Melting Ice Brings Competition for Resources

Climate change is freeing the Arctic of ice — and spurring a global competition for the natural resources stored beneath. Countries that border the sea are staking new territorial claims and oil giants are dispatching geologists. But what will the tug-of-war mean for the indigenous people and wildlife?

Bo Madsen, a climate researcher, is plagued by a simple question: How heavy is the world’s largest island? More importantly, Madsen wants to know how quickly its weight is changing.

“This is no academic question,” the Dane, a scientist at the National Space Institute and the Technical University of Denmark, yells over the whipping of the rotor blades. “The answer will determine the fate of millions of people.”


Greenland’s majestic landscape glides by beneath the helicopter. A mottled gray-and-white glacier tongue winds its way down a series of mountain slopes. Farther up, the jagged terrain gives way to a smooth, seemingly endless expanse of white, capped by a glistening aura that makes it difficult to distinguish between the sky and the surface of the ice cap.

The scientists have spent the last two hours flying over the edge of the inland ice in their Super Puma helicopter. The gigantic ice cap is close to three kilometers (1.86 miles) thick. If it were to melt, sea levels worldwide would rise by seven meters (23 feet), spelling the end for many coastal cities.

Spiegel