Global Warming and the People at the Top of the World

Potatoes make front-page news in Greenland now, and if potatoes never seem newsworthy consider this: Until recently, Greenland was too cold to grow potatoes, or most any other crop. But that's changing, and that is news.

The climatic shift the world is undergoing is nowhere more apparent, perhaps, than on Greenland, pop. 56,000. And the trade-offs that will come with continued unabated global warming are on display here, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

Potatoes are good, yes. But the loss of ice means distant towns once connected by dog sled are now isolated for months at a stretch, and the traditional hunting and fishing methods of native Inuit no longer work.

Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of Denmark, is also a key geopolitical location like at no time since Erik the Red colonized the land more than 1,000 years ago. Now, Greenland's affinity with Denmark makes that country a player in the race for the Arctic spoils that are opening up as the ice melts: Not only oil and natural gas reserves, but also shipping routes and new fishing grounds.

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