Maybe Tourists Aren’t the Problem

What Greenland Taught Me About How Places Shape Behavior

Visitors arriving by zodiac from an expedition schooner to a remote shoreline in Greenland before a guided hike across fragile Arctic terrain.

An inflatable carried us from the schooner to shore in a remote part of Greenland. We were heading for a hike toward the glacier. The landscape was covered in thick moss and small Arctic flowers growing from the rock itself.

Before anyone began walking, our guide stopped the group and pointed toward the ground beneath our feet. Some of the moss we were looking at, she explained, can take decades to recover once it is damaged. When possible, step on the rock rather than the moss.

Another day in the small village of Ittoqqortoormiit, a pair of sled dog puppies tumbled over each other in the dirt. Cameras came out and a couple of people instinctively moved closer.