Greenland is one of the few places on Earth where climate change is sometimes referred to as an opportunity by making it less inhabitable for those who live there and more accessible to those who don’t, a point not missed by leaders elsewhere. With the landmass no longer safely insulated by sea ice, the world is knocking on Greenland’s door.
But it’s not all upside: Even while the effects of a warming planet open up new revenue streams for Greenland’s 57,000-strong population via mining, shipping and tourism, they’ll also have to reckon with potential losses of heritage and new weather risks.
The Arctic is often referred to as a canary in the coal mine when it comes to the climate. The polar region is at the frontline of the crisis, warming nearly four times faster than the global average rate between 1979 and 2021. Every year, scientists head to Greenland’s vast ice sheet with measuring devices. But Inuit, the indigenous peoples who make up the majority of the island’s population, don’t need specialist equipment to study the transformation — they’ve seen the changes with their own eyes.
For hundreds of years, Inuit traversed the terrain on dogsleds to fish and hunt. In a single generation, that tradition has become endangered by thin ice and less predictable weather.
In a territory with almost no roads, the changing conditions risk isolating remote communities, while the decline in subsistence hunting has implications for food security. But it’s the loss of tradition that may be hardest to deal with. After all, heritage — both intangible and material — is linked to human well-being and social cohesion. Both are being lost in a warming Arctic.