Why Greenland is important for a warming world

It turns out that the fate of the world’s largest island has outsized importance for billions of people on the planet.

This is because of something Greenland is rapidly losing:

Most of Greenland’s land area, which occupies about 2 million square kilometers in total, is covered in ice.

This ice is melting rapidly due to the rapid warming of the world’s polar regions, with broad consequences for the stability of Earth’s climate.

The burning of coal, oil and gas is to blame.

Its emissions have raised the global temperaturesespecially in the Arctic, which is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the planet.

As the Arctic warms, it opens up new potential trade routes, as well as access to mineral wealth, including those vital for clean energy technologies useful in curbing climate change.

In short, climate change makes the Arctic more accessible and a strategic target for world powers, a fact that the president Donald Trump has not been overlooked.

“His fixation on Greenland is an admission that the climate change is real“said John Conger, a former Pentagon official in the Obama administration who is now an adviser to the Center for Climate and Security, a research institute.

Trump administration officials, who have repeatedly threatened to seize the territory, will meet with officials from Greenland and Denmark on Wednesday.

Here are three aspects related to the global climate that should be taken into account.

In the 12 months ending August 31, 2025, Greenland lost 105 billion metric tons of iceaccording to scientists at the Danish Meteorological Institute, who published their findings in Carbon Brief, an online publication.

That was not an anomaly.

The Greenland ice sheet has been thinning for the past 29 years.

It shrank by nearly 2,000 square miles between 1985 and 2022, according to a study published in Nature.

Melting ice means more freshwater in the ocean, raising sea levels, which can be dangerous for coastal regions around the world.

Global sea level has risen approximately 10 cm since 1993.

If all of Greenland’s ice were to melt—albeit an impossible possibility this century—sea level could rise by 7 meters, or 7.4 meters, according to scientists.

Rising sea levels exacerbate flooding during storms and high tides.

“Greenland is on an unstoppable trajectory toward melting,” said Sarah Das, a glaciologist and scientist emeritus at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The loss of sea ice has another effect.

As it melts, it reduces the total shiny surface area that can reflect sunlight back into the atmosphere.

The ocean absorbs a greater amount of solar heat and, in turn, this it gets hot even more.

Additionally, there is the effect on ocean circulation patterns. Recent research suggests that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet is helping to slow down a network of ocean currents, with the potential to affect weather patterns even in the Southern Hemisphere.

Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, sits on a wide variety of minerals, such as graphite, zinc and rare earths.

Many of them are important for European Union countries as they seek to expand the adoption of renewable energy technologies.

The most of the raw materials that the bloc of 27 countries has identified as essential are found in Greenland.

Graphite is essential for batteries, for example, and China dominates the global graphite market.

Some of Trump’s allies have invested in mining interests in and around Greenland.

Extracting these minerals is not an easy task due to the large amount of ice.

Additionally, the Greenland government has banned uranium mining, citing the risk of environmental damage.

Then there is oil.

Oil companies have been trying to extract oil in the ecologically sensitive Arctic waters off the coast of Greenland for 50 years.

In 2021, the government said it would stop granting oil exploration licenses, citing “climate, environmental considerations and economic common sense.”

The warming Arctic is already causing problems for Greenlanders.

Harbors tend to become shallow as the ice melts, and the melting of the permafrost can damage roads.

But climate change is also opening up a new sea route along the North Sea.

China is eager to exploit it as it would significantly shorten trade with Europe.

Beijing calls her “Polar Silk Road“, a maritime corridor that runs through the northern coast of Russia and is open only a few months a year.

Environmentalists warn about serious ecological risks which represents the increase in maritime transport, including the black carbon produced by the heavy fuel that powers ships.

The prospect of a new, faster sea route has fueled a race to build icebreakers.

Russia has the largest fleet, followed by several NATO members such as Canada, Finland and Sweden.

Conger said that made it even more worthwhile for Washington to strengthen its ties with NATO rather than pick a fight over Greenland with a NATO ally like Denmark.

“The United States is strengthened by being part of NATO,” Conger said.

“He has allies with capacity.”