Relevant DIS Study Tours
DIS is offering exciting study tours so students can get hands-on experience of climate related issues - and at a subsidized price! Please note that optional tours require an enrollment in a joint 1-credit course and the sign-up deadline is Friday, January 29th.
- Greenland: A Scientific Expedition (Optional tour). Greenland, part of the Kingdom of Denmark, appears to be experiencing climate change faster than any other inhabited area in the world. The research centre at Kangerlussuaq, which lies at the base of a 100-mile fjord, will be your base during your stay in Greenland from where you will be able to explore the natural beauty of the western coast. For more information, please click here.
- Sustainable Samsø: Academic Adventure Trip (Adventure trip). 100% renewable and environmentally sustainable energy in ten years – that and more is what the small Danish island of Samsø accomplished from 1998 to 2008. The two day trip to the island will give you the opportunity to understand how this very ambitious energy plan was accomplished - not only from a design and technology perspective, but the political and community procesess that made the project a success as well. For more information, please click here.
Special focus on Greenland
Greenland is one of the most talked about inhabited areas when mentioning climate change. In the last two or three decades, global warming has reduced the size of glaciers throughout the Arctic, particularly Greenland’s ice sheet. At one science station in the ice-covered interior of Greenland, average winter temperatures rose nearly 11 degrees Fahrenheit from 1991 to 2003.
The effects of climate change are not only seen in the vast amount of melting ice, but also in the feeding habits of the caribou. Plants are emerging earlier, and all at once across the landscape, so the caribou are arriving to find the plants they rely on are already past their prime.
Greenland is, by area, the world's largest non-continental island, as well as the least densely populated country in the world. So what do the Greenlandic people feel about climate change? It’s split. Some people believe global warming will increase the cod tremendously that thrive in warm water and will bring other species up from the south, while others are afraid that the shrimp, a chief export of Greenland, will disappear in the warm water with no new species to replace them.
Being a non-independent country, Greenland is represented by Denmark in international negotiations such as this December’s Copenhagen conference. At the moment, Greenland’s Home Rule Government considers joining the G-77, a group of poor countries such as Sudan, Suriname and Samoa which have low or negligible carbon emissions. Greenland is interested in joining this group because these countries are not subject to the same demands regarding emissions reductions as rich countries. If Greenland begins exploiting its natural resources on a larger scale, its emissions of greenhouse gases are expected to rise significantly. This could cost companies in Greenland billions of Danish crowns in carbon credits.
In few parts of the world is climate change more real and personal than in Greenland. There may not be a better time to visit Greenland than now, before the affects of climate change severely alter the nation’s icy landscape.
Below are links containing more about information on Greenland and climate change.
Greenland and Climate Change
Greenland has a key role in the climate debate. What are some of the issues Greenland faces?
Videos about Greenland
What does Greenland have to offer? What do townspeople think about climate change?
The Greenland Ice Sheet is an Awakening Giant
How worried should the world be about a collapse of the Greenland ice sheet?
In the Eye of Climate Change
The Ice CALORIFIC exhibition in Copenhagen focused on new forms of energy on arctic technology, research and prospects for tourism, oil, and agriculture within Greenland. Additional information can be found here and here.
