President Donald Trump has set his sights on Greenland — even as Greenlanders insist they do not want to be a part of the United States.
While the president says he wants the territory for “national security” purposes, his ambition ignores an inconvenient and increasingly concerning truth. The Greenland ice sheet, which makes up most of the autonomous Denmark territory, is rapidly melting and cracking, with global consequences.
“Picture yourself pouring a liter of water into the ocean, the stream quickly disappearing into the surf. Now imagine every person on Earth, all 8.025 billion of us, adding a liter of water to the ocean every 15 minutes, day in and day out, for the last 22 years,” wrote Dr. Twila Moon, the deputy lead scientist and science communication liaison at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “The steady and substantial influx of freshwater would change the ocean’s salt content, alter current patterns, and raise sea levels. This is what’s happening as the Greenland Ice Sheet shrinks.”
The more than 656,000-mile sheet — an area about three times the size of Texas — is nearly two miles thick, and contains about 696,000 cubic miles of ice.
Like the Antarctic ice sheet, the mass helps to reflect solar energy and cool the planet. It also serves as a global water tower, keeping fresh water frozen. The more fresh water that’s dumped into the ocean, the more currents that rely on a delicate balance of density, temperatures, and salinity can slow. Ocean circulation also helps to regulate the planet’s climate and is critical for the survival of marine life. Slowing currents can result in ocean warming and sea level rise — up to 23 feet in this case.
But, the oceans are already warming due to human-caused climate change and the fossil fuel industry that backed the president’s 2024 campaign. The greenhouse gases oil and gas companies emit heat the planet’s atmosphere. The ocean, which is one of Earth’s largest carbon sinks, takes in most of that heat and is acidifying with harmful effects to corals and shellfish, as it absorbs the polluting carbon dioxide that humans release.
The Arctic is warming at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world. And, the Greenland ice sheet is melting faster than Antarctica’s sheet. There is research to suggest that the entire Greenland Ice Sheet could melt by the year 3,000 if the world maintains its current levels of greenhouse gas emissions, the National Snow and Ice Data Center said.
Protecting the Greenland ice sheet from climate change is critical, Moon and scientists say. But, it also needs to be protected from other possible threats.
Notably, as the sheet melts more avenues are opening up for shipping and mining. And, Greenland could be a rich source of rare earth minerals, like those Trump seeks from Ukraine. Those include zinc, lead, and gold, according to the D.C.-based Brookings Institution. The U.S. Congressional Research Service estimated that the Arctic contains one trillion dollars’ worth of precious metals and minerals.
Valuable metals are found in the deep seabed, according to the Columbia Climate School. While contracts have been approved for seabed exploration, mining the ocean floor could cause serious harm to marine ecosystems.
The Arctic also holds 13 percent of undiscovered gas resources and 30 percent of undiscovered natural gas, according to an estimate from the United States Geological Survey, which is mostly offshore.
American oil companies have been exploring the possibility of drilling there for years. However, as Oil & Gas Watch points out, there are no roads or pipelines and the weather can be deadly.
Just four years ago, Greenland’s parliament passed legislation that banned uranium mining and voted to stop all exploration for oil and gas on the island.
Most of Greenland’s residents are Inuit, and they live along the coasts. Ice is a major part of their lives.
"Everything we do involves the ocean and sea ice, which is highly affected by climate change," Natasha Simonee, a member of the Inuit community in Pond Inlet, told the BBC in 2021.
They’ve had to contend with other outside interests, including the Australian mining company Energy Transition Minerals Ltd. They have been looking to construct a uranium mine near the town of Narsaq for years. Residents worry about the mining company’s plans and possible environmental and health impacts.
The fight for Greenland’s mineral wealth could be just as stressful.
"There is a lot of potential to make money from the ice sheet in terms of these minerals, that is no question," Joerg Schaefer, a climate geochemist at the Columbia Climate School's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told Newsweek. "But the land of Greenland belongs to the Greenland people. How can it be legal that a bunch of billionaires go in and steal the minerals from a land that is not theirs?"
