Yearbook 2008
Greenland. At the beginning of the year, Danish politicians demanded an investigation into data that the US CIA used Greenland as a stopover and gas station for illegal prison transport. When the government’s inquiry into the issue was presented during the autumn, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller claimed that there was no evidence that secret transport of terrorist prisoners had taken place at all. The opposition was dissatisfied and demanded more information.
New research reports on the melting of Arctic ice came during the year. The findings presented in the journal Science showed that the meltwater flowing down the Greenland ice sheet does not have the dramatic consequences previously thought. However, the calving of the ice when it reaches the sea has increased in recent years. The melting of Greenland’s entire inland ice would increase the sea level by seven meters.
Greenland was criticized in July the EU Commission’s plans to ban imports and trade in certain seal products. The proposal for a ban was justified by the fact that the sale was made in an unacceptable manner.
- ABBREVIATIONFINDER: Click to see the meanings of 2-letter acronym and abbreviation of GL in general and in geography as Greenland in particular.
The suicides of Greenland were so many during the year that there was talk of an epidemic. In the city of Tasiilaq with 1,800 residents, according to the police, almost every day someone tried to take his life. According to a survey, almost seven in seven Greenlanders had had serious thoughts about suicide in the past year, and the number of young people with suicidal thoughts had more than doubled.
During the autumn, a proposal for increased self-government was presented by a Danish-Greenlandic commission. It will give more power to Greenland authorities, Greenland will become official language and a new financial agreement will be signed between the Danish state and Greenland. Any future oil revenues should be shared equally, and when Greenland’s oil income exceeds the current Danish contribution of DKK 3.2 billion with a hundred percent the contribution is withdrawn. The proposal went to the referendum on Greenland in November, when just over 75 percent of voters said yes to extending the autonomy that has been in force since 1979. The proposal would then be considered in the Greenland County Council and in the Danish Parliament before it was expected to take effect in 2009.
Climate
Greenland has a polar and sub-polar climate, which is tempered on the west coast by the Greenland Current, which the North Atlantic Current and the Gulf Stream supply with relatively warm water. Around 100 km from the coast, the climate is clearly continental, similar to the climate of Siberia or Central Alaska.
The coastal strip, up to 150 km wide on the west coast, and all offshore islands are ice-free and have tundra vegetation that decreases sharply towards the north. In northern Greenland, the air temperature barely exceeds 0 ° C in summer.
Population 2008
According to Countryaah reports, the population of Greenland in 2008 was 56,527, ranking number 207 in the world. The population growth rate was -0.110% yearly, and the population density was 0.1380 people per km2.