Climate Change Blues

With the easing of pandemic restrictions, certain architecture schools have resumed their semesterly tradition of sending their students and professors to far-flung locales around the world. At Yale, the last week of September found my peers in Bangkok, Peru, Benin, the Galapagos, and, in my case, Greenland. We call it “travel week.” Others call this time of year hurricane season. Here is my travelog.

Saturday, Day 1: We fly to Greenland via Iceland, where strong winds, storms, and flooding delays our flight, leaving us stranded in Reykjavik for a day. We are sent to a hotel with jet lag and meal vouchers; little do we know that this will be the culinary highlight of our week.

Monday: We arrive in Narsaq, Greenland, to more of the same: washed-out roads and rainstorms, atypical for this time of the year.

Tuesday: We set out for a day packed with site visits. These include a four-hour round-trip ferry to a single manned hydro plant, plus tours of a slaughterhouse (Narsaq’s biggest employer) and a town dump that’s set against a backdrop of icebergs and endless sky.

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