Greenland is looking more and more like its name — and that's not a good thing.

What's happening?

The changing climate is melting the country's ice at an alarming rate, and similar shifts are happening across the globe. Greenland is 95% ice sheet, and the vegetation growing on the rest of the island and throughout the Arctic is "increasing global heating in a part of the world that is already warming up to four times faster than the rest of the planet, Adriana Craciun reported for The Conversation.

Craciun is an expert on the region, and she trekked to the 12th-largest country to explore this "Arctic greening." She wrote that trees and shrubs speed up the thawing of permafrost by introducing microbial activity. This also contributes to the release of long-held carbon, which is twice as prevalent in permafrost as it is in the atmosphere.

Her goal, however, was more about finding out where this nature-driven but human-caused greening intersects with a decentralized but concerted effort by the people of Greenland to grow greenery. Craciun's study was published in Environmental Humanities in March.

Why is this important?

"Greening sounds good compared to deforestation, but in the Arctic, the expansion of plant life amplifies dangerous feedback loops," she wrote. "… Arctic greening doesn't just take over land exposed by retreating ice — it probably accelerates ice melt."

The autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, which is inhabited mostly by Indigenous people, does not regulate plants. So, trees, bushes, and more are being planted by conservation organizations, companies, and citizens — without regard for their impacts. The objective, decades in the making with roots that date back 1,000 years to the Viking Erik the Red, is to create green forests, farms, and gardens.

The situation is so complex that it's almost impossible to untangle, Craciun said. But there is concern that invasive species could take over. On the other hand, there is a growing belief that today's invasives are tomorrow's natives.

The issue is that there's so much ice in Greenland that if it melted, coastal cities around the world would be submerged. 

What's being done about Arctic greening?

Craciun detailed how Greenland's move toward independence has coincided with a commitment to "[extract] rare earth elements and minerals for a fossil fuel-free future." 

Rising global temperatures are problematic for different reasons in different places. Elsewhere, extreme heat, wildfires, and drought are top of mind. But melting ice contributes to global sea level rise, which will lead to mass migration and destabilize societies on every continent.

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