What Greenland Can Teach Us About The Earth’s Past and Future

About this episode

This episode explores the research happening in Greenland, focusing on its historical significance and current environmental challenges.

Politicians are eyeing Greenland as an important strategic location, perfectly situated between Europe and North America. President Donald Trump has said he remains highly interested in acquiring or controlling Greenland as a national security and economic asset. But for a lot of researchers, Greenland is a beautiful and fragile place that holds important clues to the Earth’s past and future. So what are they learning about the large, icy island? On this episode, we’ll explore some of the research happening in Greenland. We’ll hear about archeologists digging up Viking graves to find out why a settlement disappeared sometime in the 15th century, and talk to an adventurous climate scientist who tracks and follows meltwater that’s flowing from Greenland’s ice sheet into the sea. Also, what are the riches buried under the ice that everybody is interested in? We’ll find out how mining for Greenland’s rare earth metals could affect this ecosystem. We talk with writer and photographer Neil Shea about his travels to Greenland and the intriguing historical mystery he found there — the Viking settlement that thrived and then vanished 500 years later. Shea explains how and why Erik the Red…

People in this episode

Host: WHYY

Guest: Neil Shea

Topics covered

• Greenland
• climate change
• archeology
• Viking history
• rare earth metals
• environmental impact

Keywords

• Greenland
• climate science
• Vikings
• archeology
• ice melt
• rare earth metals
• environment

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Frostlines: A Journey Through Entangled Lives and Landscapes in a Warming Arctic

Places: Greenland, Europe, North America

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