THE CLIMATE CRISIS : THE ICE LANDSCAPE OF GREENLAND

Greenland, is an autonomous territory of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. east of the Canadian Artic Islands. With a surface of 2,166,086 km² ( or 4 times the surface of France ) and a population of 56,225 (2019), Greenland is the least populated country/island in the world with a population density of barely 1 person per 0.03/km². The indigenous population consists mainly of Eskimos.

In 1979, Denmark granted self-government to Greenland. In 2008, Greenland chose to transfer more power to the local Greenlandic government. The Danish government is now only in charge of foreign affairs, security and part of financial policy ( mainly granting an annual subsidy of 3.4 billion Danish kroner ( or about 456,817,327 euros ). Although geographically part of the continent of North America, Greenland is politically and culturally associated with Europe. However, the country steers its own course and does not allow to be regulated by the EU.

Greenland is undoubtedly one of the coldest countries in the world. The vast majority of Greenland is permanently covered with snow and/or ice. Only during the short summer months temperatures do rise above freezing point along the coastal areas. The interior of the land has almost no days of thaw even during the summer.

About 95% of Greenland has an ice climate. Not all of Greenland is within the Arctic Circle: about a quarter is south of the Arctic Circle, and the southernmost point is almost at the same latitude as the northernmost tip of Scotland and southern Sweden.

The reason that even that part of Greenland is much colder than the north of Scotland or the south of Sweden is that at the height of Greenland there is no warm Gulf Stream, so the sea water is a lot lower in temperature and the climate on land a whole lot colder.

The sea barely has a warming effect in winter and in summer the cooling effect is stronger than in Europe, where the Warm Gulf Stream provides relatively warm sea water and a pleasant climate.

About 85% of Greenland's mainland is permanently covered with ice. This land ice is about one and a half kilometers thick and, by means of glaciers, causes ice to slide slowly toward the sea, where it breaks off into the sea under the influence of thaw and the sea. The thick ice cover also maintains the low temperatures in central Greenland.

The central part of the ice sheet is still growing. The total amount of ice in Greenland is hardly decreasing, if at all.

Summers in Greenland are cold (inland and north) to cool (coastal areas). In the southernmost tip, daytime temperatures can reach just above freezing point from May through October. Inland, freezing temperatures remain even in summer while the sun shines 24 hours a day in May, June and July.

Winters are very cold. In the northern part, temperatures drop to -15° over days -30° at night. Along the northernmost coast, where in the period November through February the sun does not even rise at all, the average daily temperature is around -30° degrees. The interior of the country is extremely cold in the winter period. - 50° is quite normal in the heart of winter.

The claimed global warming is not global. In Greenland it is still as cold today as it was 100 years ago.