A massive iceberg is threatening a small coastal town in Greenland. If any ice breaks off the structure, it could form waves powerful enough to wipe out the entire town.
The passing iceberg — weighing more than 11 million tons — has the potential to devastate an entire community if warm weather causes dangerous calving, according to reports on July 17. Some residents of the coastal town of Innaarsuit, Greenland, have already been told to evacuate.
Unfortunately for these Greenlanders, temperatures are still rising. June 2018 was the third-warmest on record, according to NASA scientists. And across the globe, multiple countries have set heat records (outside of an El Niño weather event). NASA came to this conclusion by analyzing data from more than 6,300 weather stations across the globe.
This warming trend has been attributed to human activity, especially in regard to the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane gas. The Greenland iceberg is just one small demonstration of the dangers of a warming earth.
If the iceberg passing Greenland were to calve, the 169 residents living in Innaarsuit may lose their homes.
The 650-foot-wide iceberg rises 300 feet above sea level. Images show the mass towering over the Greenland town, making it one of the largest icebergs to pass Greenland in recent memory.
So far, 33 residents within the danger zone have been ordered to move to higher ground. In the meantime, boat owners have been ordered to move their vessels away from the iceberg. While 95% of citizens in the United States live within an hour of navigable waters, citizens on the island of Greenland rely on boating and fishing for their livelihoods.
Luckily, there might be hope for the Greenland town.
Strangely enough, Greenland was one of the few areas across the globe that didn’t reach milestone warm temperatures this June. NASA notes the severe impact the heat wave had on residents across North America, including one death in Quebec, Canada. Fortunately, temperatures were within a normal range for Greenland.
This could mean that the immobile iceberg threatening the town may stay cool enough to prevent catastrophic calving.
In addition to global warming, human pollution is threatening the world’s oceans. Of the pollution washed up on U.S. coastlines, plastic bags make up 10% of all debris. As these plastics break down, they also pollute the ocean.
That’s bad news for places like Innaarsuit, which relies on hunting and fishing for a living. For now, the townspeople will just have to wait and hope the weather is in their favor.
