Greenland: The Intersection of Ice, Knowledge, and Power
- Kimberley Megis
- 12 hours ago
- 8 min read
Greenland exists where local realities intersect with global environmental and political forces.
Often portrayed as a remote and sparsely populated landmass, Greenland is a critical node in the Earth’s climate system. Its ice sheet is the second largest in the world and plays a central role in regulating global sea levels, ocean circulation, and atmospheric patterns.
photo: Tina Rolf
Greenland is also shaped by millennia of Inuit presence, adaptation, and environmental expertise. It is home to a small population of approximately 57,000 people, the majority of whom identify as Kalaallit Inuit.
The Kalaallit consist of three major groups including the Kalaallit of West Greenland, who speak Kalaallisut (west Greenlandic); the Livit of Kangia (East Greenland), who speak Livi oraasia (east Greenlandic) and the Inughuit/Avanersuarmiut near Thule who speak Inuktun (north Greenlandic).
In fact, Kalaallisut is the official language of Greenland and is spoken by most of the population, alongside Danish, which also functions as an official language.
Settlements are concentrated along the coastline where access to marine resources has shaped livelihoods, while the interior of the island remains largely uninhabited due to the dominance of the ice sheet and extreme climatic conditions. While urban areas, such as Nuuk, have grown in recent decades, many Greenlanders continue to live in smaller settlements, where hunting and fishing remain significant.
photo: Visit Greenland
Greenland’s economy is shaped by a combination of subsistence hunting, commercial fishing industries, tourism, and growing initiatives aimed at expanding the mining sector.
A Brief History of The Largest Island in the Northern Hemisphere
Human presence in Greenland is the result of successive waves of Arctic migration.
Ancestors of today’s Kalaallit Inuit, the Thule Inuit, arrived from the Canadian Arctic between 1000 and 1200 AD, bringing with them traditional knowledge and technologies adapted to northern environments. They developed subsistence strategies centered on hunting marine mammals, fishing, and seasonal mobility, which allowed them to thrive in conditions defined by limited terrestrial resources. Their settlement patterns followed coastal ecosystems, where access to wildlife and navigable ice routes shaped social organization.
At the same time, in 982, the Norse came to Greenland, led by Erik the Red. Between the 11th and 15th centuries, Norse settlers maintained communities in southern Greenland while Inuit populations occupied and adapted to surrounding Arctic regions, resulting in a period of coexistence.
However, by the 1500s, the Norse population had disappeared from Greenland, for reasons that remain uncertain. Scholars continue to debate the relative influence of climatic cooling, environmental degradation, economic isolation, and social rigidity in explaining their decline. Despite their disappearance, material traces of Norse presence endure and farm ruins, churches, and settlements remain visible across South Greenland and in the vicinity of present-day Nuuk.
In 1721, Danish colonization of Greenland began, with the arrival of missionary and trading initiatives led by Hans Egede. Initially motivated by the belief that Norse descendants still inhabited Greenland and needed to be brought under Protestant authority, Egede encountered Inuit communities. This encounter marked a shift in colonial objectives, as missionary efforts were redirected toward establishing permanent settlements and converting Inuit populations to Christianity. The creation of mission stations and trading posts laid the institutional foundations of Danish colonial administration, reshaping governance, religion, and economic exchange, which continues to influence Greenlandic society today.
Greenland’s path toward political independence has been gradual and closely tied to both decolonization processes and the assertion of Indigenous rights. For much of the 20th century, governance remained centralized under Danish control but after the Second World War and the broader global movement toward decolonization, Greenland’s political status began to shift. In 1953, it was formally incorporated into the Danish state, granting Greenlanders Danish citizenship but also reinforcing external control over political and economic decision-making, which sparked significant momentum toward autonomy.
The introduction of Home Rule in 1979 marked a critical turning point, transferring authority over a range of domestic affairs to a Greenlandic government. This process was then expanded with the Self-Government Act of 2009, recognizing Greenlanders as a distinct people under international law and granting control over most internal matters, including natural resources.
While Denmark retains responsibility for foreign affairs, defense, and currency, these reforms have strengthened political autonomy and reinforced aspirations for full independence. Debates over economic self-sufficiency, particularly in relation to resource extraction, remain central to Greenland’s ongoing pursuit of sovereignty.
photo: Visit Greenland
Kalaallit Qaujimajatuqangit and a changing Greenland
Kalaallit Qaujimajatuqangit refers to the cumulative body of Indigenous knowledge developed by Inuit communities. It includes environmental observations, but also encompasses ethical principles, social norms, and decision-making practices that guide relationships between humans, animals, and the land since time immemorial.
In the context of climate change, traditional knowledge provides a critical framework for understanding environmental transformation.
photo: Visit Greenland
A large portion of Greenland lies within the Arctic Circle, a region experiencing warming at a considerably higher rate than the global average. This rapid atmospheric warming has had profound impacts, especially on Greenland’s Ice Sheet, which blankets roughly 80 percent of the island’s surface, and has been losing an estimated 270 billion metric tons of ice per year since the early 2000s. At the same time, the coastal sea ice that has long structured ecological systems and human mobility is becoming progressively thinner, more fragmented, and increasingly unreliable.
Climate change in Greenland is first perceived through Inuit observation. Hunters and travelers monitor subtle indicators such as the texture and sound of sea ice, the direction and strength of winds, snow consistency, and animal behavior. These indicators have traditionally functioned as reliable guides for travel, hunting, and seasonal planning but are increasingly becoming less predictable.
The erosion of environmental reliability directly affects travel safety, increasing the risk of accidents, and complicates subsistence practices that depend on precise timing and local knowledge.
Narwhal Migration
Recent research indicates that narwhal migration patterns are shifting in response to the climate crisis, reflecting both behavioural flexibility and emerging risks. Narwhals, a migratory Arctic species found in the waters of Greenland, Canada, and Russia, typically spend the summer in ice-free coastal areas before moving to deeper offshore waters between late September and mid-November. Analysis of satellite tracking data collected between 1997 and 2018 from 40 individuals shows that narwhals have delayed their seasonal departure by nearly ten days per decade, amounting to an overall delay of approximately 17 days since 1997. The study also found that the initial phase of migration now takes an average of four additional days. These shifts closely correspond with regional trends in sea ice formation, including later freeze-up, suggesting that narwhals are adjusting migration timing in response to broad-scale climatic changes. Such scientific findings resonate with Inuit traditional knowledge, which has long emphasized the close relationship between sea ice conditions, animal movement, and seasonal timing, and which provides important contextual insight into how these changes are experienced and interpreted at the community level.
As environmental patterns become less consistent, elders face growing difficulty passing down experiential knowledge that was developed under different climatic conditions.
Traditional knowledge plays a crucial role in the study of climate change by providing long-term, fine-scale observations rooted in lived experience and continuous interaction with the environment. In Arctic regions, Indigenous knowledge systems offer detailed insights into environmental processes that are often difficult to capture through instrumental data alone, including subtle changes like animal behaviors for example. When integrated with scientific research, Kalaallit Qaujimajatuqangit enhances the accuracy of climate studies, while also challenging purely extractive approaches.
In Greenland, environmental knowledge is not isolated from governance. Instead, scientific research agendas, Indigenous epistemologies, and geopolitical interests evolve in direct interaction with one another.
Climate data generated in Greenland shapes international environmental policy, while Indigenous knowledge systems influence how environmental change is interpreted and governed at the local level.
This entanglement positions Greenland as a site of observation, and as an active arena in which global understandings of climate change, sustainability, and sovereignty are continuously negotiated.
Rare Earth Minerals at the Centre of Debates
Kalaallit Qaujimajatuqangit plays a decisive role in debates over resource extraction and environmental governance in Greenland.
The island’s geological endowment includes some of the largest undeveloped rare earth deposits in the world, notably at sites such as Kvanefjeld and Tanbreez in southern Greenland. This ultimately defines Greenland as a strategically important territory in the global race for rare earth elements.
Rare earth elements (REEs) are indispensable for modern technologies including permanent magnets in electric vehicles, smartphones, advanced electronics, and defense systems and Greenland’s rare earth resources position it as an alternative to the existing supply chains that are heavily dominated by China. Today, China controls a substantial majority of global production and processing capacity, prompting geopolitical concerns among Western nations.
This has shaped public debate over environmental protection versus economic development.
While some locals believe mines would be a path to prosperity and job creation, many others are profoundly resistant. Many communities fear environmental damage, interference with subsistence hunting and fishing, and the erosion of Indigenous cultural practices and ways of life.
At the same time, melting ice and longer warm seasons are increasing access to both mineral exploration and new shipping routes, further enhancing Greenland’s potential role in future global supply chains.
Uranium
Greenland’s legislative approach to uranium mining reflects deep local concerns about environmental risk and democratic control over resource development. Originally banned, uranium mining was authorized again in 2013 when Greenland’s Parliament narrowly voted to lift the ban in an effort to stimulate mineral development, particularly at major deposits such as Kvanefjeld. However, after sustained public opposition, especially from environmental groups, local residents, and fishing and tourism stakeholders, Greenland reinstated a new uranium mining ban in late 2021. The policy shift followed the electoral victory of the Inuit Ataqatigiit party, which campaigned explicitly on environmental protection and opposition to uranium mining.
The legislation underscores the tension between economic aspirations tied to strategic minerals and local environmental and social priorities that emphasize ecological protection and community well‑being.
The uranium mining ban in Greenland is particularly significant because it directly affects the development of some of the island’s most promising rare earth element deposits, since REE deposits are commonly co-located with uranium. In fact, there is an estimated 270,000 tons of uranium co-located in the Kvanefjeld deposit, making it the eighth-largest uranium deposit in the world.
The Kvanefjeld project has sought an exploitation license since 2019, but the project’s application has been repeatedly denied due to concerns with the deposit’s uranium content.
Although Greenland possesses significant mineral resources, only nine mines have been active on the island since World War II. At present, just two operations are ongoing: the White Mountain anorthosite mine and the small, high-grade Nalunaq gold mine.
To date, no rare earth element extraction has occurred.
photo: Visit Greenland
Greenland occupies a pivotal position in contemporary debates on climate change, not only as a physical indicator of environmental transformation but as a site where knowledge, power, and sovereignty are actively negotiated.
The accelerating loss of ice, shifting ecosystems, and changing wildlife patterns have drawn unprecedented scientific and geopolitical attention to the island.
Kalaallit Qaujimajatuqangit demonstrates that Indigenous knowledge in Greenland is, like in all places, a living system of expertise, and when integrated with climate science, shapes environmental understanding. While mobilized politically, Kalaallit Qaujimajatuqangit can influence policy outcomes, as seen in debates over mining and uranium extraction.
Read:
About the Author
Kimberley has a M.Sc in International Studies (Cooperation, Development, Economics) from the University of Montreal. She is passionate about biodiversity and Indigenous peoples' land rights. Kimberley has been working with NGOs for the past couple of years as a writer, translator and researcher.
Comments