Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Harry Liedtke, The Greenland Promise, bahai-library.com.
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The Greenland Promise

Harry Liedtke
After moving to Canada in October of 1951, I was told by Canadian
Baha’is that ‘Abdu’l-Baha had promised that Greenland would one
day become green again. It was a startling prophecy. The topic of a
future greening of Greenland was never mentioned by my Danish
friends whose country then administered Greenland before home
rule was established in 1979.

One reason for this was that the promise may have been gleaned
from ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Tablet to the Baha’is of Canada and Greenland,
a text few European Baha’is had studied. The prophecy was
repeated often. Outside observers saw it as an example where
religious belief did not appear to correspond with science, while
some Baha’is saw it as a promise that an all-powerful God can and
will improve the earthly conditions of a more spiritual humanity.

The statement that “Greenland will become green again” did not
just promise a green future, but it also implied that Greenland was
green in the past to become green “again”. If this was true, a future
prospect of an ice free land would be credible. There is no reason
why any place on earth cannot return to a former condition. Arable
land has turned into desert and deserts sometimes became arable
again.

The problem with Greenland is that it never was ice free ever since
man has walked on earth and a meltdown of Greenland’s ice sheet
would scarcely be a blessing, but would, certainly in the short term,
bring more harm than good to human society. The good news, as
we shall see, is that ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s promise in His Tablet of the
Divine Plan does not at all disagree with science, because He never
claimed that Greenland was once an ice free paradise and He did
not promise that it would become one in a geological sense.

In the English language library of Baha’i texts a search under the
category of authoritative scripture shows 20 mentions of
“Greenland” in 70 different documents. The first and most
important mention to which several others refer later is this one by
‘Abdu’l-Baha:

TABLET TO THE BAHÁ'ÍS OF CANADA AND GREENLAND Written
on April 5, 1916, in the garden adjacent to the Shrine of
Bahá'u'lláh, and addressed to the Bahá'ís of Canada --
Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta, British
Columbia, Yukon, Mackenzie, Keewatin, Ungava, Franklin Islands
and Greenland.
“He is God! O ye daughters and sons of the Kingdom: ALTHOUGH in
most of the states and cities of the United States, praise be to God,
His fragrances are diffused, and souls unnumbered are turning their
faces and advancing toward the Kingdom of God, yet in some of the
states the Standard of Unity is not yet upraised as it should be, nor
are the mysteries of the Holy Books, such as the Bible, the Gospel,
and the Qur'án, unravelled. Through the concerted efforts of all the
friends the Standard of Unity must needs be unfurled in those states,
and the divine teachings promoted, so that these states may also
receive their portion of the heavenly bestowals and a share of the
Most Great Guidance. Likewise in the provinces of Canada, such as
Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British
Columbia, Ungava, Keewatin, Mackenzie, Yukon, and the Franklin
Islands in the Arctic Circle -- the believers of God must become self-
sacrificing and like unto the candles of guidance become ignited in
the provinces of Canada. Should they show forth such a
magnanimity, it is assured that they will obtain universal divine
confirmations, the heavenly cohorts will reinforce them
uninterruptedly, and a most great victory will be obtained. God
willing, the call of the Kingdom may reach the ears of the Eskimos,
the inhabitants of the Islands of Franklin in the north of Canada, as
well as Greenland. Should the fire of the love of God be kindled in
Greenland, all the ice of that country will be melted, and its cold
weather become temperate -- that is, if the hearts be touched with the
heat of the love of God, that territory will become a divine rose garden
and a heavenly paradise, and the souls, even as fruitful trees, will
acquire the utmost freshness and beauty. Effort, the utmost effort, is
required. Should you display an effort, so that the fragrances of God
may be diffused among the Eskimos, its effect will be very great and
far-reaching. God says in the great Qur'án: A day will come wherein
the lights of unity will enlighten all the world. "The earth will be
irradiated with the light of its Lord." [Qur'án 39:69.] In other words,
the earth will become illumined with the light of God. That light is the
light of unity. "There is no God but God." The continent and the
islands of Eskimos are also parts of this earth. They must similarly
receive a portion of the bestowals of the Most Great Guidance. Upon
you be greeting and praise! (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of the Divine Plan,
p. 25)

Since all but one of these references to Greenland are linked
directly to Canada’s importance in the unfolding world order of
Baha’u’llah, it does not surprise that in other countries little if any
mention was made of a promise that dealt with Greenland’s future.
There is, however, one additional reference to Greenland dating
back to 1996 when the Universal House of Justice made mention of
it in its message at Ridvan 153 B.E : “Our thoughts turn often to
the Bahá'í community of Greenland, whose staunchness of faith
and dogged perseverance have won our admiration and praise, and
have resulted in the Faith's becoming firmly established in that
distant land. Inspired by the promise set out in the Tablets of the
Divine Plan that "if the hearts be touched with the heat of the love
of God, that territory will become a divine rose-garden and a
heavenly paradise, and the souls, even as fruitful trees, will acquire
the utmost freshness and beauty," let them now go forth to claim
new victories on the home front and to transform their nation
through the power of the Divine Teaching.”
Here the House of Justice is quoting ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s amplification of
His message. This amplification seems important. It shifts emphasis
from a dramatic earthly vision of a land freed from its icy burden
and explains the deeper meaning of the Master’s promise to
Greenlanders. In the middle of the Tablet of the Divine Plan
addressed to Canada and the northern regions of the western
hemisphere, ‘Abdu’lBaha first writes, “Should the fire of the love of
God be kindled in Greenland, all the ice of that country will be
melted, and its cold weather become temperate –-” It should be noted
that the sentence does not end here with a full stop which would
have made this statement quite unequivocal indeed. Instead, the
sentence continues after two dashes and a comma with a “that is”
and gives this amplification, or explanation, “ — that is, if the hearts
be touched with the heat of the love of God, that territory will become
a divine rose-garden and a heavenly paradise, and the souls, even
as fruitful trees, will acquire the utmost freshness and beauty." It is
this latter portion of the sentence that the House of Justice chose to
quote. Here ‘Abdu’l-Baha places His emphasis on the heat of the
love of God, rather than on a more benign earthly climate, and on
“souls, even as fruitful trees,” rather than on lush earthly vegetation.

It may well benefit the promotion of the Cause of God to meditate
on this message instead of letting fervor repeat exaggerated and
unfounded claims which could be exploited by ill-wishers to
discredit the validity of the Teachings as a whole. In this regard this
further explanation by ‘Abdu’lBaha should be instructive:
[Someone] asked why the teachings of all religions are expressed
largely by parables and metaphors and not in the plain language of
the people. 'Abdu'l-Bahá replied: "Divine things are too deep to be
expressed by common words. The heavenly teachings are expressed
in parable in order to be understood and preserved for ages to come.
When the spiritually minded dive deeply into the ocean of their
meaning they bring to the surface the pearls of their inner
significance. There is no greater pleasure than to study God's Word
with a spiritual mind." - Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 79. And
elsewhere He has said, “Consider how the parable makes attainment
dependent upon capacity.” - Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 149

‘Abdu’l-Baha’s linkage between human response to God’s
Commandments and the earthly environment is mentioned in other
religions. Buddhist texts also link nature’s equilibrium to human
behaviour. “When people are happy and satisfied...when good deeds
are promoted and virtues are increased...then everyone
prospers...the weather and temperature become normal, sun, moon
and stars shine naturally; rains and winds come timely; and all
natural calamities disappear. - The Teaching of Buddha, p.233,
Bukko Dendo Kyokai

A valid question then is why is glacier-covered Greenland known as
green land when it has been anything but green. Norse legends
from the 12th century tell of Eric the Red exploring the southeast
and southwest coasts of Greenland from 983 to 986 A.D. Towards
the West, islands were teeming with birds and the sea ran plentiful
with fish. Everywhere the coastlines had many fjords that afforded
safe moorage. At the head of these fjords stretched enormous grassy
meadows and there grew willows, juniper, birch, and wild berries.
After arduous voyage in an open Viking ship, arriving from an
austere region in Northern Europe, this greenery must have made
an overwhelming impression to fully justify Greenland’s name.
Moreover, only a few years earlier in 976 A.D. Iceland, the British
Isles and Northern Europe had experienced a catastrophic famine
and people there were starved for food and always on the lookout
for new arable land. They would have been more inclined to settle in
a green land than at some other inhospitable place.

Suzanne Schuurmann, a Canadian Baha’i, who with her husband
Hubert and their three children lived in Greenland for a year, has
added here her own observations: “What no one ever writes about,
maybe because they have not actually been in Greenland, is that
the southern tip, where the first Norsemen most likely landed, is in
fact very green with rolling meadows. When we were there sheep
were raised and some very decent gardens were grown with veg and
flowers. There are no trees, mind you, save for some that looked like
scrawny versions of lilacs, but were I think poplars. Even a day’s
sailing north on the western shore sheep raising is practiced to this
day using the old Norse stone walls to delineate the fields. After
Iceland where the Norsemen had a foothold, the southern part of
Greenland may have looked green and inviting, especially since at
that time they were experiencing a warming (for a time).”

Core drillings of Greenland’s ice have confirmed that in the 10th
century Greenland underwent a warm spell. However, the bulk of
this newly discovered “mini continent‟, in fact 80% of it, lay buried
under a vast sheet of ice which on average was 2,000 meters, and
in some places 3,000 meters thick. This enormous thickness can
perhaps be best appreciated by comparing it with Capetown’s Table
Mountain that rises a mere 1,100 meters, or Vancouver’s Grouse
Mountain that towers just 1,200 meters above the shoreline below.
Core drillings and other tests indicate that Greenland’s vast ice
sheet formed over two million years ago. It covers 1,800,000 square
kilometers at an average thickness of 2,135 meters.

Some scientists believe that global warming may be about to push
the ice sheet over a threshold where it could melt within a few
hundred years. If the entire 2,850,000 cubic kilometers of ancient
ice were to melt it would raise the world’s oceans by over seven
meters. This would inundate many coastal cities and low lying
regions on all continents and drown several island nations such as
Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Maldives which have elevations of less than
seven meters above sea level.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is sometimes referred to as inland ice, or
its Danish equivalent indlandsis. The currently existing ice is
estimated to be only some 110,000 years old because of a regular
“calving” of icebergs into the ocean and a new precipitation of snow.
However, it is generally accepted by science that the ice sheet
formed fairly rapidly in the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene period
when ice caps and glaciers coalesced. The massive weight of the ice
has depressed Greenland’s center deep into earth’s soft magma. As
a result, the surface of Greenland’s bedrock is believed to lie near
sea level. Greenland’s periphery is ringed by mountain ranges.
Some of us who have travelled on transatlantic flights may have
observed the jagged peaks protruding from the ice. These
mountains confine the ice sheet along its margins. If this ice were to
disappear altogether, Greenland would initially look like a semi-
circular mountainous archipelago with a vast lagoon of ocean water
at its center.

This somewhat unattractive prospect could change over extremely
long periods when a “post-glacial rebound” may cause Greenland’s
tectonic base to rise up from the magma and to form a contiguous
continent. Many thousands of years later, following the dictates of
life, this newly formed continent may even become covered with
forests and lush vegetation. Northern Europe serves as an example.
After it was liberated from the enormous weight of the ice shield at
the end of the last Ice Age, parts of northern Europe began to rise
from Earth‟s interior mantle. While this movement has slowed
considerably, it actually continues to push up the whole region by
roughly one centimeter per annum. Geologists expect this slow
movement to continue over the next 10,000 years at which time
some regions of northern Europe may be 100 meters higher above
sea level than they are today. One can therefore speculate that
Greenland could experience a similar change, but initially there
would be many imponderable consequences for our planet’s climate
and for human existence.

The melt of Greenland’s three million cubic kilometers of ice would
change the salinity of earth’s oceans which in turn would influence
marine life and ocean currents. It could also impact Antarctica’s ice
sheet of 30 million cubic kilometers which represents no less than
60 per cent of our planet‟s entire fresh water supply. Should
Antarctica get “infected” by a Greenland meltdown, the world’s
oceans would rise by an estimated further seventy meters. It is
impossible in this brief article to describe the calamitous
ramifications this would have. Many coastlines would be left barely
recognizable. Much of Northern Europe, Russia, North and South
America, Northern India and Bangladesh would all be under water.
Vast food growing regions would simply disappear. Our world as we
know it would be gone. On your computer search for ‘Google Maps
Find Altitude’ and discover the precariously low elevations of many
of the world’s cities and regions.

As is, land-born life has been a miraculous exception right from the
beginning. The earth is essentially a water planet. Its oceans cover
two-thirds of its surface and they are on average two miles (3,200
meters or 10,000 feet) deep. This is five times the average elevation
of the continents which cover only one third of earth’s surface.
These lopsided ratios tell us that earth’s water volume is ten times
greater than the “volume” of our planet’s protruding dry land. In
many regions land rises only a few meters above sea level. The only
thing that gave our race the advantage of a land-borne existence
which allows us to see the Sun and the stars and to become aware
of God’s great universe, was the unusual formation of huge hollows
and canyons within earth’s crust that became the vast ocean
basins. Had it not been for their fortuitous formation, the entire
globe would have been covered with oceans thousands of meters
deep, leaving no possibility for land-borne life.

Now that we have developed into an inter-connected world
community, immature and flawed as it still may be, we have
multiplied and settled wherever land offered itself for human
habitation. A drastic meltdown of Greenland and other arctic and
ant-arctic regions would not at all help to make our planet a
happier home, but it would make our task of building an ordered
and peaceful world that much more difficult. A literal fulfillment of
any perceived golden promise would in the end stop the march of
civilization dead in its tracks.

__________

These observations carry no authority whatsoever. They are meant
to stimulate thought and not debate. “He who thinks about his faith
and comes to the wrong conclusion deserves a reward. He who
thinks about his faith and arrives at the truth deserves a double
reward.” - Ascribed to Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) Islamic theologian,
jurist, philosopher, cosmologist, psychologist and mystic

Harry Liedtke, Kelowna, B.C., July 2012