From: tsm@fastmail.ca   
      
   dart200  wrote:   
   > On 1/7/26 11:24 AM, Dude wrote:   
   >> On 1/7/2026 10:55 AM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >>> On Wed, 7 Jan 2026 10:27:51 -0800, Dude  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> On 1/6/2026 6:55 PM, dart200 wrote:   
   >>>>> On 1/6/26 6:53 PM, dart200 wrote:   
   >>>>>> On 1/6/26 10:21 AM, 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   
      
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