‘The world order could start to evolve from the Arctic’: Trump, thin ice and the fight for Greenland’s Northwest Passage | Greenland

IRighteous head of shipping, Nils Clemensen, any advice to Donald Trump Or anyone else trying to get a foothold in Greenland, this will be: “Come here and see what you really deal with.”

He sits on the upper floor of his beloved office in the port of Nok, where snow is overcome due to the strong winds in the dark in the middle of the morning and bypassing ice fragments in the rapid flowing waters, CEO of Greenland’s only Greenland Shipping Company, the Royal Arctic line, says: “What You usually see it easy [setting up operations] In the United States or Europe is not the same here. “In addition to the very harsh cold, ice and seas, the largest island in the world does not have a large network or trains, which means that everything must be transferred either by sea or air.” I don’t say it is not possible. But it will cost a lot of money. “

With the possibility of reducing shipping times between Europe and Asia by thousands of miles – or up to two weeks – the northwestern corridor opened The ice is also dissolved in the Arctic Some are seen as a bullish aspect of the climate crisis and one of The main reasons that Trump took Such interest in Greenland.

With his decisive position along the very desirable road – which passes through Canadian North Pole The archipelago instead of the traditional clip via Panama channel – Greenland may have an important role in its future.

But the lights on Greenland – the changing focus of the world’s great powers in the Arctic region as a whole – highlighted the extent of its poor preparation for the Arctic environment across Europe and the United States in reality. There is no more strict place than it was in Ice slot deficiency – Specialized ships are expensive, vibrant to work in the northwestern corridor and the region in general.

“The opening of the northwestern corridor does not mean that the ice has disappeared,” says Clemensen, who uses his ships (not ice cups) to import and export it all over Greenland. “We are not talking about a free clip throughout the year. The ice is retreating, but it is still there.”

Denmark, responsible for Greenland’s defense, does not have one iceberg – after its three remaining retirement in 2010. However, the ownership of these specialized ships suddenly became what could be a new interface in the struggle for the domination of the largest forces in the world – the matter of accessing Everything is from shipping methods to search, rescue and minerals. This is the Greenland’s attractiveness that Trump was not excluded using military force to obtain.

since Trump is a renewed renewalCopenhagen said she is preparing for the fact that she might have to buy ice cups to defend the Arctic. The Danish Prime Minister, Metty Friedrixen, recently visited the ice slit in Finland – a country with many of it. But even if you decide to order a new fleet now, the ships take several years to build.

Russia is to a large extent the strength of the ice. It is understood that it has at least 50 icebergs – at least 13 of which can work in the Arctic and seven of which is a nuclear – in addition to a large network of ports in the region. It is understood that China has four occasion for the northern pole, while new NATO members in Sweden and Finland, as well as the United States and Canada, all have their own releases of these specialized ships. There are also an increasing number of ice cruise ships that meet the needs of tourists in the Arctic.

The commercial ships that want to use the clip should have the possibilities of breaking the ice because the ice -free window, if this happens, will be less than three months. Even in the summer, coded ships are needed for polarity-such as those, such as Clemensen, designed and approved to work safely in harsh ice conditions in the Arctic. If Greenland’s mining takes off, it will be necessary for the ice slit necessary to reach the minerals in the harassment when they freeze.

Pointing to a large framed map of Greenland hanging on his desk wall, Clemensen says they have ice in the Arctic, drifting to the eastern coast, which closes together so that he has no gaps During the winter, it moves south in the summer. “This is a multi -year ice. It is very difficult and it is big chips. We pass them, we don’t go and break with our ships.”

Then there is the western ice, which comes from the Canadian side that begins in November and accumulates until it closes even the Gulf of Disko on the western coast in Greenland. “When Greenland hits, it accumulates and you cannot pass through it. This is the situation that we look now and may go for two to three months. But that depends on the wind and the current at sea.”

Although you can reach the ice slit, doing so will endanger the livelihoods of coastal societies at risk who go out to the ice to the types of fish that include shrimp, halybots, red fish and cod. Societies themselves also hunt seals, rudeness, reindeer and small numbers of polar bear in the winter.

“Some people think it will be useful to get ice cups [in order to help get small fishing boats out on to the water]But not everyone, because they will destroy their way of living. “

Qujaukitsoq says that the unpredictable ice and weather of the climate crisis actually affects hunting and fishing in rural societies in Greenland. Carbon emissions also accelerate the melting of the inner ice. “It affects our economic livelihood, but it also threatens our traditional way of living,” he says. He adds that the ice should be safe for walking and driving. “Safety is measured on ice thickness. Within a few short periods, we can go by car, but most traffic is made by the dogs of skis and ice vehicles for ice hunting.”

If the northwestern corridor will become more preoccupied and the ice cups came by breaking up ice at inappropriate times, then he says it has a “great influence” on people who live along the shipping path and “pose a threat to our long -term presence.”

Johanna IKävalko, Director of the Arctic Center, says there is a “high need for high -performance ice envelopes” in the region, but it still considers the northwestern corridor “a very risky area for mobility. If it is used to transport oil for example, the ice conditions will pose a “great danger” even on a routine journey.

She says she is afraid of the future of the Arctic, which expects to form the basis in which countries become the superpower in the future. It adds that Russia has multiple military bases in The Artic near Murmansk, which has been developing for years. “I started thinking last summer that the global system will actually begin to develop from the Arctic – and now it’s more likely.”