Why Are Scientists So Worried About Greenland? | Unveiled

Why Are Scientists So Worried About Greenland?

Welcome to the world’s largest island! Greenland is a vast and icy, arctic realm, close to Canada (although part of the Kingdom of Denmark) and rich in wide open vistas of nature at its finest. So much of this spectacular, 836,000 square mile mass of land is untouched by humans, as it ranks as one of the least densely populated places on Earth. That means that you will find wholly unique landscapes here, and true peace and quiet. But, still, the status and condition of this often mysterious, northern world can tell us a lot about the condition of the planet as a whole.

So, this is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; why are scientists so worried about Greenland?

First things first, why is Greenland called Greenland anyway, if most of it is white with snow and ice? The most often told explanation is that it was given its name by early settlers, who wanted to make the region appear as attractive as possible to potential further settlers, in the future. most histories of Greenland also suggest that it was Erik the Red, in particular, an early Norse traveler, who gave it its name, after exploring it during a three-year period living in exile. There’s some debate, but it’s thought that Greenland really might’ve been greener back in Erik the Red’s day (just more than one thousand years ago) before a period of cooling took hold, bringing the ice that we know now. If we look back into ancient pre-history, though, perhaps the name “Greenland” isn’t exactly unwarranted for another reason… as the region is believed to have once hosted grasslands, forests, and woods, up until around one million years ago.

Nevertheless, we know that Greenland today definitely isn’t mostly green, as some eighty percent of it is ice sheet. This is the main reason why Greenland is so sparsely populated, with almost all of its 56,000 people living in the south and close to the coast. The capital city, Nuuk, is regularly listed among the smallest and least populated capitals in the world. Greenland continually offers a wealth of information to scientists though, thanks in part to the unusual setup that exists there. While journeying across Greenland is no doubt an incredible challenge, there are few places on Earth where getting to know the ice is quite so possible. And there are few places on Earth that give such clear signs and warnings as to the wider, global situation.

Greenland hosts the second biggest body of ice on the planet, behind only the world’s southernmost continent, Antarctica. But the basic problem is that all that ice is melting… which means that Greenland is shrinking, and sea levels are rising as a result. Of course, this is by now a depressingly well-known sequence of events, wrapped up under that ominous umbrella term of “climate change”. But scientists are particularly interested in (and concerned about) Greenland for a couple of reasons. First, the potential that Greenland has to cause some truly worldwide issues. If all of the ice in Greenland were to melt, for example, and some scientists aren’t completely ruling that out, then it’s calculated that sea levels would rise by about twenty-five feet, or more. But second, that rate of ice melt on Greenland is of interest, because increasing numbers of studies show that it’s accelerating, and could even be happening so fast now… that huge and truly significant changes might’ve set in by as soon as the year 2100.

A certain amount of ice melt is expected to take place every year for Greenland, as part of a cyclical process that’s been reliably running for millennia. When seasonal temperatures increase, some of the ice melts… but then it refreezes, and no long-lasting harm is done. At least, that’s how it used to be. Today, though, the periods of temperature increase can last weeks (or even months) longer than usual in some years, which means more ice is melted… but also that there’s less time to replenish the ice during colder periods, and so that ice is lost.

The loss of ice then means that the glaciers themselves become even weaker for next year, and then even weaker still for the year after that, and so on. Add into the equation that average global temperatures have been shown to be increasing, as well, even without the extended periods of higher temperature, and the fear is that the melting of Greenland could ultimately happen extremely quickly. In fact, there have been some suggestions that we have already passed the tipping point for Greenland, and that massive ice loss is now inevitable in the region, as a temperature increase of just two degrees Celsius could be enough to spell the end for this particular ice sheet. If that turns out to be true then, again, the next concern rests with how quickly that ice loss unfolds.

The recent studies into Greenland do not make for good reading. According to one multi-authored paper, published in the journal “Nature” in September 2020, the rate of Greenland ice melt during the twenty-first century will exceed the rate of ice melt seen at any other time in the last 12,000 years. According to another, again multi-authored study, published in “Nature Communications Earth and Environment” in August 2020, the year 2019 “exhibited the largest mass loss on record” for the Greenland ice sheet. 2019 also followed a pattern of “increasing ice loss since the late 1990s”, with the study highlighting that the top five years for loss of ice from Greenland had all come within the previous decade up until that point - in the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2019. In recent times, then, the reality for Greenland has become clearer and clearer.

It's about more than just rising sea levels, though. Across 2021, reports also highlighted how the ice melt in Greenland could end up having a disastrous effect on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (or, AMOC). This is a natural system across the Atlantic Ocean, which delivers warm and cold currents across the world map. Therefore, it’s an important driver of international weather patterns, and typically it should ensure that we get expected and unsurprising weather and climate most of the time. But, as the ice melt in Greenland appears to be affecting the speed of the currents in this system (with some researchers fearing that they could slow so much that they effectively disappear) there are concerns that what’s happening in Greenland could also impact things like average temperatures, and the frequency of storms. Huge parts of mainland Europe, for example, depend on reliable currents in the Atlantic to help deliver the weather… but now, those currents could become less reliable, and the weather could become far more unpredictable, as a result.

So, what can we do? What’s the plan? And are there efforts in place to better address and understand the situation in Greenland? NASA’s “Oceans Melting Greenland” (or, OMG) mission finished at the end of 2021, but the findings from it served to underline that Greenland’s ice melt isn’t only happening because the air is warmer… but also because the ocean is. It’s an attack on two fronts, with the glaciers diminishing from above and below sea level. This is pretty terrible news in terms of preserving the ice, but it does go some way to explaining how and why ice melt has picked up in the past couple decades. There’s a growing feeling, then, that it’s important that the fate of Greenland is seen and acknowledged by the watching world, as it could already be a prime example of a climate tipping point in action. We continually hear of tipping points like this in the news, but the changes in Greenland aren’t, it seems, lurking forebodingly sometime in the future… they’re happening right now.

It remains to be seen to what extent Greenland will melt away. There are some suggestions that what’s happening today could still be part of an even longer melt cycle, and that the ice sheets of Greenland could yet restabilise. On the other hand, there are growing fears that the ice of Greenland - particularly in the south and around the edges of it - could soon be lost forever.

If that happens, it will inevitably mean sharply rising sea levels, but it could also adversely impact weather systems all over the planet. This unique, mysterious and incredible place is becoming a major climate change case study, and that’s why scientists are so worried about Greenland.