When climate change is discussed, attention often focuses on melting glaciers and rising temperatures. In Greenland, these changes are already visible in everyday conditions, affecting how people travel, work and interact with their surroundings.
Research based on a survey from the Disko Bay region shows that environmental change is not only observed but experienced in daily activities. Thinning sea ice, shifting weather patterns and thawing permafrost affect transportation routes, infrastructure and access to traditional practices such as hunting and fishing. These changes influence how people move through the landscape and maintain their way of life.
At the same time, the natural environment remains central to daily life. In the Disko Bay study, most participants reported high levels of well-being, with 86 percent rating their well-being as good or very good. Spending time in nature was also linked to higher life satisfaction. Activities such as hunting, fishing and time spent outdoors continue to play an important role in supporting mental well-being and social cohesion.
A broader picture emerges from survey data across Greenland. About 89 percent of respondents believe climate change is happening, and 78 percent report having personally experienced its effects. However, only around half identify climate change as mainly caused by human activity.
Rather than pointing to a contradiction, these findings highlight a difference between experience and interpretation. Environmental change is widely observed and felt, but it is not always framed in the same terms as scientific explanations. In communities where adapting to changing conditions has long been part of life, such changes may be understood as part of ongoing environmental variability.
(Figure: Minor et al. 2023, Nature Climate Change)
The survey results also show differences across regions and social groups. People living in smaller settlements and those engaged in hunting and fishing report more frequent experiences of environmental change. Awareness of human-driven climate change, by contrast, tends to be higher in larger towns and among people with higher levels of formal education. Younger respondents are also less likely to link climate change to human activity than older groups.
Taken together, these findings suggest that climate change in Greenland is both immediate and interpreted through local experience. People are already living with its effects, while making sense of them through local knowledge and experience. Continued monitoring of these changes, and of their effects on daily life and well-being, will be important for understanding how communities respond in the future.
Léa Zinsli, PolarJournal