“Ecological grief”: Greenland residents traumatised by climate emergency. This is todays headline in The Guardian. Alarmist again. The article states that Greenlanders agree there´s climate change going on. Subtitles are. Islanders are struggling to reconcile impact of global heating with traditional way of life, survey finds. Followed by. Life on thin ice: mental health at the heart of the climate crisis. Not long ago I saw a Danish documentary from Tassiliaq. It was produced by Danish TV, DR. Title is The Town Were Kids Disappear. (Byn Hvor Börn Forsvinder). It focuses on child abuse, suicide and all the negatives which does exist in Greenland. Of course these realities should be told. But, as the study on climate change showes, it samples less than 2% of the population. Around a 1000 people. The same population as Qasigiannguit where we lived a year. Of course Qasigiannguit is not the most isolated town in Greenland, but I would say is a mixture of all ways of lives. On the great island. I put a lot of effort into asking locals about climate change. Everyone single one believed it was happening. And agreed that their life has become more complicated. Mostly due to strong winds from the East. Which helps making the ice too thin to use for travel. They become more isolated. And, I know from experience, isolation was the hardest to deal with. And Greenland is a very demanding place to live. But it is for real. Not everyone is made to live there. The same goes for London. And, most people I talked to about climate change didn´t talk or think too much about it. Daily life of surviving occupied their thoughts. Of course climate change is happening in Greenland right now. And I buy the scientific results and the danger we all are in. But I don´t agree or like this victimizing of Greenlanders all the time. They are an emotionally sensitive people. Same as me. Great nature meeting civilisation does that to you. In a good way. And some dark ones too. But that is life. Everywhere. This survey based on a thousand people is not correct. I believe they have target the most isolated communities like Qanaaq or Ittoqqoortormiit. They don´t accurately represent Greenland. Neither would Inverness or Penzance in the UK. These alarmist ways scares people away instead of making them aware of the problem. Links below.
