A startling photograph of huskies appearing to walk on water in Greenland has highlighted the rapid loss of sea ice and the threat to traditional dog sledding culture. The image, taken by climate scientist Steffen Olsen in June 2019, went viral as it showed the dogs wading through ankle-deep meltwater on sea ice near Qaanaaq, one of the world's most northerly towns.
Olsen said the reaction to the photo surprised him. 'I saw it as a scary situation,' he said. The melting was so extreme that the ice 'more or less melted beneath our feet while we were travelling on it'. Local hunters were also shocked, and the team had to turn back because there were no dry spots for the dogs and sleds.
The rapid melting threatens the traditional way of life for Greenland's hunters, who rely on sea ice for dog sledding. Normally, dogs are hesitant to get their paws wet, but on that day temperatures reached 14C, making the water less objectionable. Such early melting events can have a 'snowball effect', reducing the ice's ability to reflect sunlight and leading to further melting, explained Bianca Perren, a paleoclimatologist at the British Antarctic Survey.
Greenland experienced record ice loss in 2019, shedding 532 billion tonnes from its ice sheet. Extremes like this are becoming more frequent, with similar events in 2012 and 2019 occurring every few years, according to BAS marine geophysicist Kelly Hogan. The melting began in mid-April 2019, six to eight weeks earlier than the 1981-2020 average, and affected about 95% of the ice sheet.
Olsen, who has conducted research in Greenland for 15 years, said such extreme melting is unusual and local communities told him they expected to see it only once a century. The accelerating loss of sea ice not only impacts climate systems but also endangers the cultural heritage of dog sledding, which has been practised for generations.
