Based on reporting by WCAX

Wire reporting: (AP, via WCAX)

WCAX published an Associated Press report that Sweden-based research institute Nordregio is collecting place-tied personal accounts in Greenland under a project called Mapping Memories, with a linked exhibit that opened in September at the Icefjord Center in Ilulissat¹.

The AP account said the project so far includes nearly 60 stories, some describing homes affected by thawing permafrost and others describing hunting routes and traditions that residents say have become harder to maintain as sea ice thins¹. Icefjord Center director Karl Sandgreen, as reported by AP via WCAX, said the center wanted ordinary residents' experiences alongside scientific records, and that organizers plan more interviews, including in nearby Canadian communities, on an interactive map¹.

AP, via WCAX, said Ilulissat buildings, roads and pipes have been affected as permafrost thaws, and that archaeological objects including hunting tools dating back 4,000 years are emerging from ice¹. It cited UNESCO on the nearby Sermeq Kujalleq glacier as a major iceberg source outside Antarctica, NASA on faster retreat and calving, and a September Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland report that the ice sheet covering most of the island has lost more ice than it gained for 30 consecutive years¹. Survey researcher Signe Hillerup Larsen, as quoted in that AP report, said she sees no scenario in which the ice sheet would regain lost mass¹.

The dispatch tied the project to an annual U.N. climate conference opening in Turkey this week and said the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet¹. Individual interviews were not independently verified here.