From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Greenland
Kalaallit Nunaat
|
|
|
Anthem:
Nunarput utoqqarsuanngoravit
You Our Ancient Land
Nuna asiilasooq[a]
The Land of Great Length |
|
Location of Greenland in the northern hemisphere.
|
|
Kingdom of Denmark: Greenland, the Faroe Islands (circled), and Denmark.
|
Capital
and largest city |
 Nuuk
 64°10′N 51°44′W |
| Official languages |
Greenlandic (Kalaallisut)[a] |
| Other languages |
Danish[a] |
| Ethnic groups |
|
| Demonym |
|
| Sovereign state |
 Kingdom of Denmark |
| Government |
Parliamentary democracy within a constitutional monarchy |
| - |
Queen |
Margrethe II |
| - |
High Commissioner |
Mikaela Engell |
| - |
Prime Minister |
Kim Kielsen |
| - |
Speaker of the Inatsisartut |
Lars Emil Johansen |
| Legislature |
Inatsisartut |
| Autonomy within the Kingdom of Denmark |
| - |
Norwegian sovereignty[b] |
1261 |
| - |
Contact re-established |
1721 |
| - |
Ceded to Denmark[c] |
14 January 1814 |
| - |
Amt status |
5 June 1953 |
| - |
Home rule |
1 May 1979 |
| - |
Further autonomy and self rule |
21 June 2009[2][3] |
| Area |
| - |
Total |
2,166,086 km2 (12th)
836,109 sq mi |
| - |
Water (%) |
83.1[d] |
| Population |
| - |
2013 estimate |
56,968 (31 Mar 2014)[4] |
| - |
Density |
0.026/km2 (244th)
0.069/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2011 estimate |
| - |
Total |
11.59 billion kr.[5] (n/a) |
| - |
Per capita |
37,009.047 USD (n/a) |
| Currency |
Danish krone (DKK) |
| Time zone |
(UTC+0 to −4) |
| Drives on the |
right |
| Calling code |
+299 |
| ISO 3166 code |
GL |
| Internet TLD |
.gl |
| a. |
^ Greenlandic has been the sole official language of Greenland since 2009.[2][6] |
| b. |
^ Danish monarchy reached Greenland in 1380 with the reign of Olav IV in Norway. |
| c. |
^ Although previously under Danish monarchy for four hundred years, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland were formally Norwegian possessions until 1814. |
| d. |
^ As of 2000:
410,449 km2 (158,475 sq mi) ice-free;
1,755,637 km2 (677,855 sq mi) ice-covered.
Density: 0.14/km2 (0.36 /sq. mi) for ice-free areas. |
Greenland (
Greenlandic:
Kalaallit Nunaat [kaˈlaːɬit ˈnunaːt]) is an
autonomous country within the
Kingdom of Denmark, located between the
Arctic and
Atlantic Oceans, east of the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though
physiographically a part of the
continent of
North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with
Europe (specifically
Norway and
Denmark, the colonial powers, as well as the nearby island of
Iceland) for more than a
millennium.
[7] In 2008, the people of Greenland passed a
referendum supporting greater autonomy; 75% of votes cast were in favour. Greenland is, in area, the
world's largest island,
[8] over three-quarters of which is covered by the only contemporary
ice sheet outside of Antarctica. With a population of about 56,370
[5] (2013), it is the
least densely populated country in the world.
[9]
Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500
years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now
Canada.
[10] Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland, beginning in the 10th century, and
Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century. In the early 18th century,
Scandinavia and Greenland came back into contact with each other, and Denmark established sovereignty over the island.
Having been claimed by
Denmark–Norway for centuries, Greenland (
Danish:
Grønland) became a
Danish colony in 1814, and a part of the
Danish Realm in 1953 under the
Constitution of Denmark. In 1973, Greenland joined the
European Economic Community with
Denmark. However, in a
referendum in 1982, a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the
EEC, and this was put into effect when Greenland left the EEC in 1985. In 1979, Denmark had granted
home rule to Greenland, and in 2008, Greenlanders voted in favour of the Self-Government Act, which transferred more power from the
Danish royal government to the local
Greenlandic government. Under the new structure, in effect since 21 June 2009,
[11]
Greenland can gradually assume responsibility for policing, judicial
system, company law, accounting, and auditing; mineral resource
activities; aviation; law of legal capacity, family law and succession
law; aliens and border controls; the working environment; and financial
regulation and supervision, while the Danish government retains control
of foreign affairs and defence. It also retains control of monetary
policy, providing an initial annual subsidy of
DKK
3.4 billion, planned to diminish gradually over time as Greenland's
economy is strengthened by increased income from the extraction of
natural resources.
Etymology
It was the early Scandinavian settlers who gave the country the name
Greenland. In the
Icelandic sagas, it is said that the Norwegian-born Icelander
Erik the Red was exiled from
Iceland for manslaughter. Along with his extended family and his
thralls,
he set out in ships to explore icy land known to lie to the northwest.
After finding a habitable area and settling there, he named it
Grœnland (translated as "Greenland"), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers.
[12][13][14]
The name of the country in
Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) is
Kalaallit Nunaat ("land of the Kalaallit").
[15] The
Kalaallit are the
indigenous Greenlandic Inuit people who inhabit the country's western region.
History
Early Paleo-Eskimo cultures
In
prehistoric times, Greenland was home to several successive
Paleo-Eskimo
cultures known primarily through archaeological finds. The earliest
entry of the Paleo-Eskimo into Greenland is thought to have occurred
about 2500 BC. From around 2500 BC to 800 BC, southern and western
Greenland was inhabited by the
Saqqaq culture. Most finds of Saqqaq-period archaeological remains have been around
Disko Bay, including the site of Saqqaq after which the culture is named.
[16][17] From 2400 BC to 1300 BC, the
Independence I culture existed in northern Greenland. It was a part of the
Arctic small tool tradition.
[18][19][20] Towns, including
Deltaterrasserne, started to appear.
Around 800 BC, the Saqqaq culture disappeared and the Early
Dorset culture emerged in western Greenland and the
Independence II culture in northern Greenland.
[21]
The Dorset culture was the first culture to extend throughout the
Greenlandic coastal areas, both on the west and east coasts, and it
lasted until the total onset of the
Thule culture in 1500 AD. The Dorset culture population lived primarily from hunting of
whales and
caribou.
[22] [23][24][25]
Norse settlement
From 986 AD, Greenland's west coast was settled by
Icelanders and
Norwegians, through a contingent of 14 boats led by
Erik the Red. These settlers formed three settlements—known as the
Eastern Settlement, the
Western Settlement and
Ivittuut the "Middle Settlement"—on
fjords near the southwestern-most tip of the island.
[7][26] They shared the island with the late
Dorset culture inhabitants who occupied the northern and western parts, and later with the
Thule culture arriving from the north. Norse Greenlanders submitted to Norwegian rule in the 13th century, and the
Kingdom of Norway entered into a personal union with
Denmark in 1380, and from 1397 was a part of the
Kalmar Union.
[27]
The settlements, such as
Brattahlíð, thrived for centuries but disappeared sometime in the 15th century, perhaps at the onset of the
Little Ice Age.
[28] Apart from some
runic inscriptions, no contemporary records or
historiography
survives from the Norse settlements. Icelandic saga accounts of life in
Greenland were composed in the thirteenth century and later, and do not
constitute primary sources for the history of early Greenland.
[29] Modern understanding therefore depends on the physical data. Interpretation of
ice core and
clam
shell data suggests that between 800 and 1300 AD, the regions around
the fjords of southern Greenland experienced a relatively mild climate
several degrees Celsius higher than usual in the North Atlantic,
[30] with trees and
herbaceous plants growing and livestock being farmed.
Barley was grown as a crop up to the 70th parallel.
[31]
What is verifiable is that the ice cores indicate Greenland has
experienced dramatic temperature shifts many times over the past 100,000
years.
[32] Similarly the
Icelandic Book of Settlements records
famines during the winters in which "the old and helpless were killed and thrown over cliffs".
[33]
The last written records of the
Norse Greenlanders are of a marriage in 1408 in the
church of Hvalsey—today the best-preserved Nordic ruins in Greenland.
These
Icelandic settlements vanished during the 14th and 15th centuries, probably as a result of famine and increasing conflicts with the
Inuit.
[34]
The demise of the Western Settlement coincides with a decrease in
summer and winter temperatures. A study of North Atlantic seasonal
temperature variability showed a significant decrease in maximum summer
temperatures beginning in the late 1200s to early 1300s--as much as
6-8°C lower than modern summer temperatures.
[35]
The study also found that the lowest winter temperatures of the last
2000 years occurred in the late 1300s and early 1400s. The Eastern
Settlement was likely abandoned in the early to mid 1400s, during this
cold period. The condition of human bones from this period indicates
that the Norse population was
malnourished, probably due to
soil erosion resulting from the Norsemen's destruction of natural vegetation in the course of farming, turf-cutting, and wood-cutting,
pandemic plague, a decline in temperatures during the Little Ice Age, and armed conflicts with the Inuit.
[28]
The Thule Culture (1300 - present)
The Thule culture people are the ancestors of the current Greenlandic
population, and no genes from the palæo-eskimos have been found in the
present population of Greenland.
[36] The Thule Culture migrated from
Alaska
around 1000 AD, reaching Greenland around 1300 AD. The Thule culture
was the first to introduce to Greenland such technological innovations
as
dog sleds and
toggling harpoons.
1500–1814
In 1500, King
Manuel I of Portugal sent
Gaspar Corte-Real to Greenland in search of a
Northwest Passage to Asia which, according to the
Treaty of Tordesillas, was part of Portugal's influence. In 1501, Corte-Real returned with his brother,
Miguel Corte-Real. Finding the sea frozen, they headed south and arrived in
Labrador and
Newfoundland.
Upon the brothers' return to Portugal, the cartographic information
supplied by Corte-Real was incorporated into a new map of the world
which was presented to
Ercole I d'Este,
Duke of Ferrara, by Alberto Cantino in 1502. The
Cantino planisphere, made in Lisbon, accurately depicts the southern coastline of Greenland.
[37]
In 1605–1607, King
Christian IV of Denmark sent a
series of expeditions
to Greenland and Arctic waterways to locate the lost eastern Norse
settlement and assert Danish sovereignty over Greenland. The expeditions
were mostly unsuccessful, partly due to leaders who lacked experience
with the difficult arctic ice and weather conditions, and partly because
the expedition leaders were given instructions to search for the
Eastern Settlement on the east coast of Greenland just north of
Cape Farewell, which is almost inaccessible due to southward
drifting ice. The pilot on all three trips was English explorer
James Hall.
A 1747 map based on Egede's descriptions and misconceptions.
After the Norse settlements died off, the area came under the
de facto control of various Inuit groups, but the Danish government
never forgot or relinquished the claims to Greenland that it had
inherited from the Norwegians; and when contact with Greenland was
re-established in the early 18th century, Denmark asserted its
sovereignty over the island. In 1721, a joint mercantile and clerical
expedition led by Danish-Norwegian missionary
Hans Egede was sent to Greenland, not knowing whether a Norse civilization remained there. The expedition can be seen as part of the
Danish colonization of the Americas. After 15 years in Greenland, Hans Egede left his son
Paul Egede
in charge of the mission in Greenland and returned to Denmark where he
established a Greenland Seminary. This new colony was centred at
Godthåb
("Good Hope") on the southwest coast. Gradually, Greenland was opened
up to Danish merchants, and closed to those from other countries.
Treaty of Kiel to World War II
When the union between the crowns of Denmark and Norway was dissolved in 1814, the
Treaty of Kiel severed Norway's former colonies and left them under the control of the Danish monarch.
Norway occupied then-uninhabited eastern Greenland as
Erik the Red's Land in July 1931, claiming that it constituted
terra nullius. Norway and Denmark agreed to submit the matter in 1933 to the
Permanent Court of International Justice, which decided against Norway.
[38]
Greenland's connection to Denmark was severed on 9 April 1940, early in
World War II, when Denmark was occupied by
Nazi Germany. On 8 April 1941, the
United States occupied Greenland to defend it against a possible invasion by Germany.
[39]
The United States occupation of Greenland continued until 1945.
Greenland was able to buy goods from the United States and Canada by
selling
cryolite from the mine at
Ivittuut. The major air bases were
Bluie West-1 at
Narsarsuaq and
Bluie West-8 at
Søndre Strømfjord (Kangerlussuaq), both of which are still used as Greenland's major international airports.
Bluie was the military code name for Greenland. During this war, the system of government changed:
Governor Eske Brun
ruled the island under a law of 1925 that allowed governors to take
control under extreme circumstances; Governor Aksel Svane was
transferred to the United States to lead the commission to supply
Greenland. The Danish
Sirius Patrol guarded the northeastern shores of Greenland in 1942 using dogsleds, detecting several German
weather stations and alerting American troops who then destroyed them. After the collapse of the Third Reich,
Albert Speer
briefly considered escaping in a small aeroplane to hide out in
Greenland, but changed his mind and decided to turn himself in to the
United States Armed Forces.
[40]
Greenland had been a protected and very isolated society until 1940. The
Danish government had maintained a strict monopoly of
Greenlandic trade, allowing only small scale
troaking
with Scottish whalers. Nevertheless, wartime Greenland developed a
sense of self-reliance through self-government and independent
communication with the outside world. Despite this change, in 1946 a
commission including the highest Greenlandic council, the
Landsrådene,
recommended patience and no radical reform of the system. Two years
later, the first step towards a change of government was initiated when a
grand commission was established. A final report (G-50) was presented
in 1950: Greenland was to be a modern
welfare state
with Denmark as sponsor and example. In 1953 Greenland was made an
equal part of the Danish Kingdom. Home rule was granted in 1979.
Home rule and self-rule
The orthography and vocabulary of the Greenlandic language is governed by
Oqaasileriffik, the Greenlandic language secretariat, located in the
Ilimmarfik university Campus in
Nuuk.
Following World War II, the United States developed a
geopolitical
interest in Greenland, and in 1946 the United States offered to buy
Greenland from Denmark for $100,000,000, but Denmark refused to sell.
[41][42] However, in 1950, Denmark did agree to allow the United States to reestablish
Thule Air Base, which was greatly expanded between 1951 and 1953 as part of a unified
NATO Cold War
defence strategy. The local population of three nearby villages was
moved over 100 kilometres (62 mi) away in the winter. A secret attempt
to construct a subterranean network of nuclear missile launch sites in
the Greenlandic ice cap named
Project Iceworm was carried out from
Camp Century
from 1960 to 1966 before being abandoned as unworkable. The Danish
government did not become aware of the programme's actual mission until
1997, when it was discovered while looking for records related to the
crash of a nuclear-equipped
B-52 bomber at Thule in 1968.
With the 1953 Danish constitution, Greenland's colonial status ended as the island was incorporated into the Danish realm as an
amt
(county), also extending Danish citizenship to Greenlanders. This also
resulted in a change in Danish policies toward Greenland that consisted
of a strategy of cultural assimilation—or de-Greenlandification. During
this period, the Danish government promoted the exclusive use of Danish
in official matters, and required Greenlanders to go to Denmark for
their post-secondary education; many Greenlandic children grew up in
boarding schools in southern Denmark, many losing their cultural ties to
Greenland. While the policies "succeeded" in the sense of creating a
demographic shift turning Greenlanders from being primarily subsistence
hunters into being urbanized wage earners, the policy also backfired to
produce a reassertion of Greenlandic cultural identity by the
Greenlandic elite, leading to a movement in favour of independence that
reached its peak in the 1970s.
[43]
As a consequence of political complications in relation to Denmark's
entry into the European Common Market in 1972, a further desire to
establish the legality of Greenland's status formed in Denmark,
resulting in the Home Rule Act of 1979, which gave Greenland limited
autonomy with
its own legislature taking control of some internal policies, while the
Parliament of Denmark maintained full control of external policies, security, and natural resources. The law came into effect on 1 May 1979. The
Queen of Denmark,
Margrethe II, remains Greenland's
Head of state. In 1985, Greenland left the
European Economic Community (EEC) upon achieving self-rule, in view of the EEC's commercial fishing regulations and an EEC ban on
seal skin products.
[44] A
referendum on greater autonomy was approved on 25 November 2008.
[45][46]
On 21 June 2009, Greenland gained self-rule with provisions for assuming responsibility for self-government of
judicial affairs, policing, and
natural resources. Also, Greenlanders were recognized as a separate people under
international law.
[47] Denmark maintains control of
foreign affairs and
defence
matters. Denmark upholds the annual block grant of 3.2 billion Danish
kroner, but as Greenland begins to collect revenues of its natural
resources, the grant will gradually be diminished. It is considered by
some to be a step toward eventual full independence from Denmark.
[48] Greenlandic became the sole official language of Greenland at the historic ceremony.
[2][6][49][50][51]
Government
Greenland's
head of state is
Margrethe II,
Queen regnant of
Denmark. The Queen's
government in Denmark appoints a
High Commissioner (
Rigsombudsmand) to represent it on the island. The current commissioner is
Mikaela Engell.
Greenlanders elect two representatives to the
Folketing, Denmark's parliament, out of 179 total. The current representatives are
Sara Olsvig of the
Inuit Community Party and
Doris Jakobsen from the Siumut Party from the
Forward Party.
Greenland also has its own
Parliament, which has 31 members. The government is the
Naalakkersuisut whose members are appointed by the Prime Minister. The
head of government is the
Prime Minister, usually the leader of the majority party in Parliament. The current Prime Minister is
Kim Kielsen of the
Siumut Party.
Administrative divisions
Municipalities of Greenland
Although it is largely unpopulated, Greenland abolished its three
counties in 2009 and has since been divided into four territories known
as "municipalities":
Sermersooq ("Much Ice") around the capital
Nuuk;
Kujalleq ("South") around
Cape Farewell;
Qeqqata ("Centre") north of the capital along the
Davis Strait; and
Qaasuitsup ("Darkness") in the northwest. The northeast of the island composes the unincorporated
Northeast Greenland National Park.
Thule Air Base is also unincorporated, an enclave within Qaaquitsup municipality administered by the
United States Air Force. During its construction, there were as many as 12,000 American residents but in recent years the number is below 1,000.
Politics
The party system is currently dominated by the social democratic
Forward Party (14 MPs), and the democratic socialist
Inuit Community Party (11 MPs), both of which broadly argue for greater independence from Denmark. While the
2009 election saw the unionist—and largely Danish—
Democrat Party (2 MPs) decline greatly, the
2013 election consolidated the power of the two main parties at the expense of the smaller groups, and saw the far-left
Inuit Party (2 MPs) elected to the
Parliament for the first time.
The non-binding
2008 referendum on self-governance favoured increased self-governance 21,355 votes to 6,663.
In 1985,
Greenland left the European Economic Community (EEC), unlike Denmark, which remains a member. The EEC later became the
European Union
(EU, it was renamed and expanded in scope in 1992). Greenland retains
some ties with the EU via Denmark. However, EU law largely does not
apply to Greenland except in the area of trade.
Economics and business
About half of public spending on Greenland is funded by block grants
from Denmark which in 2007 totalled over 3.2 billion kr. Additional
proceeds from the sale of fishing licences and the annual compensation
from the EU represents 280 million DKK per year. Greenland's economy is
based on a narrow professional basis with the fishing industry as the
dominant sector with some 90% of its exports. In a few years, quarrying
and tourism could complement the fisheries that depend on the changing
prices of fish and fishing opportunities. The long distances and lack of
roads divides the domestic market into many small units that have high
operating costs. Most of the
fish factories are owned by
Royal Greenland.
Geography and climate
Greenland is the world's largest non-continental island
[52] and the third largest country in North America.
[53] It lies between latitudes
59° and
83°N, and longitudes
11° and
74°W. The Atlantic Ocean borders Greenland's southeast; the
Greenland Sea is to the east; the Arctic Ocean is to the north; and
Baffin Bay
is to the west. The nearest countries are Canada, to the west across
Baffin Bay, and Iceland, east of Greenland in the Atlantic Ocean.
Greenland also contains the
world's largest national park, and it is the
largest dependent territory by area in the world.
The average daily temperature of Nuuk, Greenland varies over the seasons from −8 to 7 °C (18 to 45 °F).
Southeast coast of Greenland.
The total area of Greenland is 2,166,086 km
2 (836,330 sq mi) (including other offshore minor islands), of which the
Greenland ice sheet covers 1,755,637 km
2 (677,855 sq mi) (81%) and has a volume of approximately 2,850,000 km
3 (680,000 cu mi).
[54] The highest point on Greenland is
Gunnbjørn Fjeld at 3,700 m (12,139 ft). The majority of Greenland, however, is less than 1,500 m (4,921 ft) in elevation.
The weight of the ice sheet has depressed the central land area to form a basin lying more than 300 m (984 ft) below sea level,
[55][56] while elevations rise suddenly and steeply near the coast.
[57] The ice
flows generally to the coast from the centre of the island. A survey led by French scientist
Paul-Emile Victor in 1951 concluded that, under the ice sheet, Greenland is composed of three large islands.
[58] This is disputed, but if it is so, they would be separated by narrow straits, reaching the sea at
Ilulissat Icefjord, at
Greenland's Grand Canyon and south of
Nordostrundingen.
All
towns and settlements of Greenland
are situated along the ice-free coast, with the population being
concentrated along the west coast. The northeastern part of Greenland is
not part of any municipality, but it is the site of the world's largest
national park,
Northeast Greenland National Park.
[59]
View of mountains on Greenland from the air
At least four scientific expedition stations and camps had been
established on the ice sheet in the ice-covered central part of
Greenland (indicated as pale blue in the map to the right):
Eismitte,
North Ice, North GRIP Camp and The Raven Skiway. Currently, there is a year-round station,
Summit Camp, on the ice sheet, established in 1989. The radio station
Jørgen Brønlund Fjord was, until 1950, the northernmost permanent outpost in the world.
Southern Greenland scenery, near
Nanortalik, where
fjords and mountains dominate the landscape.
The extreme north of Greenland,
Peary Land,
is not covered by an ice sheet, because the air there is too dry to
produce snow, which is essential in the production and maintenance of an
ice sheet. If the Greenland ice sheet were to
melt away completely, the world's sea level would rise by more than 7 m (23 ft).
[60]
Between 1989 and 1993, US and European
climate researchers drilled into the summit of Greenland's ice sheet, obtaining a pair of 3 km (1.9 mi) long
ice cores.
Analysis of the layering and chemical composition of the cores has
provided a revolutionary new record of climate change in the
Northern Hemisphere
going back about 100,000 years, and illustrated that the world's
weather and temperature have often shifted rapidly from one seemingly
stable state to another, with worldwide
consequences.
[61]
The glaciers of Greenland are also contributing to a rise in the global
sea level at a faster rate than was previously believed.
[62]
Between 1991 and 2004, monitoring of the weather at one location (Swiss
Camp) showed that the average winter temperature had risen almost 6 °C
(11 °F).
[63] Other research has shown that higher snowfalls from the
North Atlantic oscillation caused the interior of the ice cap to thicken by an average of 6 cm or 2.36 in/yr between 1994 and 2005.
[64]
However, a recent study suggests a much warmer planet in relatively recent
geological times:
Scientists who probed 2 km (1.2 mi) through a Greenland glacier to recover the oldest plant DNA
on record said that the planet was far warmer hundreds of thousands of
years ago than is generally believed. DNA of trees, plants, and insects
including butterflies
and spiders from beneath the southern Greenland glacier was estimated
to date to 450,000 to 900,000 years ago, according to the remnants
retrieved from this long-vanished boreal forest. That view contrasts
sharply with the prevailing one that a lush forest of this kind could
not have existed in Greenland any later than 2.4 million years ago.
These DNA samples suggest that the temperature probably reached 10 °C
(50 °F) in the summer and −17 °C (1.4 °F) in the winter. They also
indicate that during the last interglacial
period, 130,000–116,000 years ago, when local temperatures were on
average 5 °C (9 °F) higher than now, the glaciers on Greenland did not
completely melt away.[65]
Greenland bedrock, at current elevation above sea level
In 1996, the American Top of the World expedition found the world's northernmost island off Greenland:
ATOW1996. An even more northerly candidate was spotted during the return from the expedition, but its status is yet to be confirmed.
In 2007 the existence of a new island was announced. Named "
Uunartoq Qeqertaq" (English:
Warming Island),
this island has always been present off the coast of Greenland, but was
covered by a glacier. This glacier was discovered in 2002 to be
shrinking rapidly, and by 2007 had completely melted away, leaving the
exposed island.
[66] The island was named Place of the Year by the Oxford Atlas of the World in 2007.
[67]
Ben Keene, the atlas's editor, commented: "In the last two or three
decades, global warming has reduced the size of glaciers throughout the
Arctic and earlier this year, news sources confirmed what climate scientists already knew: water, not rock, lay beneath this
ice bridge
on the east coast of Greenland. More islets are likely to appear as the
sheet of frozen water covering the world's largest island continues to
melt".
[this quote needs a citation]
Some controversy surrounds the history of the island, specifically
over whether the island might have been revealed during a brief warm
period in Greenland during the mid-20th century.
[68]
Postglacial glacier advances on the peninsula Nugssuaq in West-Greenland
The 1310 m-high Qaqugdluit-mountain-land on the south-side of the
peninsula Nugssuaq, situated 50 km W of the Greenland inland ice at 70°
7’50.92”N 51°44’30.52”W, is exemplary of the numerous mountain areas of
West-Greenland. Up to the year 1979 (Stage 0) it shows Historical to
Holocene, i.e. Postglacial glacier stages dating back at least 7000 and
at most c. 10 000 years.
[69][70]
In 1979 the glacier tongues came to an end – according to the extent
and height of the glacier nourishing area – between 660 and 140 m above
sea-level. The pertinent climatic glacier- snowline (ELA) ran at c. 800 m
in height. The snowline of the oldest (VII) of the three Holocene
glacier stages (V – VII) ran c. 230 m deeper, i.e. at c. 570 m in
height.
[71]
The four youngest glacier stages (IV-I) are of a Historical age. They
have to be classified as belonging to the global glacier advances in the
years 1811 to 1850 and 1880 to 1900 (“Little Ice Age”), 1910 to 1930,
1948 and 1953.
[70]
Their snowlines rose step by step up to the level of 1979. The current
snowline (Stage 0) runs nearly unchanged. During the oldest Postglacial
Stage VII an ice-stream-network from valley glaciers joining each other,
has completely covered the landscape. Its nourishing areas consisted of
high-lying plateau-glaciers and local ice caps.
Due to the uplift of
the snowline about that c. 230 m – what corresponds to a warming about
c. 1.5° C –, since 1979 there merely exists a plateau- glaciation with
small glacier tongues hanging down on the margins that nearly did not
reach the main valley bottoms any more.
[71]
Fauna and flora
Inuit hunter with killed
grey wolf, March 29, 1914, near Schei Island.
The few land mammals in Greenland include
polar bear,
reindeer,
musk ox,
arctic fox,
wolf,
stoat, and
arctic hare. There are dozens of species of
seals and
whales along the coast.
Over 100 species of birds have been seen, and around 50 breed in Greenland.
There are very occasionally low forest of
birch or
willow and, in all, around 500 plant species.
Perhaps the most significant of Greenland's inhabitants is the group of microbes that colonize
cryoconite, a mixture of windblown soot and dust that contribute to rapid glacial melting.
Economy
Greenland today is dependent on fishing and fish exports. The
shrimp and
fish industry is by far the largest income earner.
[72] Despite resumption
[when?] of several
hydrocarbon
and mineral exploration activities, it will take several years before
hydrocarbon production can materialize. The state oil company
Nunaoil was created to help develop the hydrocarbon industry in Greenland. The state company Nunamineral has been launched on the
Copenhagen Stock Exchange to raise more capital to increase the production of gold, started in 2007.
Mining of
ruby deposits began in 2007. Other mineral prospects are improving as prices are increasing. These include iron,
uranium, aluminium, nickel,
platinum,
tungsten,
titanium, and copper.
Electricity has traditionally been generated by oil or diesel power plants, even if there is a large surplus of potential
hydropower. Because of rising oil prices, there is a programme to build hydro power plants. The first, and still the largest, is
Buksefjord hydroelectric power plant.
There are also plans to build a large aluminium smelter, using
hydropower to create an exportable product. It is expected that much of
the labour needed will be imported.
[73]
The
European Union has urged Greenland to restrict People's Republic of China development of
rare-earth
projects, as China accounts for 95 percent of the world's current
supply. In early 2013, the Greenland government said that it had no
plans to impose such restrictions.
[74]
The public sector, including publicly owned enterprises and the
municipalities, plays a dominant role in Greenland's economy. About half
the government revenues come from grants from the Danish government, an
important supplement to the gross domestic product (GDP). Gross
domestic product per capita is equivalent to that of the average
economies of Europe.
Greenland suffered an economic contraction in the early 1990s. But,
since 1993, the economy has improved. The Greenland Home Rule Government
(GHRG) has pursued a tight fiscal policy since the late 1980s, which
has helped create surpluses in the public budget and low inflation.
Since 1990, Greenland has registered a foreign trade deficit following
the closure of the last remaining lead and
zinc mine that year. More recently,
[when?] new sources of
ruby in Greenland have been discovered, promising to bring new industry and a new export to the country. (See
Gemstone industry in Greenland).
Transportation
Air transportation exists both within Greenland and between the
island and other nations. There is also scheduled boat traffic, but the
long distances lead to long travel times and low frequency. There are no
roads between cities because the coast has many fjords that would
require ferry service to connect a road network,
[citation needed]
Also the lack of agriculture, forestry and similar countryside
activities has meant that very few countryside roads have been built.
All civil aviation matters are handled by the
Civil Aviation Administration Denmark.
Kangerlussuaq Airport
around 100 km (60 miles) from the west coast is the major airport of
Greenland and the hub for domestic flights. Intercontinental flights
connect mainly to
Copenhagen.
In May 2007,
Air Greenland initiated a seasonal route to and from
Baltimore in the United States,
[75] but on 10 March 2008, the route was cancelled because of financial losses.
[76] In 2012, Air Greenland commenced seasonal, biweekly flights between Nuuk and
Iqaluit.
[77] Working in tandem with
First Air passengers can then continue to
Ottawa.
[78] Air Iceland began operating a twice-weekly
Keflavík-
Ilulissat route in July 2009.
[79] In addition to these routes there are scheduled international flights between
Narsarsuaq and Copenhagen. Air Iceland operates routes between
Reykjavík and Narsarsuaq, Ilulissat, Nuuk on the west coast and
Kulusuk,
Ittoqqortoormiit on the east coast.
Sea
passenger and
freight transport is served by the coastal ferries operated by
Arctic Umiaq Line. It makes a single round trip per week, taking 80 hours each direction.
Demographics
Greenland has a population of 56,370 (January 2013 estimate),
[5] of whom 88% are
Greenlandic Inuit (including
mixed persons). The remaining 12% are of
white European descent, mainly
Greenland Danes. Several thousand
Greenlandic Inuit reside in Denmark proper. The majority of the population is
Lutheran. Nearly all Greenlanders live along the fjords in the south-west of the main island, which has a relatively mild climate.
[80] Over 16,000 people reside in Nuuk, the capital city.
|
|
|
Rank |
Name |
Municipality |
Pop. |
Rank |
Name |
Municipality |
Pop. |
|
Nuuk
Sisimiut |
1 |
Nuuk |
Sermersooq |
16,464 |
11 |
Uummannaq |
Qaasuitsup |
1,282 |
Ilulissat
Qaqortoq |
| 2 |
Sisimiut |
Qeqqata |
5,598 |
12 |
Upernavik |
Qaasuitsup |
1,181 |
| 3 |
Ilulissat |
Qaasuitsup |
4,541 |
13 |
Qasigiannguit |
Qaasuitsup |
1,171 |
| 4 |
Qaqortoq |
Kujalleq |
3,229 |
14 |
Qeqertarsuaq |
Qaasuitsup |
845 |
| 5 |
Aasiaat |
Qaasuitsup |
3,142 |
15 |
Qaanaaq |
Qaasuitsup |
656 |
| 6 |
Maniitsoq |
Qeqqata |
2,670 |
16 |
Kangaatsiaq |
Qaasuitsup |
558 |
| 7 |
Tasiilaq |
Sermersooq |
2,017 |
17 |
Kangerlussuaq |
Qeqqata |
512 |
| 8 |
Paamiut |
Sermersooq |
1,515 |
18 |
Ittoqqortoormiit |
Sermersooq |
452 |
| 9 |
Narsaq |
Kujalleq |
1,503 |
19 |
Kullorsuaq |
Qaasuitsup |
448 |
| 10 |
Nanortalik |
Kujalleq |
1,337 |
20 |
Kangaamiut |
Qeqqata |
353 |
Religion
Most Greenlandic villages, including
Nanortalik, have their own church.
The nomadic
Inuit people were traditionally
shamanistic, with a well-developed
mythology primarily concerned with appeasing a vengeful and
fingerless sea goddess who controlled the success of the
seal and
whale hunts.
The first
Norse colonists were
pagan, but
Erik the Red's son
Leif was converted to Catholic Christianity by
King Olaf Trygvesson
on a trip to Norway in 999 and sent missionaries back to Greenland.
These swiftly established sixteen parishes, some monasteries, and a
bishopric at
Garðar.
Rediscovering these colonists and spreading the
Protestant Reformation among them was one of the primary reasons for the
Danish recolonization in the 18th century. Under the patronage of the
Royal Mission College in Copenhagen, Norwegian and Danish
Lutherans and German
Moravian missionaries searched for the missing Norse settlements and began converting the Inuit. The principal figures in the
Christianization of Greenland were
Hans and
Poul Egede and
Matthias Stach. The
New Testament
was translated piecemeal from the time of the very first settlement on
Kangeq Island, but the first translation of the whole Bible was not
completed until 1900. An improved translation using the
modern orthography was completed in 2000.
[81]
Today, the major religion is
Protestant Christianity, mostly members of the Lutheran
Church of Denmark. While there are no official census data on religion in Greenland, the Lutheran
Bishop of Greenland Sofie Petersen[82] estimates that 85% of the Greenlandic population are members of her congregation.
[83] There are still Christian missionaries on the island, but mainly from
charismatic movements proselytizing fellow Christians.
[citation needed] The first reported Muslim in Greenland, Wassam Azaqeer, made headlines around the world when he observed
Ramadan in Nuuk, requiring him to fast for 21 hours at a time.
[84][85][86][87][88]
Social issues
The rate of
suicide in Greenland is very high. According to a 2010 census, Greenland holds
the highest suicide rate in the world.
[89][90] Other significant social issues faced by Greenland are high rates of unemployment, alcoholism and HIV/AIDS.
[91]
Alcohol consumption rates in Greenland reached their height in the
1980s when it was twice as high as in Denmark, and had by 2010 fallen
slightly below the average level of consumption in Denmark (which is the
twelfth highest in the world). But at the same time alcohol prices are
much higher, meaning that consumption has a high social impact.
[92][93]
Languages
A bilingual sign in Nuuk, displaying the Danish and Kalaallisut for "Parking forbidden for all vehicles".
Both
Greenlandic and
Danish
have been used in public affairs since the establishment of home rule
in 1979; the majority of the population can speak both languages.
Kalaallisut became the sole official language in June 2009.
[94]
In practice, Danish is still widely used in the administration and in
higher education, as well as remaining the first or only language for
some people in Nuuk and the larger towns. A debate about the role of
Kalaallisut and Danish in future society is ongoing. The orthography of
Kalaallisut was established already in 1851
[95] and
revised in 1973, and the country has a 100% literacy rate.
[96]
A majority of the population speaks Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic),
most of them bilingually. It is spoken by about 50,000 people, making it
the most populous of the
Eskimo–Aleut language family, spoken by more people than all the other languages of the family combined.
Kalaallisut is the
Inuit
dialect of West Greenland, which has long been the most populous area
of the island. This has led to its de facto status as the official
"Greenlandic" language, although the northern dialect
Inuktun remains spoken by 1,000 or so people around
Qaanaaq and the eastern dialect
Tunumiisut by around 3000.
[97] These dialects are almost unintelligible to one another and are considered by some linguists to be separate languages.
[citation needed] A
UNESCO
report has labelled the other dialects as endangered and measures are
now being considered to protect the Eastern Greenlandic dialect.
[98]
An
Inuit family in Greenland, 1917.
About 12% of the population speak Danish as their first or only
language, many of them filling positions as administrators,
professionals, academics, or skilled tradesmen. While Kalaallisut is
dominant in smaller settlements, a part of the population of Inuit or
mixed ancestry, especially in towns, speaks Danish as their first
language. Most of the Inuit population speak Danish as second language.
In larger towns, especially Nuuk and in the higher social strata, this
is a large group. While one strategy aims at promoting Greenlandic in
public life and education, developing its vocabulary and suitability for
complex contexts, this approach is labelled "Greenlandization" by
opponents who do not wish to aim at Greenlandic becoming the sole
national language.
English is taught in schools.
[99]
Culture
School children in
Upernavik start their first day of school wearing traditional Greenlandic costumes
Greenland's culture began with settlement in the second millennium BC by the
Dorset Inuit, shortly after the end of the ice age.
In the 10th century, Icelandic and Norwegian Vikings settled in the southern part of the island, while the
Thule
Inuit culture was introduced in the north of the island and expanded
southward. The culture clash between two peoples is attested by the
discovery of a fragment of Viking chain mail at a high latitude of the
island, while a figurine carved from walrus ivory, clearly of Inuit
origin, was found in Bergen, Norway. Both objects must be understood as a
clear testimony of the trade between the two peoples.
Inuit culture dominated the island from the end of the Middle Ages to
the recolonization in the early 18th century, where European culture
was reintroduced.
Today Greenlandic culture is a blending of traditional Inuit (
Kalaallit)
and Scandinavian culture. Inuit, or Kalaallit, culture has a strong
artistic tradition, dating back thousands of years. The Kalaallit are
known for an art form of figures called
tupilak or a "spirit object." Traditional art-making practices thrive in the
Ammassalik.
[100] Sperm whale ivory remains a valued medium for carving.
[101]
Greenland also has a successful, albeit small, music culture. Some popular
Greenlandic bands and artists include
Sume (classic rock),
Chilly Friday (rock),
Siissisoq (rock),
Nuuk Posse (hip hop) and
Rasmus Lyberth (folk), who performed in the
Danish Eurovision Song Contest 1979, performing in Greenlandic. The singer-songwriter
Simon Lynge is the first musical artist from Greenland to have an album released across the United Kingdom, and to perform at the UK's
Glastonbury Festival. The music culture of Greenland also includes traditional
Inuit music, largely revolving around singing and drums.
Sports
Association football is the national sport of Greenland. The governing body, the
Football Association of Greenland (
Kalaallit Nunaanni Arsaattartut Kattuffiat), is not yet a member of
FIFA because of ongoing disagreements with
Sepp Blatter and an inability to grow grass for regulation grass pitches.
[citation needed] However, it is the 17th member of the
N.F.-Board.
In January 2007, Greenland took part in the
World Men's Handball Championship in Germany, finishing 22nd in a field of 24 national teams.
Greenland competes in the biennial
Island Games, as well as the biennial
Arctic Winter Games. In 2002, Nuuk hosted the AWG in conjunction with
Iqaluit,
Nunavut.
[102] Also in 2002 and previously in 1994, they won the
Hodgson Trophy for fair play.
[103]
