Arctic antics

LafayetteBis · Sep 1, 2019

From the Economist: Greenlanders say Donald Trump should have asked them first

Excerpt:

The islanders knew his talk of buying Greenland was not a joke

As Mr Trump observed, Danish taxpayers send Greenland more than $600m a year in subsidies. But that dependence does not deter the island’s politicians from pursuing their own bargains. Last year Mr Kielsen found Chinese contractors for an upgrade to the island’s airports. That terrified nato, and Denmark pressed Greenland to find Danish contractors instead. One of the parties in Mr Kielsen’s coalition marched out in protest. Greenlanders who want independence say that widening the range of economic partners could wean them off Danish aid.

Aqqaluk Lynge, a veteran leftist, said the spat with Mr Trump might make Danes and Greenlanders appreciate one another more. It might, for example, remind Danes who moan about subsidising their Arctic cousins not to take them for granted.

Today Greenland exports mostly seafood. When Mr Trump joked that he did not want to build a skyscraper with his name on it in Greenland, he was surely telling the truth. The real economic opportunity is that vanishing glaciers are opening up its mineral resources, including rare earths and possibly oil and gas. Minik Rosing, a Greenland-born geologist, noted the irony in a man who once called global warming a “hoax” coveting territory that owes its rising value to melting snows. Yet he also thinks a more tactful American leader might persuade Greenlanders to upgrade their links with the United States at the expense of their Danish ones.

Perhaps. But were they ever to decide to become part of America, which for now seems highly unlikely, they would get a culture shock. Not only do Greenlanders have Nordic ideas about social welfare; they also ban private ownership of land.
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Arctic antics

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