|
The Danish-Greenlandic Environmental Cooperation The biggest island in the worldGreenland is the biggest island in the world. It stretches from Nunap Isua (Kap Farvel) in the south at 59°46' N lat to Odaap Qeqertaa (Odak Island) at 83°40' N lat. The polar circle crosses the country at 66°33' N lat, which means that north of it you can experience polar night and the midnight sun. The further north, the longer the periods of polar dark and polar light. The country covers an area of 2,175,600 km2. Only about fifteen percent of the country is free of ice; the rest is covered by the world's second-largest ice sheet: the inland ice. It contains nine percent of the world's fresh water, and is 3,500 m deep at its thickest. In some areas near the coast, mountaintops protrude above the ice, and form islands of land, known as nunatakker. In places where the glaciers reach all the way to the sea, icebergs break off and are carried away by the sea currents. The coast of Greenland, which is about 40,000 km long, consists mostly of skerries, with innumerable big and small islands and fjords. ClimateGreenland is located in the Arctic. That means that the average temperature in the summer is never over 10°C, that there is permafrost, so only the top layers of soil thaw in the summer, that the country has little rainfall, and no forests, only a little brush and bushes as tall as a man in south Greenland. The country can be divided into subarctic, low-Arctic and high-Arctic climate zones (see map). The lowest precipitation levels are in North Greenland, where there is arctic desert in some areas. South Greenland receives more precipitation, and is fertile enough for limited agriculture. Several systems of sea currents meet in Greenlandic waters. They influence the temperature and salt content of the sea, and thus the occurrence of marine organisms. The sea currents also determine the spread of the sea ice. Because of the sea ice, the areas from Qeqertarsuup Tunua (Disko Bay) north, as well as the east coast can only be navigated for a few months in the summer. Off of West Greenland from Paamiut (Frederikshåb) to Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg), is what is known as the open water area, where the fjords and waters near the coast freeze only occasionally in the winter. PopulationGreenland is divided into eighteen municipalities, each with a capital city and with fifty-nine villages in all. The population in 1996 was about 56,000, about eighty percent urban dwellers and twenty percent village dwellers. By far the largest part of the population lives in West Greenland, in Paamiut (Frederikshåb), Nuuk (Godthåb), Maniitsoq (Sukkertoppen), and Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg) municipalities. The southern municipalities, and the hunting regions, which include Uummannaq, Upernavik, Qaanaaq as well as Tasiilaq (Ammassalik) and Ittoqqortoormiit (Scoresbysund) municipalities, are the most sparsely populated. OccupationFishing is the main occupation, and is estimated to employ about 2,500 people directly, with about 3,000 employed in the fishing industry. Besides this, a number of people work in jobs related to fishing. Hunting is of direct or indirect significance for about twenty percent of the population, and is the principle occupation in Qaanaaq, Upernavik, Uummannaq, Tasiilaq (Ammassalik) and Ittoqqortoormiit (Scoresbysund) municipalities. Sheep and reindeer are raised in south Greenland. It is expected that tourism and the extraction of raw materials will become leading industries, and will supplement fishing in the future.
|