Greenland is getting greener helped by a mining company and a group of tree enthusiasts [Video]

As I walked through passport control in Reykjavik en route to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, the border agent asked me the standard question of why I was travelling. “To look at trees,” I answered.

He peered at me suspiciously through the glass and said: “There are no trees in Nuuk.”

“Yes there are; people are growing trees there, and there’s a forest in south Greenland.”

“I think you’re lying,” he said flatly, not having any of it. The Icelander seemed to be enjoying this little diversion from the rote reasons most travellers give for visiting Greenland: to see icebergs, Viking ruins, or polar bears.

I was indeed coming to Greenland for the plants – my first visit – and the people who cultivate them. That might sound strange, given that 95% of Greenland, the largest island in the world, is covered by an immense ice sheet. Alarming news about …