Greenland's ruling coalition collapses over airport funding
September 11, 2018
Pro-independence party Naleraq has quit the coalition over a plan for Denmark to part-fund an upgrade of three airports. Greenland's government picked Copenhagen as project partner over Beijing to avoid upsetting the US.
Greenland Prime Minister Kim KielsenImage: Reuters/A. Doyle
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Greenland's government lost its parliamentary majority on Monday amid a row between coalition partners over the funding of a planned upgrade of the autonomous Danish territory's airports.
Prime Minister Kim Kielsen's four-month-old ruling coalition was left with only 12 of 31 seats in parliament after Partii Naleraq, a pro-independence party, quit over a plan for Denmark to part-fund the project.
Danish funding for the project would imply a direct involvement by Denmark in Greenland politics and "we do not want to be part of that", Naleraq said in a letter quoted by local broadcaster KNR.
Kielsen said he was seeking to form a new coalition.
"I will talk to other parties about whether there is a foundation for a new coalition," Kielsen said on KNR. He told newspaper Sermitsiaq that he hoped to avoid having to call a snap election.
The prime minister's social democratic Siumut party and the two other parties in the coalition, Atassut and Nunatta Qitornai, support Danish involvement in the project.
Opposition party The Democrats have said they were open to discussing with Kielsen the possibility of creating a new coalition.
Copenhagen over Beijing
The row over funding escalated after Kielsen's government picked Copenhagen as project partner over Beijing amid concerns that Chinese investment could upset the United States. Speculation had been rife about a possible investment by China since Kielsen's visit to Beijing last year.
The airports that Greenland plans to upgrade are of strategic interest to both Beijing and Washington.
China sees them as crucial to its "Polar Silk Road" project. The US, on the other hand, considers Greenland strategically important for its military and its ballistic missile early warning system, as the shortest route from Europe to North America goes via the Arctic island.
Greenland is upgrading its airports to benefit from growing activity in the Arctic.Image: Imago/United Archives
Greenland is upgrading its airports in the capital Nuuk, the tourist hub in Ilulissat and at Qaqortoq in southern Greenland to cater for direct flights from Europe and North America.
Kielsen on Monday agreed to let Denmark pay 700 million Danish crowns (€94 million, $109 million) for a 33 percent stake in the state-owned company set up to build, own and operate two of the airports.
The deal was finalized during a meeting with Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen in Nuuk. Rasmussen said in June the Danish government, which controls the island's foreign and security policy, felt that it had a say in the airport project, considering its magnitude.
IceBridge is part of NASA's Cryosphere Program, which uses remote sensing to monitor Earth's major ice sheets - including the extent to which they are changing.
Image: Getty Images/M.Tama
Mapping the ice
Operation IceBridge studies the processes that link the polar regions with the Earth's climate system. Rapidly changing polar ice means researchers need to use highly sophisticated airborne technology to measure annual changes in thickness and movement - onboard a retrofitted 1966 Lockheed P-3 aircraft.
Image: Getty Images/M.Tama
Ready for takeoff
It's all part of a six-year project under NASA's Cryosphere Program, in which researchers are carrying out a series of eight-hour flights over Greenland (from March to May) and Antarctica (October to November) in order to accurately model a three-dimensional view of ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice.
Image: Getty Images/M.Tama
Ice meets cloud
In 2003, NASA launched a satellite called ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite) for the purpose of monitoring changes in polar ice. However, it suddenly stopped collecting data in 2009. With ICESat-II not expected to be ready for launch until 2018, researchers needed to somehow bridge the nine-year data gap between the two satellites.
Image: Getty Images/M.Tama
Keeping an eye on things
Enter operation IceBridge, which has been keeping a close eye on the polar ice - as well as its cute inhabitants - while ICESat-II is prepped for launch next year. Or is the hare rather watching over these strange bipeds?
Image: Getty Images/M.Tama
Climate change in action
The data collected during these missions is critical for researchers in predicting the effects climate change is already having on the polar ice, including a rise in sea levels. According to NASA scientists, on March 7, 2017, sea ice in the Arctic reached the lowest maximum wintertime extent ever recorded.
Image: Getty Images/M.Tama
Seeing past the surface
A glacier is visible through mist above Ellesmere Island. Operation IceBridge allows scientists gather valuable data by using special ice-penetrating radar, which only functions properly when used in lower altitudes.
Image: Getty Images/M.Tama
Melting landscape
Scientists have long warned that the Arctic Circle will be one of the regions hit hardest by climate change - and effects are already becoming evident. The darker the color, the thinner the ice.
Image: Getty Images/M.Tama
Rugged terrain
Once ICESat-II is up and running, it will have the ability to take continuous measurements over a much wider area - unlike the current aircraft-based method, which is limited only to annual surveys.
Image: Getty Images/M.Tama
Trapped icebergs
Icebergs are locked in sea ice, as seen from the research aircraft along the Upper Baffin Bay coast above Greenland. Aircraft-based research allows its human pilots to focus on specific areas of scientific interest, rather than simply conducting a flyover on a fixed path.
Image: Getty Images/M.Tama
Ice on the retreat
As in Greenland, the ice fields of Ellesmere Island in Canada are also gradually retreating due to warming temperatures. The future of ICESat-II is now in question, as US President Donald Trump has pledged to strip funding for NASA's entire earth science program.
