| GREENLAND
by Gabriele Catania
0 Fishing boats in the
port at Uummannaq,
Greenland. According
to US Geological
Survey estimates,
Northeastern
Greenland could
harbour around
31.4 billion barrels of
oil equivalents.
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| EAST
he largest island in the world has always
wielded a powerful allure. Greenland’s
landscapes are breathtaking, but it’s certainly not its aesthetic beauty that is currently focusing global interests on the country. What’s at
stake here is its natural and potentially enormous
resources.
According to US Geological Survey estimates,
Northeastern Greenland could harbour around
31.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (gas, oil and
natural gas liquids). Another study estimates the
oil fields in the province of East Canada-West
Greenland hold up to 7.3 billion barrels. For Brussels, the island has “strong potential in six of the
14 elements on the EU critical raw materials list,”
such as niobium and tantalum.
“It is believed that Greenland has a wealth of
mineral resources, including iron, gold, lead, zinc,
rare earths and rubies. The most interesting energy resource is probably oil,” explains Tim
Boersma, head of the Energy Security Initiative
of the Brookings Institution. “Extraction is hampered by the harsh environment and because of
the lack of infrastructure.”
Besides fossil fuels and minerals, “Greenland
boasts vast water reserves, in the form of a huge
ice sheet,” as Stephen Perry of the University of
Namur in Belgium points out. As it turns out, 80%
of the island’s surface is covered in ice. If the Arctic ice cap should melt due to global warming,
there could be trouble.
This is further confirmed by Laurence M.
Smith, professor of geography at UCLA and author of The New North: Our World in 2050. He
says: “Greenland’s ice sheet contains enough ice
to raise the overall water level of the oceans by
seven metres. The melting and/or slippage of even
a small part of this ice could have a major impact
on world coastlines.”
Global warming would also have consequences for the island itself, but they are unlikely to be particularly catastrophic. Potatoes
can already be grown there, and Restaurant
Roklubben in Kangerlussuaq is now serving
greenhouse peppers and tomatoes alongside its
musk ox hamburgers and reindeer casserole.
GREENLAND |
An icy Europe beyond the Atlantic
“G
reenland has never been a colony in the true sense of the
word,” maintains Thorkild Kjærgaard, a historian at the
University of Greenland. Indeed, the history of the world’s largest
island is more complex that one might think. The first inhabitants of
Greenland were not the Inuit (commonly known as Eskimos) but the
Saqqaq, Independence and Dorset civilisations, all of which had
disappeared by the second century A.D.
The Inuit were even preceded by the first colonisers, the Vikings, who
settled in Greenland around the year 1000. They were the ones to
christen the island Grønland, or “green land,” a name probably coined by
Erik the Red to convince Scandinavian populations to move there. The
Viking colonisation lasted until the 15th century, when worsening living
conditions on the island forced the colonisers to leave. It did, however,
remain a part of the Danish-Norwegian realm until 1814, when Norway
became part of Sweden and Greenland was assigned to Denmark.
At the time, besides the Inuit who had already been living there for
500 years, Greenland also became the home to Danish and Norwegian
traders and missionaries. “The Danes always treated the island as part
of its realm, an overseas province,” explains Kjærgaard. Danish
REUTERS/SVEBOR KRANJC/CONTRASTO
paternalism was occasionally excessive, however, and formally
In 1979, the island was granted self-government, and in 1985, it
decided to withdraw from the European Economic Community (EEC)
due to serious controversies over fishing rights. Today, Greenland is
part of Denmark but enjoys extensive self-determination and appears
to have its sights set on independence. ■
LAIF/CONTRASTO
But if in the coming years, the temperature
should increase further, it won’t be just menus
that improve. The inhospitable island that in
the Middle Ages brought the Viking colonisers
to their knees could partially be transformed
into that promised land it’s always stood for: a
green land.
The stakes are high, especially considering
that Greenland stretches for 2.1 million square
kilometres. Thawing would make life much easier for mining companies and energy giants such
as BP, Shell, Statoil and Chevron, all with a foot
already well planted on the island. The Greenlander’s dream is to become an Arctic El Dorado,
much like Norway.
Greenland remained a colony until 1953.
| GREENLAND
REUTERS/GREG LOCKE/CONTRASTO
REUTERS/SVEBOR KRANJC/CONTRASTO
0 Crewmen on the
deck of an oil tanker
off the coast of
Greenland.
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| EAST
Presently, however, the local economy is weak,
and survives mainly on fishing and subsidies
from Copenhagen. Many Greenlanders would
like the island to become independent because,
despite its autonomy and power to elect its own
government, it is still part of Denmark.
“An independent Greenland is our natural future,” said then Prime Minister Aleqa Hammond
in 2013. “But if we want greater autonomy from
Denmark, we have to finance it ourselves. This
means finding new sources of income.” For Hammond, the answer lies in the mining industry.
Easier said than done. In autumn of 2014, the
London Mining Company, which was supposed
to open a vast iron mine in Greenland (thanks to
Chinese investments), filed for bankruptcy.
“The economic forecasts are terrible,” explains
Danish journalist Martin Breum. “Public spending is higher than the fishing revenue. The population is aging and too many young people leave.
The promises of the energy and mining sectors
have proven elusive, and there don’t seem to be
any miraculous solutions on the horizon.”
For Tine Pars, rector of the University of
Greenland, “The politicians must be patient on independence. In many ways, Greenland is a utopia,
seeing as there are so few of us (56,000 people in
total!). I do think we should aspire to self-determi-
nation.” Greenland’s economic and demographic
weakness is a source of worry for Copenhagen.
Danish experts fear that the island, once independent, will turn into an American ‘colony’.
Greenlanders see things differently. “We’re
not a banana republic, however often the Danish
press say otherwise. Greenland is a modern country with a young democracy,” says Mads Nordlund, editor-in-chief of Greenland Today.
For Laurence Smith, “These days China is
much more interested in Greenland than the US,
which in general does not bother with the Arctic.”
According to Mia Bennett, a doctoral student
at UCLA and editor of the Cryopolitics blog, “The
US already has significant military interests in
Greenland [the Thule Air Force base] but few on
an economic or political level.”
In the meantime, Greenland’s government ensures that it has no intention of selling itself off
cheap: it wants to strengthen its position abroad
and perhaps explore new types of partnerships
with Brussels through the Association of the
Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTA). We
shall see. ■
 Gabriele Catania covers foreign news for Il Caffé, Shanghai Daily, Hindustan Times and the Italian online publications Pagina99, Linkiesta, Gli Stati Generali.