Greenland’s Ice Melt is a Warning Sign for the Planet

Greenland is in the headlines for a variety of reasons recently, but one of the major issues that has been affecting them for years is the growing negative effects of climate change.

“I don’t think it would be unfair to say that Greenland and its ice sheet are the poster children of climate change”, said Dr. William Colgan, an Arctic researcher studying Greenland’s glaciers.

Despite being named Greenland, the landscape is famously dominated by large sheets of ice. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, eighty percent of Greenland is covered in ice sheets that can be just under two miles thick in some places. The areas that aren’t covered in ice are considered an arctic desert, and are peppered with small vegetation and some of the heartiest wildlife in the world. In spite of these harsh conditions, nearly 57,000 people call this place home.

Changing Landscape Threatens Tradtions

Dr. Spruce Schoenemann, a geology professor at the University of Montana, described his experience as “going to Greenland and being able to see the landscape and see the ecosystems that are there. There’s muskox, there’s arctic fox, and there’s incredible wildflowers. It’s a very vibrant and beautiful place, especially in the summertime.”

However, Greenland has started looking different in recent years. According to Dr. William Colgan, an arctic researcher, the ice sheet is losing over 8,000 metric tons of ice per second. The glaciers aren’t able to recover from the ice lost, as the temperatures year-round are staying on average much higher than they used too.

Casper Moller, a local fisherman, describes the new weather patterns by saying, “we can all see the different seasons. They get a bit more transitional. It’s more difficult to predict when the seasons are going to change, and we have more rain.”

The changing seasons have made predicting local wildlife behaviors more difficult, causing issues for local fisherman who have followed fish behaviors for hundreds of years. It has also affected traveling, as “to get to these places, you need to build roads. And unfortunately, the ground is permafrost, and it’s thawing. One of the major issues is that it can be a quagmire in the summer, and roads are thawing to get closer to the ice sheet. That’s a significant issue,” describes Dr. Schoenemann.

He expands on this, saying that the effects of climate change are “really changing entire livelihoods and customs because everything they’ve depended on is changing the timing of the whaling, hunting for seals, and being able to travel on sea ice. These are all things that are rapidly evolving.”

Melting Ice has Global Impacts

The rapidly melting ice is also contributing to rising sea levels worldwide. According to Dr. Colgan, the melting of the Ilulissat glacier, located in the southwest of Greenland, was single-handedly contributing to one percent of global sea levels rising. The glaciers along the coast have been reduced by up to three miles in some places.

Dr. Schoenemann also noted the extreme increase in ice melting, saying, “Things are changing really rapidly along the margins. Glacier outlets that were these glaciers that would come down out of the ice sheet are melting away. Most of them have melted away since 1850, kilometers and kilometers melt”.

New Mining Potential Faces Problems

The ice melting and exposing more of the coastline has sparked international interest, as it could expose a wealth of rare earth materials, such as gold, platinum, and uranium. However, there are several downsides, including a major lack of infrastructure needed to begin a successful mining operation. There is no central power grid, so mining outposts would have to have their own generators for all of their outposts. There are very few international ports, adding a complication to bringing materials in and out of the country.

Dr. Schoenemann explains these issues: “There are very few major shipping terminals in Greenland. And if we’re looking at extraction, that’s a whole other piece of infrastructure that doesn’t exist in a lot of locations where these minerals are located. So you’re sort of starting from scratch for a lot of these extractive projects.”

There are several other technical issues associated with establishing long-term mining processes. As discussed before, flooding has become an issue in some parts of the country, which has sparked fears of toxic run-off flowing into communities or the ocean. According to The Guardian, in 2021, Greenland passed a law banning uranium mining due to the potential flooding risks, and mining of similar dangerous material could face similar legislation.

Chance to Reverse the Effects

However, it may not be too late to reverse the effects of climate change in the region. Dr. Colgan explains that,” as much as we can tell, we haven’t crossed the tipping point yet where it becomes irreversible.” Long-term CO2 reduction and stopping the increase of long-wave radiation are two of the processes that Dr. Colgan thinks could have a real impact on stopping and reversing the effects of climate change.

“That’s a big ask, but I think it’s the most feasible way to slow down the ice sheet melt,” said Colgan. “As much as we can tell, we haven’t crossed the tipping point yet where it becomes irreversible.”

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This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into Greenland’s people, history, and culture. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available on Edge of the Arctic: Greenland, the Land of the People.

This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club, and a private donor.