Why Greenland? Trump eyes remote but resource-rich geopolitical prize

Remote, icy and mostly pristine, Greenland plays an outsize role in the daily weather experienced by billions of people and in the climate changes taking shape all over the planet.

Greenland is where climate change, scarce resources, tense geopolitics and new trade patterns all intersect, said Ohio University security and environment professor Geoff Dabelko.

The world’s largest island is now “central to the geopolitical, geoeconomic competition in many ways,” partly because of climate change, Dabelko said.

Since his first term in office, President-elect Donald Trump has expressed interest in acquiring Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, a long-time US ally and a founding member of Nato. It is also home to a large US military base. On Tuesday he refused to rule out using military force to grab the both the Panama Canal and Greenland.

Why is Greenland coveted?

Think of Greenland as an open refrigerator door or thermostat for a warming world, and it’s in a region that is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe, said New York University climate scientist David Holland.