GREENLAND & CLIMATE CHANGE

written by
Jean Faullimmel PhD
January 14, 2017
Introduction
In April of 2016, I had the opportunity to visit Greenland for three weeks. I landed in the
capital Nuuk, organised my trip, and then went further north, first to Kangerlussuaq and
then to Ilulissat. The highlights of the journey were a boat trip in the second largest fjord in
Greenland, the walk on the ice cap near Kangerlussuaq, and finally the exploration of the
huge icebergs near Ilulissat. It was an extraordinary fact-finding experience of the Arctic
winter to see how this region of the world is being affected by global warming.
Greenland is the largest island in the world, and of it is ice. It is an autonomous region
belonging to Denmark and is located between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. The capital
is Nuuk on the southern west coast of the country. The overall population is around 56,000
inhabitants scattered in villages and settlements, mainly on the west coast. Its culture is a
blend of Inuit and Scandinavian culture. Winters are long, cold and dark, and summers
have long days but are short. The population sustains life from fishing, seal hunting, and
tourism.
Climate change in Greenland
Recent climate research indicates that the Arctic is warming at an unprecedented rate.
2016 is considered the warmest year for the Arctic and the sea ice formation was at an alltime low. At Ilulissat, Disko Bay an elderly man told me that during his youth, dog sledging
on the frozen sea was a great pastime. At that time the dog population of the Ilulissat
village was about 5,000 for a population of fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. Since then
winters have become warmer and shorter, and the dog population decreased to around
2,500 due to reduced sea ice formation. Usually, the month of April was still very cold and
winters extended until June. This time, in April, Disko Bay was almost free from ice, and
the inhabitants were to resume fishing and seal hunting.
The Arctic region is warming more than twice as fast compared with the rest of the world.
The average temperature between 1976 and 2014 was 0.42C warmer, while worldwide
the temperature average increased by only 0.17C. This is explained by a decrease of the
amount of sun energy that is reflected back into space, and when ice melts into water,
land and sea surfaces increase and consequently the planet absorbs more heat. This
reflective capacity of light surfaces like ice is known as the Albedo effect.
As illustrated in Figure 1, ice reflects back into space 90% of the heat coming from the sun,
while land and water reflect back only 20 and 10% of the heat, respectively. With land and
ocean water warming up, ice melting also increases. The complete melting of the
Greenland Ice Cap could accelerate global warming, far beyond the 1.5C temperature
increase that was negotiated during the COP 21 in Paris in December 2015.

Figure 1: Ice, land and water medium

Figure 2: Greenland ice cap, April 2016

The ice cap we walked on is shown in Figure 2. Additional scientific evidence also points
to a seasonal change in energy transport due to an increase in cloud and water vapour
concentrations, to be responsible for increasing Arctic temperature.
Recent NASA satellite observations have indicated that the Greenland Ice Cap or ice
sheet is continuously shrinking between 1996 and 2007. If the total ice sheet would melt
the sea water level would rise between 5-7 m. The evolution of the melting ice cap is
illustrated in Figure 3, showing that more land around Greenland will be exposed. In the
middle of Greenland, the ice cap thickness is up to 2500 m.

Figure 3: The slow melting of the Greenland Ice Cap.


When I experienced the Arctic winter in April 2016, the temperatures were between +5 and
-10C. This temperature was unusually high according to the local population. The spring
was one month earlier, and snow and ice already started to melt. At this time of the year,
everything should be frozen. Figures 4 and 5 shows the ice melting.

Figures 4 & 5: The melting of the Ice Cap at Kangerlussuaq, April 2016

In mid-November 2016, the average air temperature at the Nord Pole was 20C above
normal. It should have been around -20 and -30C. When it was recorded the temperature
was around 0C. This climate change cannot be denied, something is happening. Since
1900 the average air temperature has increased by around 3C in this region.
From Nuuk, I took a one-day boat trip to the Kapisillit settlement. At this period of the year,
the majority of the fjord should have been frozen, now it was only partially so. We could
moor the boat to the settlement pier. At the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources in
Nuuk, there was a big poster warning: The sea ice does not get thick anymore. It used to
get very thick, as thick as a mans height. Now it is very thin, less than a meter. Figures 6
and 7 shows such fact.

Figures 6 & 7: The thin ice sheet at the Kapisillit settlement, April 2016

The Ilulissat fjord has also seen its ice receding over time as illustrated in Figure 8. Since
1850 the ice head of the fjord moved increasingly inland on a yearly basis. Between 2001
and 2004 it had moved by about 10 km. This is another indication that more ice is melting,
and less ice is forming, thus reducing the fjord ice surface. Between May and September,


the ice is replaced by water that absorbs more sunlight (having a lower Albedo effect.) As
a consequence water and air become warmer, thus accelerating the ongoing thaw.
Since systematic satellite record began almost 40 years ago, in terms of the extent of the
melting of ice, 2016 was one of the highest on record. It would also indicate that new and
more icebergs break up into the sea as shown in Figure 9. Arctic ice helps cool the planet
as most of the sunlight is reflected back into space. But with increasing global warming the
climate and the weather pattern is affected worldwide.

Figure 8: Ilulisat Ice Fjord.

Figure 9: The breaking up of icebergs

Seal hunting
Due to an increased temperature, fishing and seal hunting can be practised earlier as
spring comes even earlier. Indeed I was invited to go out fishing and seal hunting.
While cruising around Disko Bay on a small boat to look for seals sticking their heads out
to breathe, and then being shot, I remembered that in the 1980s there was a big scandal
in Canada regarding the culling of baby seals. As their skin had more commercial value,
the baby seals were killed, sometimes in atrocious conditions. Greenlanders never
practised such killings, they only hunt adult seal to find a balance between the seal and
fish populations, and on a quota basis. At that time, Greenland had a big seal industry to
make products out of seal fur. Today, because of this Canadian scandal, the industry
disappeared and, as a consequence the younger generation of Inuits has a high
unemployment rate, sometimes leading to alcoholism and suicides. When I went seal
hunting, the hunter skinned and butchered the animal, but he left the seal fur on the floe as
it had too little commercial value. Today seals are hunted mainly for family consumption
and for dog food.

Figures 10 and 11: Seal hunting, Disko Bay, Ilulissat, April 2016

Conclusion
Due to increased surface air temperature and ocean warming, the melting of the
Greenland ice sheet occurs at an alarming rate. This is of particular concern. Indeed there
is a net loss of sea ice due to melting and ice flow discharge from ice fjords as sea ice
forms two months later than in the past and the melting period starts a month earlier.
Should the ice sheet completely disappear one day, many coastal cities and land will be
flooded, and eventually humankind will be able to go fishing in the North Pole. The Arctic
meltdown can also lead to more extreme weather such as hurricanes, floods, droughts and
heat waves, throughout the rest of the world, as it would alter the air pressure around our
planet's oceans. But whether this trend will continue, can only be observed over a much
longer time period, provided that global warming, as well as greenhouse gas emissions,
have stabilised. To this day, however, a levelling off of ice melting and carbon dioxide
emissions has not happened as indicated in Figures 12 and 13. Because of the declining
sea ice, so too does the traditional way of life of the Inuits as their culture is slowly slipping
away.

Figure 12: Reduction of Arctic sea ice.

Figure 13: CO2 recording at Mauna Loa Observatory

During Christmas 2016, a heat wave was recorded in the Arctic, and 2016 was also the
year where a new temperature record was set with record low ice formation. As the


temperature increases worldwide, so does increasing water evaporation making the
atmosphere more humid. Water vapour is also an important greenhouse gas and can trap
heat such as carbon dioxide and methane. Global warming will definitely continue.
Despite all these facts, climate change deniers are all over the world regardless of cultures,
political systems or religious beliefs. The deniers of global warming and climate change
must learn to understand why the current ice melting trend continuous unabated. They
should explore Greenland or any region in the Arctic, to face this reality. It is our social
responsibility, as world citizens, to protect the planets environment. Greenland is an
important region to protect. The world must anticipate possible catastrophic climate events,
must adapt to it, but also make the effort to prevent these changes. We cannot afford to
wake up just before the situation reaches the tipping point where global warming will
become irreversible and the Arctic Ocean likely to become an ice-free zone. That would be
catastrophic for humankind.

Sources
1. Jean Faullimmel, Greenland trip, April 2016
2. European Environmental agency, November 2012
3. NASA Global Climate Change
4. NASAs Earth Science News Team
5. National Snow and Ice Data Center, November 2016
6. UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affaires
7. Life Science, December 2015
8. National Geographic, January 2016.
9. Mauna Loa Observatory, Keeling Plot, Hawaii, 2016.