MGIS: Greenland (AOS_2)

Question 1

location of Greenland

Answer 1

• Greenland is located in the Northern Hemisphere, north east of Canada within the Arctic Circle, and found between 60 and 83 degrees latitude north of the Equator
  
  • Word’s largest island and one of the two ice sheets in the world
  • Autonomous Danish dependent territory
  • Islands population is 57,000
  • 82% is ice cap with a small strip of inhabitable land along shore line

Question 2

reasons for current land cover changes in Greenland

Answer 2

• Global warming increasing melting but had also increased access to Greenland’s mineral resources (good for economy and to become more autonomous) (Qaaqarsuaq has probably got 50% of the world’s rare earth in it)
  
  • Surface melt: melting had reached higher elevations, the melting season (summer) is lasting longer and less snowfall has led to a net loss of surface ice
  • Accelerated glacial flow: widespread mostly on the south east coast and associated with large retreats and thinning of the ice sheet

Question 3

good statistics for Greenland

Answer 3

• The full melting of Greenland’s ice sheet could increase sea levels by about 20 feet
  
  • In June 2019 alone, Greenland’s ice sheet lost 80 billion tons of ice, according to the National Snow and Ice Data centre
  • In July 2019, the ice sheet lost 160 billion tons of ice
  • In an average year now, Greenland sheds about 250 billion tonnes of ice
  • The 2019 ice loss was approx. 370 billion tonnes
  • In July 2012, 97% of the ice sheet simultaneously melted
• Since 2003, Greenland’s melt rates have more than quadrupled

Question 4

spatial technology in Greenland

Answer 4

• NASA
  ○ Began in Spring, 2009
  ○ The IceBridge 2019 springtime flights use NASA Wallops Flight Facility’s P-3 Orion aircraft. The plane carries a comprehensive instrument suite: a high-resolution camera that generates georeferenced images of polar ice,
  ○ Using ice-penetrating radar data collected by IceBridge, scientists were able to build the first-ever age map of the layers inside the Greenland Ice Sheet which allowed scientist the study the history of Greenland’s ice layers

Question 5

local response to MGIS in Greenland

Answer 5

• Niaqornat is located on the north side of the Nuussuaq peninsula
• Trade is based on fishing
  
  • The waters are full of cod, Greenland halibut and bowhead whale
  • In 2011, Royal Greenland closed down the fish factory and trading facility in the settlement
  • Since then, fishermen have sailed 100km to Uummannaq or other settlements to trade their catches
  • In 2011, the inhabitants established KNT Aps, a private limited company that aims to maintain fish production in Niaqornat
• From the community’s perspective, maintaining trading and the fish factory and developing tourism are considered to be of vital importance to the survival of the settlement

Question 6

National response to MGIS in Greenland

Answer 6

• In 2011, the present government set a national greenhouse gas reduction of 40% reduction by 2020 compared to 1990 levels (endorsed by a majority in Parliament in 2014)
  
  • The 40% reduction target goes beyond international and UE commitments, underlining Denmark’s leadership approach on climate change
  • The government since the early 1990s have invested about 1% of Greenland’s GDP annually to expand hydropower production
• Hydroelectricity, in 2015, provided 70% of Greenland’s electricity
• roughly 725,000 tonne emissions in 2010, down to 520,000 in 2014

Question 7

What is the Paris Agreement?

Answer 7

• Signed 12 December 2015 at COP 21 (The 21st Conference of Parties) to govern climate change reduction measures from 2020
  
  • The key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial level
• this agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached
  
  • according to some scientist it will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050

Question 8

Is it effective?

Answer 8

• No detailed timeline or country-specific goals for emission were incorporated into the Paris Agreement
  
  • It becomes fully effective only if the 55 countries that produce at least 55% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, ratify the Agreement
  • More than 175 nations signed the agreement in April 2016 and each country is required to set a target for emission reduction, but the amount will be voluntary
  • There is neither a mechanism to force a country to set a target by a specific date nor enforcement measures if a set target is not met
  • At the current rate of global emissions we will exceed the 2 degrees C Paris target by 2030
  • Glacier loss in the Arctic in the period from 2015 to 2019 was more than in any other five-year period on record