Greenland Climate Change

Homepage

  Climate Change

Global Warming

Glacier Accelerates

Fighting Warming

Testimony

Article courtesy of Project Thin Ice
Project Thin Ice 2005 is a Greenpeace Inc. production. © Greenpeace, Inc.

Greenland is Already Experiencing Climate Change

The nature of Greenland is changing due to climate changes and that is why Greenland's former Minister of the Environment, Jens Napatok, called for global action against climate change at the presentation of the Arctic Council climate report "Impacts of a Warming Arctic" in Copenhagen in November 2004.

"I cannot too strongly urge Denmark and its allies to do their very best to bring their influence to bear to ensure a global effort against climate change. The climate changes will have great consequences for our lives, not just in Greenland and the Arctic regions, but all over the world." --Then-Greenlandic Minister of the Environment Jens Napatok, during his presentation of the Arctic Council climate report in November 2004. Photo: Knud Josefsen.

"During the last few years, we have received frequent news of how the population of our country experiences climate change: the sea ice has grown thinner, the hunters of Northern and Eastern Greenland are unable to go hunting because of the lack of ice, the edge of the glacier has retreated in Ilulissat and the permafrost is thawing. These reports from the remote parts of Greenland are tangible testimonies to the effects that climate changes already have in our country. I believe we will hear many more accounts of this kind during the coming years: descriptions of the nature of Greenland undergoing changes." This was one of the things that Jens Napatok, at that time Greenland's Minister of the Environment, said when the Arctic Council climate report "Impacts of a Warming Arctic" was presented to the Danish media and public in Copenhagen in November 2004.

He finished off his presentation by saying: "I cannot too strongly urge Denmark and its allies to do their very best to bring their influence to bear to ensure a global effort against climate change. The climate changes will have great consequences for our lives, not just in Greenland and the Arctic regions, but all over the world."