The Greening of Greenland

Sometimes the biggest signs of change are the smallest. The BBC's Stephen Sackur found this out while visiting Greenland when he was served a dinner with a side order of leeks, leeks that were grown in the chef's garden just outside the kitchen.

The idea that anything could grow in Greenland - which despite the name is mostly covered in ice - is a clear indication of how at the same time global climate change is likely spelling doom for some island nations like Kiribati and the Maldives, for places like Greenland, it could lead to huge new opportunities.

Greenland is thought to be teeming with oil, natural gas and precious metal deposits that until now were locked under the Arctic ice. But by some projections, within the next two decades, Greenland could be exploiting and exporting these riches, promising a boon to the 56,000 Greenlanders. But according to Sackur, Greenlanders right now seem most excited about the prospects of growing their own vegetables and planting a forest of Siberian Larch on their treeless island.