Why Greenland Matters for a Warming World

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By Somini Sengupta, The New York Times. 

Excerpt: ...the fate of the world’s largest island has outsize importance for billions of people on the planet. That’s because of the one thing that Greenland is quickly losing: ice. Most of Greenland’s landmass...is covered in ice. That ice is melting rapidly because the polar regions of the world are warming rapidly, with wide-ranging consequences for the stability of the Earth’s climate. Blame the burning of coal, oil and gas. Their emissions have driven up global temperatures, most strikingly in the Arctic, which is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the planet. As the Arctic warms, potential new trading routes open up, as well as access to mineral riches, including those that are vital for clean energy technologies useful for slowing climate change.... ...In the 12 months ending on Aug. 31, 2025, Greenland lost 105 billion metric tons of ice, according to scientists at the Danish Meteorological Institute, who published their findings in Carbon Brief, an online publication. ...Greenland’s ice sheet has been thinning for the past 29 years. It shrank by nearly 2,000 square miles from 1985 to 2022, according to a study published in Nature. ...Melting ice means more fresh water in the ocean, which raises sea levels, which can be dangerous for coastal regions all over the world. The global sea level has gone up by about four inches since 1993. ...If all the ice of Greenland were to melt — albeit an impossible proposition during this century — that could result in 23 feet of sea-level rise, or 7.4 meters, scientists say. Rising sea levels makes flooding worse during storms and high tides.... 

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