The Greenland Connection
The climate is warming rapidly. Sea levels are rising. And Greenland’s ice is melting at a faster rate than ever before.
In 2010, one of the world’s fastest-moving glaciers in western Greenland, the Ilulissat glacier, also known as Jakobshavn, retreated by a mile in a single summer day.
But why does that matter to us here in the Lowcountry?
Charleston residents have more in common with Greenlanders than you might think. Sure, our coastline has sand and palm trees, while the Arctic coast is speckled with giant icebergs. But our ways of life are dependent on many of the same things.
As in South Carolina, tourism and fishing in Greenland are important industries. Fishers in speedboats set lines as long as half a mile in the Ilulissat Icejford, hoping to hook halibut. In the background, icebergs as tall as 300 feet float by. Tourism also is growing, as scientists, reporters and others arrive to see climate change in action. Greenland has become an international laboratory.
Settlements dot Greenland's coast, with bright pink, blue, red and yellow homes reminiscent of Charleston’s Rainbow Row. The colors break up the monotonous white landscape in wintertime.
Another connection? Sea level rise. Greenland’s melting glaciers are one of the main contributors. Researchers warn that rapid melting of the ice sheet could soon bring us to a tipping point. If the entire ice sheet melted, global sea levels would rise by more than 20 feet.
People along South Carolina's coast know what happens when seas rise: Water enters storefronts; it interrupts morning and afternoon commutes; it raises insurance rates. Lowcountry residents already are making changes. Some are raising homes. Others, who can't afford this, trudge through ever-higher floodwaters. Meanwhile, the city is studying a billion-dollar plan to build a seawall around its historic downtown.
In Greenland, their unique dog sledding culture is at risk. Some hunters have transitioned from using sled dogs, or qimmeq in Greenlandic, to boats because of thinning sea ice. The dog population there has decreased by more than 50 percent in the last two decades.
As one fisher in Ilulissat put it, "No ice, no money."
Greenland's melting ice is part a larger pattern: Extreme weather. We're seeing stronger storms, deadlier heat waves and more frequent floods. All of us are affected in one way or another, whether in Charleston or above the Arctic Circle. Like the weather, we're connected in more ways than we may first think.
Left: An iceberg in Disko Bay outside Ilulissat, Greenland. Right: The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge spans the Cooper River in Charleston.
Adam Lyberth, a guide based in Kangerlussuaq, maneuvers around blue-and-white hills of ice and snow on the Greenland ice sheet on Aug. 13, 2021. An Inuit shaman, he says he’s walked on the ice more than 3,000 times, and that he sees it change every day.
Left: Kristina Kilman, a geology teacher from Sweden, looks out at icebergs from a tour boat in Ilulissat, Greenland. Right: Tonya O’Neal navigates floodwaters near her home in Charleston.
Meltwater pours off sides of an iceberg in the Ilulissat ice fjord, creating streams that sound like a drenching rain August 9, 2021.
Icebergs form a spectacular backdrop in the town of Ilulissat, the third-largest city in Greenland with a population of 4,670, on Aug. 9, 2021.
Left: Broken ice floats up against rock in a dead Greenland glacier. Right: High tide waters fill the marsh near Isle of Palms, SC.
A tour guide holds up a piece of ice for tourists while sailing around icebergs in Disko Bay on August 4, 2021.
Left: Fishermen navigate the Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland. Right: Crabbers cast nets in West Ashley’s Northbridge Park.
A halibut angler in Ilulissat places hooks on a longline in the harbor on Aug. 8, 2021. Fishing is the primary industry of Greenland’s economy.
Left: Colorful homes dot the edge of the town of Ilulissat in Greenland. Right: A tourist takes a picture of Charleston’s “Rainbow Row.”
A sled dog howls around dinnertime in Ilulissat on Monday, August 9, 2021. The number of sled dogs, which are a huge part of the Greenlandic culture used for hunting and transportation, has decreased over the years in part because climate change reduces the amount of ice and snow.
Left: An iceberg broken off from the Ilulissat glacier in Greenland. Right: A tide washes over trees on Botany Bay’s beach, which has been eroded by rising seas.
A cemetery above Ilulissat frames a view of Disko Bay, as giant icebergs float out to sea August 9, 2021. A Greenlandic tradition is to bury loved ones in places with beautiful views and close to hunting grounds.
Josh Willis, a climate scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the head of the Oceans Melting Greenland project, discusses what is happening in Greenland and the implication it has on sea level rise.
