Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences

Since US President Donald Trump stated his ambition to acquire Greenland by sale or by force, the upcoming election in Greenland and political discourse among the almost 60,000 Inuit inhabitants has acquired a new level of intensity. In a new article in the Journal of the North Atlantic & Arctic, authors Dr. Charles H. Norchi from the University of Maine School of Law and Dr. Amanda H. Lynch from Brown University cast light on the past, present, and future issues of international interest that Greenlanders face in the upcoming elections.

After President-elect Trump's comments about taking control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, Professor Amanda Lynch sat down for an interview with NPR's Leila Fadel to discuss the impact of climate change on these important trade routes.

Professor Amanda Lynch, who has studied climate change in the Arctic for nearly 30 years, spoke to the New York Times about president-elect Trump's calls to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal. She notes that the new trade routes created by ice melt could heighten the risk of environmental disasters. “An oil spill or some other toxic accident on that route is inevitable and could already have happened and we just don’t know it,” she said.

This week, the eleventh session of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Research Board considered critical developments in Artificial Intelligence for weather forecasting under the leadership of Board Chair Professor Amanda Lynch.

New research shows that, rather than an opening of the passage, the safe shipping season declined along several “choke points” through the Canadian Arctic, especially on the northern route. The finding matches expectations that ice will survive longest in the Canadian Arctic, noted DEEPS Professor Amanda Lynch, who was not involved with the study.

“There’s no scenario in which melting ice in the Arctic is good news,” said DEEPS Professor Amanda Lynch, the lead author on a 2022 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “But the unfortunate reality is that the ice is already retreating, these routes are opening up, and we need to start thinking critically about the legal, environmental, and geopolitical implications.”