On a mission among the ice: researcher Rachele Lodi (Cnr) explains to
Prism
the vodcast of
Evidence Network
because Greenland is today both the thermometer of the world and an unprecedented geopolitical challenge. Watch the video.
Once again at the center of the international debate, Greenland is a strategic territory also and above all from a scientific point of view. What specific features make it so unique? And why does all this concern us?
Rachele Lodi, Cnr researcher at the Institute of Polar Sciences, coordinator of numerous expeditions to Greenland, explains to us why the ice of this territory “weighs” so much for the planet’s climate, for the rise of the seas, for international scientific research and, increasingly, for the geopolitical dynamics that cross the Arctic.
An archive of data hundreds of thousands of years long
Talking about the Greenland ice sheet means referring to a gigantic mass of ice, with an estimated volume of about 2.9 million cubic kilometers, equal to about 6.7% of all the fresh water on Earth. These numbers translate into a natural archive of climate data accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years of infinite importance for understanding what can happen between now and the next few years. Hence the fundamental study of permafrost and the evaluation of what would happen if the parts of the territory made more accessible by melting ice were reached. The issue of pollutants re-emitted into the atmosphere is one of the most obvious risks but not only.
Dr. Lodi makes us reflect on how, from a technical and scientific point of view, reaching parts of Greenland which until now were inaccessible due to the ice “is not so obvious” and how entering such a complex and frozen territory for a long time “is not as simple as is being said”.
Greenland, a climate thermometer
Then, the inevitable climate issue. The largest island in the world, so disputed and at the center of political and economic aims, appears to be a fundamental thermometer that conditions the global present and future. Explaining the reasons for this centrality, Dr. Lodi, who will soon be back on an expedition to the Arctic, explains how researchers at this moment feel even more responsible for protecting the collection of data and ensuring its accessibility for all.
