The infatuation is because of the new shipping lanes that will open as the ice caps melt, which will provide for much more efficient shipping of goods. Also Greenland holds vast reserves of resources such as rare-earths which the US sorely needs now that China is flexing its muscle and denying the US access to them for military uses.
The US has rights to minerals and whatnot, but the pesky local governments keep putting up roadblocks to extraction and development. The US wants total control.
The US does not control the shipping near Greenland. China and Russia are actively pursuing shipping through the arctic with icebreakers. The US wants to put a stop to that or at least control it and extract fees for the usage.
The US has rights to minerals and whatnot, but the pesky local governments keep putting up roadblocks to extraction and development. The US wants total control.
Is that something you know and has articles on, or is that what you’re vibing? Because Greenland putting up any issues with US industrial efforts is news to me.
The US does not control the shipping near Greenland. China and Russia are actively pursuing shipping through the arctic with icebreakers. The US wants to put a stop to that or at least control it and extract fees for the usage.
I don’t really think the US would be any more succesful in doing that if Greenland was a US territory though. Greenland is part of the kingdom of Denmark, which is a NATO member. Greenland already has US military bases. Whatever legal mumbo jumbo one would want to do to extract fees for shipping lanes through the arctic, are already available. Russia especially, what with passing through Øresund.
That’s the thing that’s baffling to me. There doesn’t seem to be any practical reason for this whole ordeal.
The military argument is complete horseshit. The yanks already have unhindered military access to Greenland. In recent years they have themselves decided to scale down their military presence there to a couple of hundred people at the Thule Airbase. If they wanted to put stuff on Greenland for spying on Russia or early warning systems, the Greenlandic and Danish governments would roll up the red carpet for them.
Regarding minerals, Greenland has comprehensive environmental protections in place to protect the vulnerable Arctic enrichment. Big polluting rare earth refining facilities would not be possible under the current rules. An American invasion could put an unelected occupation government in place that would remove these protections and allow American capital to destroy Greenland for profit.
Regarding minerals, Greenland has comprehensive environmental protections in place to protect the vulnerable Arctic enrichment. Big polluting rare earth refining facilities would not be possible under the current rules.
The mining operation in Kuannersuit got interrupted over envinronmetal outrage spearheaded by IA in part because of the radioactivity, but the existing government was all for it. That’s why Siumut ended up owned in 2021.
I kind of figured we did the environmental protections like we do them in Denmark - vote them away when they’re inconvenient. Nice to know Greenland is better at it
The US has rights to minerals and whatnot, but the pesky local governments keep putting up roadblocks to extraction and development. The US wants total control.
Is that something you know and has articles on, or is that what you’re vibing? Because Greenland putting up any issues with US industrial efforts is news to me.
Yes, there was a specific case of Greenland passing a law banning the exploration and extraction of Uranium, but Uranium is often found in and around sites of rare earth metals.
There’s no reason to believe other mining wouldn’t face the same obstacles as the opposition was in regards to environmental preservation concerns.
As for the security concerns there’s plenty of wishy washy shit from Trump on it, but that is the subtext I get from the constant barrage of "oh god China and Russia are all over the waters near Greenland. The boost of troops and the NATO members stating they’re ready to step up security seem to imply there could be at least a little bit of legitimate concern there.
But it could just be Trump on a colonization run after whetting his appetite with Venezuela.
There’s no reason to believe other mining wouldn’t face the same obstacles as the opposition was in regards to environmental preservation concerns.
No, there is not. There is absolutely no reason to suspect that Greenland would oppose mineral extraction of other resources that aren’t nuclear. There is a recent history of both Greenland attempting to partner with anyone who wants to to develop their mining sector (Including the US) to achieve economic independence from Denmark and the US/Denmark covering up Greenlandic citizens getting cancer from US nuclear material.
Greenland both have an inflamed relation with nuclear material and a strong desire for an expanded mining sector. They are absolutely open to negotiations with regards to the environment (As indeed they did with the cryolite and the lead/zink mines)
Thank you for the articles. As @Keld@hexbear.net explained there is no reason to treat uranium extraction as a common example. The rest of it though? Oh boy. I appreciate the insight
The US is also ordering new ice breakers from places like Finland so I too think that this is very much about the arctic shipping as climate change advances.
Even prior to ww2 one big issue to the European bougies was always the control of the Murmansk harbor, it’s the trade routes.
The US has rights to minerals and whatnot, but the pesky local governments keep putting up roadblocks to extraction and development.
Is that even true? My knowledge of Greenland’s environmental regulations is that they are extremely lax to non-existent. Pretty much the most common professions up there are seal clubbing and whaling.
Rare Earths are incredibly common and could be mined in the US. The hard part is not the resources themselves but the processing and refinement of the resources, which China has invested decades into building and mastering. They have millions of earth scientists specializing in rare earths. The US can’t compete without building this same educated base of workers and expensive and advanced infrastructure.
Considering they just abolished the Department of Education and have gutted colleges of anyone willing to speak out against genocide, long term prospects on millions of American scientists ain’t great. American colleges don’t even offer the types of courses you would get in China on these subjects like Material Sciences and Earth Sciences and Chemical Engineering.
Rare Earths are incredibly common and could be mined in the US. The hard part is not the resources themselves but the processing and refinement of the resources, which China has invested decades into building and mastering.
If anyone is interested, our own @SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net wrote an excellent essay/effort post about this whole situation a while back. It’s a great read for those wanting more details about what RE minerals even really are and what the geopolitical situation is with them, at least as of a couple years ago.
Yeah it’s a bit confusing. They are rare in terms of the percentage of the earth’s crust that is made up of those elements, but they are found in most areas of the world evenly distributed. You just have to sift through massive quantities of ordinary earth and you find them. That’s the problem, making an industry of such scale that processing through huge amounts of earth is profitable requires a lot of build-up and investment and supply lines.
And by “sift” I mean, an extremely long and complex process of chemical regimes to extract specific elements. It’s very complicated. There’s like 70 “rare earths” that all require different processes.
The infatuation is because of the new shipping lanes that will open as the ice caps melt, which will provide for much more efficient shipping of goods. Also Greenland holds vast reserves of resources such as rare-earths which the US sorely needs now that China is flexing its muscle and denying the US access to them for military uses.
But the US already controls both of those things. The US has the mineral rights and the other whatever-rights.
The US has rights to minerals and whatnot, but the pesky local governments keep putting up roadblocks to extraction and development. The US wants total control.
The US does not control the shipping near Greenland. China and Russia are actively pursuing shipping through the arctic with icebreakers. The US wants to put a stop to that or at least control it and extract fees for the usage.
Is that something you know and has articles on, or is that what you’re vibing? Because Greenland putting up any issues with US industrial efforts is news to me.
I don’t really think the US would be any more succesful in doing that if Greenland was a US territory though. Greenland is part of the kingdom of Denmark, which is a NATO member. Greenland already has US military bases. Whatever legal mumbo jumbo one would want to do to extract fees for shipping lanes through the arctic, are already available. Russia especially, what with passing through Øresund.
That’s the thing that’s baffling to me. There doesn’t seem to be any practical reason for this whole ordeal.
The military argument is complete horseshit. The yanks already have unhindered military access to Greenland. In recent years they have themselves decided to scale down their military presence there to a couple of hundred people at the Thule Airbase. If they wanted to put stuff on Greenland for spying on Russia or early warning systems, the Greenlandic and Danish governments would roll up the red carpet for them.
Regarding minerals, Greenland has comprehensive environmental protections in place to protect the vulnerable Arctic enrichment. Big polluting rare earth refining facilities would not be possible under the current rules. An American invasion could put an unelected occupation government in place that would remove these protections and allow American capital to destroy Greenland for profit.
The mining operation in Kuannersuit got interrupted over envinronmetal outrage spearheaded by IA in part because of the radioactivity, but the existing government was all for it. That’s why Siumut ended up owned in 2021.
I kind of figured we did the environmental protections like we do them in Denmark - vote them away when they’re inconvenient. Nice to know Greenland is better at it
Yes, there was a specific case of Greenland passing a law banning the exploration and extraction of Uranium, but Uranium is often found in and around sites of rare earth metals. There’s no reason to believe other mining wouldn’t face the same obstacles as the opposition was in regards to environmental preservation concerns.
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/greenlands-critical-minerals-require-patient-statecraft/
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/resources/natural-resources-environment/2026-winter/testing-greenlands-legal-autonomy-regulate-minerals/
https://www.csis.org/analysis/greenland-rare-earths-and-arctic-security
As for the security concerns there’s plenty of wishy washy shit from Trump on it, but that is the subtext I get from the constant barrage of "oh god China and Russia are all over the waters near Greenland. The boost of troops and the NATO members stating they’re ready to step up security seem to imply there could be at least a little bit of legitimate concern there.
But it could just be Trump on a colonization run after whetting his appetite with Venezuela.
No, there is not. There is absolutely no reason to suspect that Greenland would oppose mineral extraction of other resources that aren’t nuclear. There is a recent history of both Greenland attempting to partner with anyone who wants to to develop their mining sector (Including the US) to achieve economic independence from Denmark and the US/Denmark covering up Greenlandic citizens getting cancer from US nuclear material. Greenland both have an inflamed relation with nuclear material and a strong desire for an expanded mining sector. They are absolutely open to negotiations with regards to the environment (As indeed they did with the cryolite and the lead/zink mines)
Thank you for the articles. As @Keld@hexbear.net explained there is no reason to treat uranium extraction as a common example. The rest of it though? Oh boy. I appreciate the insight
The US is also ordering new ice breakers from places like Finland so I too think that this is very much about the arctic shipping as climate change advances.
Even prior to ww2 one big issue to the European bougies was always the control of the Murmansk harbor, it’s the trade routes.
Is that even true? My knowledge of Greenland’s environmental regulations is that they are extremely lax to non-existent. Pretty much the most common professions up there are seal clubbing and whaling.
Rare Earths are incredibly common and could be mined in the US. The hard part is not the resources themselves but the processing and refinement of the resources, which China has invested decades into building and mastering. They have millions of earth scientists specializing in rare earths. The US can’t compete without building this same educated base of workers and expensive and advanced infrastructure.
Considering they just abolished the Department of Education and have gutted colleges of anyone willing to speak out against genocide, long term prospects on millions of American scientists ain’t great. American colleges don’t even offer the types of courses you would get in China on these subjects like Material Sciences and Earth Sciences and Chemical Engineering.
If anyone is interested, our own @SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net wrote an excellent essay/effort post about this whole situation a while back. It’s a great read for those wanting more details about what RE minerals even really are and what the geopolitical situation is with them, at least as of a couple years ago.
The Epic Tale of How China Took Over The Rare Earth Elements Industry - An Essay
Makes for a pretty bad name then.
Yeah it’s a bit confusing. They are rare in terms of the percentage of the earth’s crust that is made up of those elements, but they are found in most areas of the world evenly distributed. You just have to sift through massive quantities of ordinary earth and you find them. That’s the problem, making an industry of such scale that processing through huge amounts of earth is profitable requires a lot of build-up and investment and supply lines.
And by “sift” I mean, an extremely long and complex process of chemical regimes to extract specific elements. It’s very complicated. There’s like 70 “rare earths” that all require different processes.