In Greenland, Potatoes Thrive as Seal Hunting Wanes

Rising average temperatures may transform life for millions over the coming decades, and dramatic changes in Greenland, near the Arctic Circle, could foreshadow some of the turmoil for the rest of the world. For centuries, the island's residents lived off ice fishing and seal hunting, accessing resources by dog sledding across the frozen sea. Today, however, climate change has thinned the ice, making such travel dangerous and subsistence hunting impossible. In its place comes the return of a lost Nordic agrarianism, with potato farming and sheep grazing on lush green hills now possible for the first time since the Little Ice Age, starting in the 13th century. Shrimp fishing, too, booms, and there are high hopes for tourism and the hydroelectric industry. Yet the economic benefits are not shared equally across the island, and the Inuit people mourn the loss of a way of life threatened by the environmental phenomenon. Greenland's example suggests that global warming, like so many aspects of globalization, will produce both winners and losers as it affects growing numbers of people worldwide. – YaleGlobal