Ilulissat, Greenland – In the Arctic town of Ilulissat, perched beside an ice fjord in western Greenland, fisherman Joel Hansen says he is “terrified” about the prospect of a United States takeover of his home.
“One way or another”, US President Donald Trump has said, Greenland will become part of the US, and he is not ruling out military force to achieve that goal.
While the Trump administration argues that Greenland is geographically within the North American region and is vital for US security, observers say the US is equally interested in the island’s vast mineral wealth.
Hansen, who is half Inuit and half Danish, has been fishing among the towering icebergs in the waters off Ilulissat for the past 14 years and says he desperately does not want his life to change.
“I am terrified to be American,” he tells Al Jazeera. “I have seen Alaskan Inuits – how hard they are living.”
Despite the often tricky relationship between Greenland and Denmark, which began colonisation of the island in 1721, he is one resident who believes it might be better to be Danish after all, he says.
“I love Greenland because, when I’m fishing, we have freedom to work for ourselves.”
Rich in resources
While Greenland gained “home rule” in 1979 and then greater autonomy via the Self-Government Act of 2009, it remains part of Denmark and, therefore, politically part of Europe. But, geographically, it is in the region of North America.
Because the island is so remote and inhospitable, its rich deposits of zinc, iron, uranium and graphite are largely untapped. It is, however, believed to be home to the world’s eighth-largest deposits of much-sought-after rare-earth elements.
When processed, these have magnetic and electro-chemical properties which are vital for producing components of modern tech, such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, smartphones, missile systems and fighter jets.
The military applications are of particular concern to the US, it says, because China has about 60 percent of the world’s rare-earth elements – and processes 90 percent of them.
Greenland itself has only two operating mines, but Greenlanders believe they could build their own capacity to process minerals. “We have a lot of minerals in Greenland, so we can be a nation if we want,” says Hansen. “We don’t need money from Trump.”
‘We are totally different’
The prospect of the US descending on Greenland to tap its minerals has struck fear into Inuit communities around Ilulissat, which welcomed back the sunrise this week after near constant darkness during the polar night of the past two months.
In advance of a meeting between the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers with US US state secretary Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance in Washington on Wednesday, Inuit Greenlander Karl Sandgreen, head of the Ilulissat Icefjord visitor centre, told Al Jazeera, “My hope is that Rubio is going to have some humanity in that talk.”
Source: Aljazeera
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