Greenland

Greenland (Island, Colony)
Greenland is the world's largest island and a self-governing territory of Denmark.

Greenland is the world's largest island located between the Arctic and Atlantic ocean. It is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark, the colonial powers, as well as the nearby island of Iceland) for more than a millennium.

Population

The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors migrated from Alaska through Northern Canada, gradually settling across the island by the 13th century. They are concentrated mainly on the southwest coast, while the rest of the island is sparsely populated. Greenland is divided into five municipalities – Sermersooq, Kujalleq, Qeqertalik, Qeqqata, and Avannaata. It has two unincorporated areas – the Northeast Greenland National Park and the Thule Air Base. The latter, while under Danish control, is administered by the United States Air Force. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the only permanent ice sheet outside of Antarctica. With a population of 56,081 (2020), it is the least densely populated region in the world. About a third of the population lives in Nuuk, the capital and largest city; the second-largest city in terms of population is Sisimiut, 320 kilometres (200 mi) north of Nuuk. The Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland, connecting the various cities and settlements.

"Little Danes" experiment

In 1951, the Danish government conducted a controversial social experiment in which 22 Inuit children were removed from their families in Greenland. The goal was to assimilate them into Danish culture, cut off their ties to their Indigenous heritage in an effort to reshape their identities and prepare them for roles in a Danish-dominated society. At the time, Greenland was a Danish colony grappling with widespread poverty and high mortality rates. These children, aged 5 to 9, were placed with Danish foster families, where they were prohibited from speaking Greenlandic and were systematically taught to adopt Danish language, customs, and values. The intent was to mold them into a generation that would serve as a bridge for Denmark’s continued dominance over Greenland’s political and social structures (John, 2022). Many of the children never fully reunited with their families and suffered long-term mental trauma. [...]

Population control

Up to 4,500 women and girls in Greenland - roughly half of all fertile females - had an IUD contraceptive device (coil) implanted inside the womb to prevent pregnancy, between 1966 and 1970. The procedures continued into the mid-1970s. Among those affected were girls as young as 12, and several have stated publicly that they were not properly informed. The plan happened both in Greenland and at schools in Denmark with Greenlandic students. Many ended up sterile. Danish authorities have apologized in a formal way, but first time with a public ceremony in front of victims of the contraception program on the 24^th September 2025.

Child abuse

Greenland has a very high number of child abuse cases respective to it's population, with 43 percent of people born between 1975 and 1979 having suffered abuse.

U.S. military bases

During the Cold War, the Arctic became ground zero for U.S. communications and surveillance operations designed to thwart a Soviet attack from the north. When the Cold War was over, military sites were abandoned and left to decay on the Arctic tundra. Contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), petroleum, radioactive waste and solvents, they still pose a toxic threat to local ecosystems. Krista Mahr writing for Frontline (PBS) in 2004, said that the U.S. signed a new pact allowing "a $260 million upgrade of the early warning radar system at the American military base at Thule, Greenland. It is part of the Bush administration's plan to implement the controversial SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative), or "Star Wars" antimissile defense system."

Project Iceworm

In the 1960s the United States began construction of what would have been a large military facility under the ice of northern Greenland. The plan was to establish a massive series of under-ice tunnels capable of supporting the storage, transportation, and launch of 600 specially designed nuclear ballistic missiles. The long term plan called for 2,500 miles (4000km) of subsurface tunnels to be constructed and maintained. If it had been fully realised, Project Iceworm’s tunnel complex would had eventually encompassed some 53,000 square miles, the size of Arkansas or Greece) and employed 11,000 military personnel. The program was abandoned when the ice sheets moved faster than anticipated.

The Thule Affair

In 1997, the Danish journalist Poul Brink exposed the Thule affair, how the Greenlandic and Danish people were lied to by Danish Prime Minster H.C Hansen, who in a secret letter allowed American nuclear weapons at the Thule base in Greenland despite the official Danish no nuclear weapons policy, and how the Danish and American governments covered the circumstances surrounding the Thule accident, where a US nuclear-armed B-52 bomber crashed near the Thule base in 1968, severely poisoning the cleanup crew with radiation. Poul Brink was harassed for many years and charged for having published confidential documents from the Thule case.

US interest in acquiring the island

During World War I, the United States ceded to Denmark control of Greenland under the 1916 Lansing Convention in return for its purchase for US$25 million of the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands).

Following World War II, the United States developed a geopolitical interest in Greenland, and in 1946 offered to buy the island from Denmark for $100,000,000. Denmark refused to sell it. Historically this repeated an interest by Secretary of State William H. Seward. In 1867 he worked with former senator Robert J. Walker to explore the possibility of buying Greenland and perhaps Iceland. Opposition in Congress ended this project.

In the 21^st century, the United States, according to WikiLeaks, remains interested in investing in the resource base of Greenland and in tapping hydrocarbons off the Greenlandic coast. In August 2019, the American president Donald Trump again proposed to buy the country, prompting premier Kim Kielsen to issue the statement, "Greenland is not for sale and cannot be sold, but Greenland is open for trade and cooperation with other countries – including the United States."

In 2020, the US administration announced the opening of an Agency for International Development office at the new US consulate in the capital, Nuuk, and at least $12m (£9.7m) in aid projects. it also reopened the consulate in Nuuk (closed since 1953). The first consul was the "diplomat" Sung W. Choi In 2025, the CIA, NSA and DIA were ordered to intensify activities in Greenland.

In January 2025, President-elect Donald Trump emphasised the strategic importance of Greenland for US security, hinting at potential military action to acquire the island.

Mining

The island is mineral rich but but due to the very low temperatures, mining is much more difficult than in other regions.

“[...] Geologically, permafrost is a nightmare. Ground is frozen solid. Normal drilling hits a wall. Building stable foundations for gear is a massive investment. Operations are far more difficult too. Constant darkness for months in winter. Working 24/7 under floodlights craters efficiency and spikes accident risk. At -40°C to -50°C, metal gets brittle and just snaps. You need custom alloy gear and keeping fuel/lube from freezing is a constant battle. The diesel/power burn just to keep lights on and engines warm is a nightmare. Immediate Opex blow-up. Logistics? Absolute disaster. It’s not about digging it out; it’s about moving it. Zero roads or rails. Everything moves by helicopter, light plane, or ship. Moving ore to a port costs multiples of what normal mines pay. Plus, zero local smelters. The minerals have to be shipped across oceans, burning time and cash. Shipping windows are tiny. Some fjords/sections of Greenland's coast only accessible a few months a year. You either pay for icebreakers or pray the 1-year supply/export window doesn’t get wrecked by bad weather. If the ship misses the slot, the whole year is lost. Look at the Citronen Fjord Zn project at 83°N. It’s one of the world's biggest undeveloped Zn-Pb deposits, but it's 2,100km north of Nuuk. Total isolation. They get a 3-month window to move a year’s worth of cargo. One bad storm and the project is bricked for the season. Ironbark Zinc tried for ages, but it just got flipped to Dubai-based Almeera Ventures. That’s a clear signal on how brutal the Capex and funding hurdles are. The core issue: does the margin even justify the risk? Building a mine w/ zero infra is a Capex black hole. [...] Thawing permafrost is actually trashing existing infra and roads. Extreme weather just jacks up Opex even more. We’re talking 10-15 yrs from discovery to first ore. If commodity prices crater in between, you're left holding a stranded asset. This is the reality of mining. Arctic development is 10x harder than anyone thinks. There’s a reason Denmark wasn't aggressive on developing Greenland.”
@CRUDEOIL231 (Jan 6, 2026) 

 

A citizen of Greenland on Wikispooks

Title	Born	Description
Vivian Motzfeldt	10 June 1972	Greenlandic politician who attended her first Bilderberg meeting in 2026

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This page imported content from Wikipedia on 13 March 2021.
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