Greenland

Greenland (Greenlandic: Kalaallit Nunaat [kaˈlaːɬit ˈnunaːt]; Danish: Grønland [ˈɡ̊ʁɶnˌlanˀ]) is an autonomous country within the Danish Realm, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark, the colonial powers, as well as the nearby island of Iceland) for more than a millennium. In 2008, the people of Greenland passed a referendum supporting greater autonomy; 75% of votes cast were in favour. Greenland is the world's largest island, over three-quarters of which is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside of Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480 (2013), it is the least densely populated country in the world.

Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada.Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century, and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century. In the early 18th century, Scandinavia and Greenland came back into contact with each other, and Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island.

Tourism in Greenland

Tourism in Greenland is a relatively young business area of the country. Since the foundation of the national tourist council, Greenland Tourism, in 1992, the Home Rule Government (renamed 'Self Rule Government' in 2009) has been working actively with promoting the destination and helping smaller tourist providers establish their services. Foreign travel agencies have increasingly been opening up sale of Greenland trips and tours, and the cruise industry has had a relatively large increase in routes to (or passing) Greenland since about the turn of the century.

The country has spectacular scenery and a few historic sites. The everyday life and local culture of Greenlanders is one of the main experiences for adventure travellers to Greenland.

The main tourist activities on offer are sailing tours among icebergs, dog sledding tours, ice cap treks, wildlife spotting (including whale watching), iceberg watching, and hiking trips to the mainly Norse ruins.

Visit Greenland

Visit Greenland is the Greenland Self-Rule Government agency responsible for tourism in Greenland. The head office is in Nuuk Greenland. There is a subsidiary office in Copenhagen Denmark.

Society

A society is a group of people involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups.

Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap.

A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology.

South Greenland

South Greenland was a Danish colony on Greenland consisting of the trading centers and missionary stations along the southwest coast of the island. Its capital was at Godthaab (modern Nuuk). The northernmost town of South Greenland was Holsteinborg, which bordered Egedesminde, which was the southernmost town of North Greenland. This boundary between South and North Greenland ran at around 68°N degree of latitude, and in the South, South Greenland stretched to 59°30'N, or to the southernmost point of Greenland.

In 1911, as the administration of the colony was removed from the Royal Greenland Trading Department and folded into the Danish Ministry of the Interior, a provincial council (Danish: landsråd) was established. It was elected indirectly from the local councils and had little say in the management of the colony.

It was united with North Greenland in 1950.

See also

Greenland ice sheet

The Greenland ice sheet (Greenlandic: Sermersuaq) is a vast body of ice covering 1,710,000 square kilometres (660,000 sq mi), roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland.

It is the second largest ice body in the world, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The ice sheet is almost 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) long in a north-south direction, and its greatest width is 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) at a latitude of 77°N, near its northern margin. The mean altitude of the ice is 2,135 metres (7,005 ft). The thickness is generally more than 2 km (1.2 mi) and over 3 km (1.9 mi) at its thickest point. It is not the only ice mass of Greenland – isolated glaciers and small ice caps cover between 76,000 and 100,000 square kilometres (29,000 and 39,000 sq mi) around the periphery. If the entire 2,850,000 cubic kilometres (684,000 cu mi) of ice were to melt, it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m (24 ft). The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to under the term inland ice, or its Danish equivalent, indlandsis. It is also sometimes referred to as an ice cap.