half a millimeter. This amount of slush is equivalent to over four million swimming pools of slush being expelled every day.

Rising air temperatures are not the only cause of the ice sheet melting, however. Rising ocean temperatures are to blame as well. The ocean alone absorbs over 90% of all extra warmth since the industrial revolution. If the ocean temperatures continue to warm, the 200 glaciers protruding out of Greenland’s coast will meet the same fate as Jackobshavn and ultimately raise sea levels another centimeter.

Climate change impacts the indigenous Inuit people and the general population in Greenland in a catastrophic manner. These people rely solely on their environment and with the changing of their entire world, it is reaping devastating consequences. “‘We don’t have solid sea ice in the winter anymore and the ice is melting quickly,’ said one resident in Avannaata, in the northwest of Greenland. ‘Some of the glaciers are becoming smaller than before, and glaciers now release icebergs all year round’” (Kirk). Warming of Greenland has an overall negative impact on the livelihood of the people. Without stable ice year-round, traditional forms of seal hunting and fishing cannot be done, leaving people without their sole source of food.

With the warming of the country comes small benefits to the economy and infrastructure. Longer, warmer summers are much more appealing. Warming weather means less money spent on heating oil and electricity, benefits navigation and agriculture, and could create more access to gas, oil, and other natural resources. It is also becoming harder to make a living during the winter due to the shrinking of sea ice. Although warmer weather is appealing, it brings disastrous consequences; “the summer of 2019 dealt Greenland an early breakup of sea ice, wildfires, a widespread heat wave, and record-breaking glacial melt” (Kirk). Short term benefits of warmer weather will mean nothing if there is not a world to benefit from.

The beliefs of Greenlanders regarding climate change differ greatly from those of industrial nations like the United States. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world, which causes Greenlanders to experience the negative effects before the rest of the world. 92% of Greenlanders believe that climate change is happening, while only 69% of Americans share the same belief (Kirk).

The US experiences many different climates across the country so it is understandable that only 38% of the population say that they have experienced the effects of climate change. Climate and nature are a part of the everyday lives of Greenlanders and they talk about it every single day. 76% of Greenland’s population fish, hunt, and gather and one fourth of the population have ventured onto sea ice to make a living (Kirk). Greenland’s economy directly correlates with the weather, therefore, if the weather is unstable, so is the economy. That same 76% of the population have said that they have experienced the effects of climate change in their everyday lives.

When it comes to what causes climate change, both nations have similar beliefs. 55% of Americans and 52% of Greenlanders believe that man is to blame (Kirk). 32% of Americans and 34% of Greenlanders believe that nature is to blame (Kirk). People in Greenland are not used to seeing industrialization in their everyday lives like Americans do. Nature controls what they do day to day and how their economy will function. When it comes to America, partisanship and fossil fuel lobbying affects public and political opinion by disguising the true effects of climate change.

What sets Greenland apart from the United States and other industrialized companies is their overwhelming favor of limiting greenhouse gas emissions. 75% of the population support converting to renewable energy (Kirk). Greenlanders also support entering the Paris Agreement. However, Greenland is a territory of Denmark. When Denmark entered the Paris Agreement, they were granted a territorial exclusion for Greenland. Denmark did this because Greenland’s main source of economic development is through resource extraction. What also sets Greenland apart from the US is that 40% of Greenlanders support protection the environment even if it means losing their jobs. Greenland realizes that if there is not a stable world, then the economy means nothing.

Greenland’s people experience the negative impacts of climate change every day of their lives. Industrialized countries, like the United States, either do not see the imminent threat of climate change or are paid enough money to look the other way. If the world continues to warm, looming glaciers will continue to disappear and sea levels will continue to rise. Greenland is doing their part to help combat climate change and the rest of the world should follow.

Works Cited

Borunda, Alejandra, et al. “Greenland's Melting Ice May Affect Everyone's Future.” Nationalgeographic.com, National Geographic, 15 Oct. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/10/greenland-ice-oceans-melting-fast/.

Kirk, Karin. “92% Of Greenland's Residents Believe Climate Change Is Happening " Yale Climate Connections.” Yale Climate Connections, 10 Dec. 2019, www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/10/92-percent-of-greenlands-residents-believe-climate-change-is-happening/.

Markey, Edward J. “The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.” Global Warming Impact Zones | Greenland, 0AD, www.markey.senate.gov/GlobalWarming/impactzones/greenland.html.

McSweeney, Robert, et al. “Factcheck: What Greenland Ice Cores Say about Past and Present Climate Change.” Carbon Brief, 5 Mar. 2019, www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-what-greenland-ice-cores-say-about-past-and-present-climate-change.

Samuelson, Arielle. “Greenland's Rapid Melt Will Mean More Flooding – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, NASA, 11 Dec. 2019, climate.nasa.gov/news/2940/greenlands-rapid-melt-will-mean-more-flooding/.