NASA scientists say two of the territory's biggest melts in history occurred this summer.
Can President Trump buy Greenland?
The autonomous Danish territory, with a population of more than 55,000, has been clear that it is “not for sale,” according to the island's premier, Kim Kielsen.
Trump had reportedly taken up interest in what is known as the world’s largest island located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, due to its natural resources, like coal, zinc, copper and iron ore.
It is also seen as a strategic military location, and the U.S. had established a base there at the start of the Cold War.
While some sources reported Trump was joking about wanting to buy the island, officials of Greenland were not so impressed and took to Twitter with their outrage.
“It must be an April Fool’s Day joke … but totally out of [season!]” former Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said.
Greenland MP Aaja Chemnitz Larsen tweeted, “No thanks to Trump buying Greenland!"
NASA scientists have also become concerned with Greenland in the recent years, but for a different reason.
Researchers have been tracking the melting ice on Greenland, which has the only permanent ice sheet in the world outside of Antarctica, and said the two largest melts in history have occured this summer.
"We are literally watching the Greenland ice sheet disappear right before our very eyes,” said NASA scientist Ian McCubbin. “And this is having impact all around planet. We all share one ocean, so a billion tons of ice lost here raises sea level all across the world."
He explained that Greenland has been melting at a faster pace in the last decade than in the years before and both warmer air and warmer water is causing the ice to melt at an alarming pace.
Researchers say climate change is to blame.
"We'd long known that this would be the case and that's exactly what we see. It's a situation where we hate to say we told you so, but we did,” said Mark Serreze, director at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
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