From: tsm@fastmail.ca   
      
   On Jan 6, 2026 at 4:32:04 PM EST, "Julian"  wrote:   
      
   > On 06/01/2026 20:48, Tara wrote:   
   >> On Jan 6, 2026 at 3:34:51 PM EST, "Julian"  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> On 06/01/2026 18:36, Tara wrote:   
   >>>> On Jan 6, 2026 at 1:21:59 PM EST, "Julian"    
   wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> It was the Viking, Eric the Red who, in AD 986, first saw Greenland’s   
   >>>>> potential. He wanted to colonise his newly-discovered island, and in a   
   >>>>> blatant piece of tenth-century spin-doctoring hit on a wizard wheeze to   
   >>>>> encourage other Norse people to come to this bleak, icy and remote   
   >>>>> corner of the unknown world:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> ‘In the summer, Erik left to settle in the country he had found, which   
   >>>>> he called Greenland, as he said people would be attracted there if it   
   >>>>> had a favourable name.‘   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> More than a thousand years later, US president Donald Trump is proposing   
   >>>>> something similar.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> ‘It’s a large real estate deal. Owning Greenland is vital for US   
   >>>>> security… and economic security… It’s an absolute necessity and I   
   cannot   
   >>>>> assure you that we would not use military or economic coercion.‘   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> That may sound outlandish. But Trump’s ambition isn’t new. America   
   has   
   >>>>> controlled Greenland before: during the Second World War, it became a de   
   >>>>> facto US protectorate. The US has also previously sought to buy   
   >>>>> Greenland; in 1946, it offered $100 million in gold bullion; around $7   
   >>>>> billion in today’s money.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> For now, Greenland belongs to Denmark. But Denmark’s ownership of   
   >>>>> Greenland is itself a piece of bare-faced colonialism, as a glance at   
   >>>>> their policy of forced assimilation in the 1940s and 50s makes clear. As   
   >>>>> a result, the Danes are much resented by most Greenlanders.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Greenland has been moving towards independence almost as long as it has   
   >>>>> been a colony of Denmark. They were granted Home Rule in 1979. This was   
   >>>>> expanded to full self-rule with the 2009 Self-Government Act –   
   >>>>> legislation that also handed Greenland the right to declare   
   >>>>> independence. Today, Denmark retains control only of defence, foreign   
   >>>>> affairs, and monetary policy. The 2023 Greenlandic constitution   
   >>>>> explicitly commits the island to independence; and in his 2025 New Year   
   >>>>> speech, Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede, called for an end to   
   >>>>> ‘the shackles of colonialism’ and a future shaped by Greenlanders   
   >>>>> themselves.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> The final umbilical cord linking Greenland to Denmark is the annual   
   >>>>> block grant of 3.9 billion kroner (roughly £410 million), making up   
   >>>>> about 19 per cent of Greenland’s GDP. But to put that in perspective,   
   it   
   >>>>> is less than the amount annually spent by the US on the city of El Paso,   
   >>>>> Texas. And it is minuscule compared to the mineral wealth Greenland   
   >>>>> could one day command in partnership with a deep-pocketed ally, of whom   
   >>>>> there are at least three: America, China and Russia.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> China, in particular, has shown intense interest. At one point, Beijing   
   >>>>> proposed a $2.5 billion (£1.8 billion) investment in a Greenlandic mine   
   >>>>> (more than the island’s entire GDP), which would have brought in 5,000   
   >>>>> Chinese workers. Then they proposed massive infrastructure investments,   
   >>>>> including a deep-sea port and two international airports. These would   
   >>>>> require capital which would leave Greenland beholden for all time.   
   >>>>> Denmark and the US, unsurprisingly, blocked these plans.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> So why are the great powers so keen to own Greenland? Natural resources   
   >>>>> are a big reason why. The great powers’ unashamed lust for   
   Greenland’s   
   >>>>> rare earths is but one element of a global race to control the   
   >>>>> production of the strategic minerals which are essential components of   
   >>>>> batteries, phones, electric vehicles and all modern computing devices.   
   >>>>> It’s about silicon, germanium, phosphorus, boron, indium phosphide,   
   >>>>> gallium, graphite, uranium, copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel, among   
   >>>>> others. He who controls their production holds the key to the digital   
   globe.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Odd as it may sound, it’s also about Taiwan. Taiwan manufactures over   
   60   
   >>>>> per cent of the world’s semiconductors and more than 90 per cent of its   
   >>>>> most advanced chips. If China were ever to carry out its threat to   
   >>>>> invade Taiwan (which some observers think may be imminent, perhaps   
   >>>>> encouraged by Donald Trump’s daring raid on Venezuela), it would gain   
   >>>>> near-total control of the global microchip supply. Do we really want to   
   >>>>> be dependent on China for every phone, computer and electric vehicle   
   >>>>> produced in the West?   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> The US needs to develop chip-making capabilities comparable to   
   Taiwan’s.   
   >>>>> To achieve this it needs reliable sources for the 50 or so critical   
   >>>>> minerals required. And Greenland holds concentrated quantities of 30 of   
   >>>>> them, amounting to a considerable chunk of the world’s total rare earth   
   >>>>> reserves. But the reality is that with a population of just 57,000 –   
   >>>>> many of them Inuit fishermen and hunters – Greenland lacks the   
   >>>>> industrial infrastructure to extract these minerals. Both China and the   
   >>>>> US would be keen to fill that gap.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Another great attraction of Greenland is its strategic position. As the   
   >>>>> ice melts – at a rate of as much as 270 billion tonnes per year –   
   >>>>> several strategic sea routes are being opened up. The world is waking up   
   >>>>> to the potential strategic value of Greenland, the largest   
   >>>>> non-continental island on Earth. Greenland controls the top end of the   
   >>>>> Greenland–Iceland–UK Gap. This area is crucial to Nato submarine   
   >>>>> surveillance and was vital in resupplying Europe during WWII. It also   
   >>>>> hosts the Thule Air Base (now renamed Pituffik Space Base), an essential   
   >>>>> part of US air defence and missile early warning systems. Any Russian   
   >>>>> missile strike on the US would pass directly over Greenland. Since 2017,   
   >>>>> Thule has housed a key ballistic missile detection system, with nearly   
   >>>>> $4 billion (£3 billion) in upgrades recently approved.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> The increasingly ice-free Northwest Passage skirts Greenland’s shores.   
   >>>>> There’s even talk of a deep-sea port to serve the emerging Northern Sea   
   >>>>> Route or NorthEast passage), either in Iceland or – just possibly –   
   in   
   >>>>> East Greenland. In 2019, Mike Pompeo called Arctic sea-lanes the   
      
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