Visitors to the melting Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland in July / Getty Images
By Lisa Freidman, The New York Times
To imagine the kind of future a hotter, dryer climate may bring, and the geopolitical challenges it will create, look no further than two parts of the world that Donald Trump wants America to control: Greenland and the Panama Canal.
The president-elect in recent days has insisted that both places are critical to United States national security. He’s called to reclaim control the Panama Canal from Panama and acquire Greenland from Demark, both sovereign territories with their own governments.
They have something else in common as well: Both are significantly affected by climate change in ways that present looming challenges to global shipping and trade.
Because of warming temperatures, an estimated 11,000 square miles of Greenland’s ice sheets and glaciers have melted over the past three decades, an area roughly equivalent to the size of Massachusetts. That has huge implications for the entire world. If the ice melts completely, Greenland could cause sea levels to rise as much as 23 feet, according to NASA.
Greenland’s retreating ice could open up areas to drill for oil and gas and places to mine critical minerals, a fact that has already attracted international interest and raised concerns about environmental harms. And, ship traffic in the Arctic has surged 37 percent over the past decade, according to a recent Arctic Council report, as sea ice has declined. More melting could open up even more trade routes.
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