Climate change, caused mainly by greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, is set to cause economic harm in almost all parts of the world by spurring ever more droughts, heat waves and floods, according to a UN panel.
Low-lying tropical island states from the Maldives to Tuvalu view Greenland’s 3,000-metre thick ice sheet with foreboding since it contains enough ice to raise world sea levels by six metres if it ever all melted, over many centuries.
But for the 56,000 inhabitants of Greenland, a giant island a quarter the size of the United States, the melt may be unlocking frozen assets and helping businesses including fishing, farming, mining, shipping and tourism.
“Unfortunately I can’t sit down and weep and say it [climate change] is bad because overall it’s good for Greenland,” said Henrik Leth, chairman of both Greenland’s biggest private company, Polar Seafood, and the Greenland Business Association.
His firm’s pre-tax profit rose to DKK 335 million (USD 51 million) in 2015 from 235 million in 2014 thanks to high prices for its main products, prawns and Greenland halibut.
About 90 per cent of the island’s exports are fisheries, and many hunters and fishermen welcome shifts in currents, apparently linked to warming, that have brought cod to west Greenland for the first time in two decades, and mackerel to the east.
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