Denmark and Greenland must address the negative impact of a colonial legacy that has led to structural and systemic racial discrimination against the indigenous Inuit community, an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said Friday. The development would represent a key measure to tackle past injustices and create a more inclusive society, said UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples José Francisco Cali Tzay said at the end of a 10-day visit to the two countries. Inuit people comprise nearly 90 percent of the population of Greenland, an autonomous dependent territory of Denmark that was a colony up until 1953. They still face barriers to fully enjoying their human rights, according to Cali Tzay. "I was particularly appalled by the testimonies of Inuit women who reported that Danish healthcare providers had inserted intrauterine devices (IUDs) without their knowledge or consent. Some of them were as young as 12 years old," he said. Cali Tzay recalled reports of Inuit women living in Denmark whose children had been taken from them without their knowledge and consent and placed in Danish foster care. Read: More aid reaches Syria's quake victims but it's not enough: UN He urged Denmark to review its procedures for assessing out-of-home care for Inuit children and address structural bias within care services. Meanwhile, Greenland still faces numerous social challenges that relate to poverty and lack of adequate housing, appropriate quality education and scarce mental health support, he added.  "Around 20 percent of children in Greenland are estimated to have been exposed to violence and sexual abuse," he said, adding that the country has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. During his mission, the special rapporteur observed a lack of established mechanisms to implement the Inuit people's right to free, prior, and informed consent, including when allocating tourism concessions, implementing business projects, and adopting legislative and administrative acts in Greenland. "I urge Greenland's government to consult with the Inuit people whose traditional livelihoods will be directly affected by plans to expand mining, tourism and infrastructure," the UN expert said. He also hailed Greenland's extensive self-governance as "an inspiring example of an indigenous self-government in practice and a peaceful process towards self-determination for Indigenous peoples worldwide."

Scientists discovered the oldest known DNA and used it to reveal what life was like 2 million years ago in the northern tip of Greenland. Today, it’s a barren Arctic desert, but back then it was a lush landscape of trees and vegetation with an array of animals, even the now extinct mastodon. “The study opens the door into a past that has basically been lost,” said lead author Kurt Kjær, a geologist and glacier expert at the University of Copenhagen. With animal fossils hard to come by, the researchers extracted environmental DNA, also known as eDNA, from soil samples. This is the genetic material that organisms shed into their surroundings — for example, through hair, waste, spit or decomposing carcasses. Studying really old DNA can be a challenge because the genetic material breaks down over time, leaving scientists with only tiny fragments. But with the latest technology, researchers were able to get genetic information out of the small, damaged bits of DNA, explained senior author Eske Willerslev, a geneticist at the University of Cambridge. In their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, they compared the DNA to that of different species, looking for matches. The samples came from a sediment deposit called the Kap København formation in Peary Land. Today, the area is a polar desert, Kjær said. But millions of years ago, this region was undergoing a period of intense climate change that sent temperatures up, Willerslev said. Sediment likely built up for tens of thousands of years at the site before the climate cooled and cemented the finds into permafrost. Read more: Section of destroyed shuttle Challenger found on ocean floor The cold environment would help preserve the delicate bits of DNA — until scientists came along and drilled the samples out, beginning in 2006. During the region's warm period, when average temperatures were 20 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit (11 to 19 degrees Celsius) higher than today, the area was filled with an unusual array of plant and animal life, the researchers reported. The DNA fragments suggest a mix of Arctic plants, like birch trees and willow shrubs, with ones that usually prefer warmer climates, like firs and cedars. The DNA also showed traces of animals including geese, hares, reindeer and lemmings. Previously, a dung beetle and some hare remains had been the only signs of animal life at the site, Willerslev said. One big surprise was finding DNA from the mastodon, an extinct species that looks like a mix between an elephant and a mammoth, Kjær said. Many mastodon fossils have previously been found from temperate forests in North America. That’s an ocean away from Greenland, and much farther south, Willerslev said. “I wouldn’t have, in a million years, expected to find mastodons in northern Greenland,” said Love Dalen, a researcher in evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University who was not involved in the study. Because the sediment built up in the mouth of a fjord, researchers were also able to get clues about marine life from this time period. The DNA suggests horseshoe crabs and green algae lived in the area — meaning the nearby waters were likely much warmer back then, Kjær said. By pulling dozens of species out of just a few sediment samples, the study highlights some of eDNA’s advantages, said Benjamin Vernot, an ancient DNA researcher at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who was not involved in the study. “You really get a broader picture of the ecosystem at a particular time,” Vernot said. “You don’t have to go and find this piece of wood to study this plant, and this bone to study this mammoth.” Based on the data available, it’s hard to say for sure whether these species truly lived side by side, or if the DNA was mixed together from different parts of the landscape, said Laura Epp, an eDNA expert at Germany’s University of Konstanz who was not involved in the study. But Epp said this kind of DNA research is valuable to show “hidden diversity” in ancient landscapes. Read more: Zombie ice from Greenland will raise sea level 10 inches Willerslev believes that because these plants and animals survived during a time of dramatic climate change, their DNA could offer a “genetic roadmap” to help us adapt to current warming. Stockholm University's Dalen expects ancient DNA research to keep pushing deeper into the past. He worked on the study that previously held the “oldest DNA” record, from a mammoth tooth around a million years old. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you can go at least one or perhaps a few million years further back, assuming you can find the right samples,” Dalen said.

Greenland’s rapidly melting ice sheet will eventually raise global sea level by at least 10.6 inches (27 centimeters) -- more than twice as much as previously forecast — according to a study published Monday. That's because of something that could be called zombie ice. That's doomed ice that, while still attached to thicker areas of ice, is no longer getting replenished by parent glaciers now receiving less snow. Without replenishment, the doomed ice is melting from climate change and will inevitably raise seas, said study co-author William Colgan, a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. “It’s dead ice. It’s just going to melt and disappear from the ice sheet,” Colgan said in an interview. “This ice has been consigned to the ocean, regardless of what climate (emissions) scenario we take now.” Also read: Pakistan fatal flooding has hallmarks of warming Study lead author Jason Box, a glaciologist at the Greenland survey, said it is “more like one foot in the grave.” The unavoidable ten inches in the study is more than twice as much sea level rise as scientists had previously expected from the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet. The study in the journal Nature Climate Change said it could reach as much as 30 inches (78 centimeters). By contrast, last year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report projected a range of 2 to 5 inches (6 to 13 centimeters) for likely sea level rise from Greenland ice melt by the year 2100. What scientists did for the study was look at the ice in balance. In perfect equilibrium, snowfall in the mountains in Greenland flows down and recharges and thickens the sides of glaciers, balancing out what’s melting on the edges. But in the last few decades there’s less replenishment and more melting, creating imbalance. Study authors looked at the ratio of what’s being added to what’s being lost and calculated that 3.3% of Greenland’s total ice volume will melt no matter what happens with the world cutting carbon pollution, Colgan said. “I think starving would be a good phrase,” for what’s happening to the ice, Colgan said. Also read: Dangerous heat predicted to hit 3 times more often in future One of the study authors said that more than 120 trillion tons (110 trillion metric tons) of ice is already doomed to melt from the warming ice sheet’s inability to replenish its edges. When that ice melts into water, if it were concentrated only over the United States, it would be 37 feet (11 meters) deep. The figures are a global average for sea level rise, but some places further away from Greenland would get more and places closer, like the U.S. East Coast, would get less. Although 10.6 inches may not sound like much, this would be over and above high tides and storms, making them even worse, so this much sea level rise “will have huge societal, economic and environmental impacts,” said Ellyn Enderlin, a geosciences professor at Boise State University, who wasn't part of the study. “This is a really large loss and will have a detrimental effect on coastlines around the world,” said NYU’s David Holland who just returned from Greenland, but is not part of the study. This is the first time scientists calculated a minimum ice loss — and accompanying sea level rise — for Greenland, one of Earth’s two massive ice sheets that are slowly shrinking because of climate change from burning coal, oil and natural gas. Scientists used an accepted technique for calculating minimum committed ice loss, the one used on mountain glaciers for the entire giant frozen island. Pennsylvania State University glaciologist Richard Alley, who wasn’t part of the study but said it made sense, said the committed melting and sea level rise is like an ice cube put in a cup of hot tea in a warm room. “You have committed mass loss from the ice," Alley said in an email. "In the same way, most of the world’s mountain glaciers and the edges of Greenland would continue losing mass if temperatures were stabilized at modern levels because they have been put into warmer air just as your ice cube was put in warmer tea." Time is the key unknown here and a bit of a problem with the study, said two outside ice scientists, Leigh Stearns of the University of Kansas and Sophie Nowicki of the University of Buffalo. The researchers in the study said they couldn't estimate the timing of the committed melting, yet in the last sentence they mention, “within this century,” without supporting it, Stearns said. Colgan responded that the team doesn’t know how long it will take for all the doomed ice to melt, but making an educated guess, it would probably be by the end of this century, or at least by 2150. Colgan said this is actually all a best case scenario. The year 2012 (and to a different degree 2019 ) was a huge melt year, when the equilibrium between adding and subtracting ice was most out of balance. If Earth starts to undergo more years like 2012, Greenland melt could trigger 30 inches (78 centimeters) of sea level rise, he said. Those two years seem extreme now, but years that look normal now would have been extreme 50 years ago, he said. “That’s how climate change works,” Colgan said. “Today’s outliers become tomorrow’s averages.”

The Arctic and Greenland are on Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod's agenda when he visits the United States along with Greenland's Foreign Minister Ane Lone Bagger, the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.

Copenhagen, Aug 19 (AP/UNB)— Greenland is not for sale and U.S. President Donald Trump's idea of buying the semi-autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic from Denmark is "an absurd discussion," Denmark's prime minister said.

Tasiilaq, Aug 16 (AP/UNB) — Greenland said Friday it's happy President Donald Trump has taken an interest in the nation, talking to aides and allies about buying the island for the U.S., but that it's not for sale.