Legacies of Contamination
June 2018
Nuuk, Greenland
Legacies of Contamination
As the Greenlandic ice cap melts, natural resources on the island become increasingly accessible to mining, drilling and damming. Simultaneously, the melting ice reveals old NATO base camps. Toxic waste from camps flow into melted water. This double whammy will give rise to profound changes: economies topple, populations migrate, local identities transform.
This intensive course combined research, discussions, and fieldwork by bringing together students from Aalto University and University of Iceland and researchers, artists, community organizers, politicians, and activists in Greenland.
We sought to foment discussion between various interest groups in the Arctic region about environmental politics, economy and social and ecological transformations. The class lectures were open to the public in Greenland.