Camping out in Greenland. It could well be a slogan from a travel brochure. In the coming days, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander is actually going to do it. On the invitation of the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the Dutch prince is going to visit Greenland, accompanied by leaders of science and industry.

The nature organisation wants to focus attention on Greenland because developments there and across the polar region are important to the Netherlands and indeed the whole world. The polar ice cap represents the largest sweet water supply of the northern hemisphere. The rising sea level as a result of the melting ice cap are of vital importance to a large number of countries, including the Netherlands, large areas of which are located below sea level.

Rapid rise
A leaked report from the Arctic Council shows sea levels will be rising between 0.9 and 1.6 meters between 2011 and 2100, much faster than assumed thus far. The rapid increase is mainly due to the increasingly rapidly melting polar ice cap. Just four years ago, the international climate panel IPCC predicted sea levels would rise between 18 and 59 centimetres in that same period.

The mission has been named SILA, an Inuit word for ‘the driving force behind all that lives’. In addition to Prince Willem-Alexander, WNF has invited Professor Robbert Dijkgraaf, the president of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. Other travelling companions will include Chairman of the Board Eric Oostwegel from engineering firm Royal Haskoning and WNF Director Johan van de Gronden. WNF views the trip as an example of how to bring together experts from different fields.

New possibilities
Three scientists from the University of Utrecht will give a number of lectures. The prince and his companions will also meet representatives of the indigenous peoples of Greenland. And debates will be held on how to improve international legislation regarding the Arctic, but also on new possibilities in the North Pole region. Global warming has made exploitation of fossil fuel reserves in the area easier.

Both WNF and the activist environmental organisation Greenpeace are fiercely opposed to the extraction of oil in the Arctic. Greenpeace has welcomed the WNF-sponsored trip to Greenland toe. The organisation says it’s high time some attention is paid to the area. Greenpeace has invested large sums in Arctic research. Climate and energy campaign leader Rolf Schipper says that preventing large-scale fishing operations in the area is as least as important as the fight against oil extraction.

The mission will also take Prince Willem-Alexander and the other participants to one of Greenland’s glaciers. What is more, they will spend the night there: in tents. Perhaps a welcome change of pace for the crown prince after all the Queen’s Day activities.

(gsh)

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