The Planet Needs to Protect Greenland
The Arctic is a delicately balanced wilderness in the fastest-changing region on Earth
“We have to have Greenland, and we should have Greenland, and it’s so important. It’s also nothing. It’s nothing. It’s just this little piece of ice that nobody even cares about. Why can’t you just give it to us.”
Donald Trump, 1/21/26, World Economic Forum. Davos, Switzerland
As an explorer, I find this statement fascinating, and heartbreaking, at the same time. I have spent almost four decades studying Greenland, the surrounding waters and sailed the entire west coast from the southern tip, Cape Farewell, to the Arctic Circle, and hundreds of miles beyond. Heck, I have sailed within 200 miles of Thule Air Base, now renamed Pituffik Space Base, but we’ll get to more of that soon enough.
I know what Greenland is, and it is not “just a little piece of ice that nobody cares about.” Greenland is the command center of global climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. So goes Greenland, so goes either climate stability, or runaway tipping points and catastrophic climate disruption.
Before we explore Greenland however, let’s take a look at how Trump’s deceptive statement was constructed. What was Trump trying to plant into the uneducated minds of the masses? What is he trying to make people visualize with the statement, “It’s nothing. It’s just this little piece of ice that nobody cares about.”
Trump’s image would be a continuous sheet of ice devoid of life with no people, animals communities, cultures, political system or beauty. His false image of Greenland makes it easier for people to believe that we can just invade, take or buy this icy piece of nothing with no consequences.
When I read this quote, I immediately thought back to one of the many campaigns to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in OUR United States Arctic region of Alaska from big oil extraction. Link- ARCTIC REFUGE Rewind to the year 2001, an oil man, George W. Bush was president. There was a tremendous pressure campaign to open up ANWR for drilling in the coastal plain area of the refuge.
Former Alaskan Senator Frank Murkowski was tasked by his clients (Big Oil) to sell the idea to the American people. The father of current US Senator Lisa Murkowski stood in front of the Senate, the cameras and the American people with a blank white sheet of white board. He explained, and I paraphrase, “this is what the Arctic Refuge looks like, it’s nothing, just a little piece of white that nobody cares about.”
Same campaign, same psychological operation, 25 years apart. Of course there is there there, the same as in Greenland. Each year over 200,000 Porcupine Caribou migrate from the majestic mountains north following the pristine streams and rivers, across the tundra and to the sea. This is the largest land-based mammal migration in the world, up to 1500 miles, on our “protected” national wildlife refuge, our Serengeti.
When the caribou reach the coastal plain they birth their young on the lands the local indigenous people, the Gwich’in, call “the sacred place where life begins.” There are over 10,000 indigenous people living around the refuge in over a dozen different communities. They have been following these migrations and hunting sustainably for over 20,000 years.
That is what’s there. The Alaskan Arctic is a pristine, majestic wilderness, full of wonder and awe. It’s not a blank sheet of white snow, just as Greenland is not “a little piece of ice that nobody cares about.” People like Trump, and Murkowski before him, are willing to sacrifice the people, cultures, animals, waters, air, natural landscape and resources for short term profits for the very few.
Trump and Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski are pushing hard to open up ANWR again right now for oil and gas extraction. This is why the Trump Administration seized control of Venezuela. And now they want all the natural resources of Greenland.
Trump is attempting another “con” on the American Public. We, the Danes, the Europeans and the entire free world cannot let him. The stakes are too high.
I first traveled to Greenland in 1994. My mode of travel was the world voyaging sailboat named Cloud Nine. I had been sailing with the owner of the yacht, Roger Swanson, since 1991. We had sailed across the South Atlantic Ocean, explored the southern fiords of Tiera del Fuego and Patagonia and ventured into the icy waters of Antarctica. By 1994, we had positioned Cloud Nine in the Canadian Maritimes with the intention of sailing to Greenland.
Our goal was to sail east across the iceberg infested waters of the North Atlantic Ocean and make landfall where we could along the west coast of Greenland. Then we would follow the sea ice melt north along the rugged coastline stopping in small villages, learning about the local people, culture and natural resources along the route. Our ultimate goal was then to cross Baffin Bay west over the Arctic Circle and the Canadian Arctic to attempt a Northwest Passage.
Our summer along the coast of Greenland was magnificent. What I discovered was a most unique culture, an interesting and industrious mixture of people and possibly the most beautiful collection of landscapes that I have ever witnessed. While the local communities have roads, there are no connecting highways in the entire country. The only means of travel to outside villages are by plane, summer ferries, snow machine and dog sled.
The population of Greenland is only around 57,000 and has been stagnant for many decades due to the harsh climate and emigration to Denmark. Ethnic makeup is 89% indigenous Greenlandic (Inuit) people and mixed Danish, along with 11% of Danish/European descent. The capital is Nuuk, located along the SW coast, with a population of around 20,000 people. Nuuk is Greenland’s only “city.”
As you travel in and out of the communities along the coast you see busy little harbors full of local fishing boats harvesting fish offshore in Greenlandic waters. Fishing is the main industry accounting for 25% of total GDP and 90% of all exports, mainly shrimp and halibut. Denmark subsidizes the industry at about 20% to insure sustainability of the fisheries. The rest of the economy is a mix of the growing tourism to the island along with the nascent mining industry with only two active mines in the country, but there is a lot of outside interest.
Testing for offshore oil and gas deposits indicate there are vast resources available to exploit but the harsh climate adds high risk to the equation. The Greenlandic and Danish governments have instead decided to shelve fossil fuel development due to these risks. They fully understand that adding to climate disruption greatly affects Greenland ice sheets and the future of the island, and the planet.
As an alternative, resources will be invested to further develop a sustainable tourism industry. They have initiated a new 10-year plan to double tourism and related employment in Greenland by 2035 to couple with the established fishing industry. To kick the plan off the Nuuk airport was expanded and is now officially an international airport which includes regular, direct United Airline flights from the United States.
One of my favorite harbor stops was visiting the village of Ilulissat, the “City of Icebergs,” and the nearby Ilulissat ice fiord. This area is now one of three UNESCO World Heritage sites on the massive island. I hiked out to the fiord to witness it for myself. I sat with some German tourists and took in the spectacle. The massive glacier is constantly moving ice out into the sea in the form of massive icebergs.
The ice fiord spits out 10% of all the icebergs in Greenland and probably produced the berg that sunk the Titanic. The amount of freshwater pushed out into the sea daily in the form of ice is enough to supply New York City with its annual fresh water supply.
This is Greenland in a nutshell. Like ANWR it is an undeveloped wilderness of awe and wonder. There is also a wild caribou herd of about 100,000 animals and Greenlandic Inuit who have been hunting the herds for millennia.
It is a burgeoning Democracy struggling for stand-alone independence with people bound and determined to live in peace, freedom and self-determination. They have no military, only a small Danish Navy patrol along the coasts mostly to keep pirate fishing fleets out of Greenlandic waters. It is a peaceful place with the only imminent threat being President Trump and the United States of America.
The 2025 Arctic Report Card LINK highlights the rapid pace of climate disruption in the Arctic region of the planet. According to the report, “there is extreme, rapid Arctic warming, noting record-high precipitation, lowest-ever winter sea ice maximum (March 2025), and a decade of warmest temperatures, with the Arctic warming twice as fast as the global average…”
In the 13 years, 1994-2007, between my first and last trips along the Greenland coast and into the Arctic’s Northwest Passage, the Northern Polar ice cap lost 40% of it’s ice cover. Current conditions show we have lost 60-70% of ice volume. There is only 2-3% of any “old” ice left as we enter a new freeze/thaw regime where thinner seasonal first-year ice is the norm.
Greenland’s vast ice sheet covers 80% of the land mass and averages one mile in thickness. The melting of the ice sheet is accelerating with the warming of the air and surrounding ocean due to global warming. More melting exposes more dark land mass which warms and melts more ice. This is called a “positive feedback loop.” Once started this loop cannot close itself and reaches a “tipping point” where all the ice will melt in Greenland. This event would cause 23 feet of sea level rise and displace billions of people worldwide.
Why is this all this important? This takes us back to the beginning of my story. Why does Trump think Greenland is important?
Although Donald Trump denies climate science and calls “climate change” a hoax, even he understands that the Arctic ice is melting and new northern sea lanes are opening for large ship navigation. He also understands the melting is exposing access to plentiful Rare Earth Elements (REE) and fossil fuels. As the Arctic warms and the extraction of these precious natural resources comes with less risk and more accessibility, extracting companies are showing more interest in development.
Trump wants control of strategic sea lanes in and out of the Arctic, total access to exploit Greenland’s natural resources including Rare Earth Elements and increased military presence on the island and surrounding seas.
Ironically, we already have these flexible arrangements through our partnerships with our friends and allies NATO, Denmark and the government of Greenland.
The United States operates the Pituffik Space Base on the northwestern Arctic Coast of Greenland as part of the United States Space Force. Who knows, maybe Elon can launch himself to Mars from there. The facility was originally operated as Thule Air Base and was opened in 1951 under a defense agreement between the USA and Denmark. There are about 150 military personnel there that operate the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System.
Friends, we are already in Greenland and can expand bases working with the Danes. This is as perfect of partnership as you will ever find. Period.
In closing, if I did not despise President Trump so much, I would pity him. I’ve never understood this type of person who is incapable of empathy, understanding and curiosity about the people and the world we live in. Predators like Trump can never have enough money, or possessions, but are incapable of reflecting on a beautiful sunset, a dramatic landscape, the awesomeness of an iceberg, the importance of wilderness or the need to protect a last indigenous culture.
Greenland has it all. It is the exact opposite of nothing. It needs to be nourished, supported and protected from the ignorance and aggression of those like our disgraceful president.
I stand with the people. I stand with Greenland.
Have you explored the variety of writers in the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative? We are writers and creators from around the state and contribute commentary and feature stories of interest to those who care about Iowa, and well beyond. Please consider a paid subscription.
David, I helped author the 2024 Defense Science Board's climate study. In it, we wrote extensively about arctic ice. We, a collection of this nation's (not me, though) finest physicists, spoke clearly and exacting what happens when we lose Greenland's ice sheet. Oh, Trump killed the DSB.
Just got this read...thanks for yoyr insights!