The people of Greenland are taking Donald Trump’s annexation threats very seriously. Some people have even started sleeping with a rifle, while others have detailed escape plans, just in case the Americans launch an invasion.
“This is a hunting society, and people do have guns, so they said they were bringing them in and keeping them loaded,” describes journalist Brett Popplewell, who recently sat down with Adrian Harewood on Ricochet’s podcast, In Bed with the Elephant, to discuss his cover story for the Walrus Magazine in which he travels to Greenland to get reaction to Trump’s annexation threats, and Canada’s failure to stand firm with the Greenlandic people.
“Canada has two neighbours. We have the United States, and we have Greenland,” said the Carleton University journalism professor.
People of Nuuk protesting U.S. president Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland. Photo via Reddit.
In recent weeks, Trump has renewed his threats to claim the territory, both in trade negotiations and on social media. He also said “Greenland will be under U.S. control by the time he leaves office.”
Popplewell said Trump views annexation as a real estate transaction. In addition to its strategic value for the American military, which could have implications for the world, Greenland is seen as a valuable piece of property that Trump wants to acquire.
“There are politicians in the United States who have tabled legislation to try and make this happen, including one who says Greenland should be renamed ‘Red White and Blueland,’” he said.
If those arguments prevail in Greenland, he said, what’s to stop those arguments from spreading to justify annexation of Canada?
“Canada cannot be on both sides of this issue,” he said, pointing to the hypocrisy of Canada expressing solidarity with Greenland while participating in “war games” with the American military, at the same time as the president is threatening to invade.
Check out the full interview with journalist Brett Popplewell on Ricochet’s podcast, In Bed with the Elephant, discussing his recent trip to Greenland where he got reaction from people on the ground to Trump’s annexation threats.
Greenland is a vast arctic territory that is largely untouched. The land sits on top of an enormous amount of natural resources, including rare minerals, oil and gas etc.
Popplewell says the people of Greenland would like it to remain untouched. “They don’t want to see us do what we’ve done to every other corner of this world. The thought of mining trucks coming in for exploitation. It’s off-putting.”
Earlier this month, the Guardian reported that a Trump-connected oil company was preparing for exploratory drilling despite not having received permission from Greenland authorities. The drilling materials were brought ashore on Greenland’s eastern coast. That prompted Greenland’s government to issue a “strong warning” to the company, and eventually delay drilling.
Donald Trump has renewed his threats to annex Greenland, both in trade negotiations and in menacing posts on social media.
Popplewell said the people of Greenland know they are on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
“There’s a lot of mineral wealth in Greenland that becomes increasingly important as the ice melts,” he said.
The population of Greenland is 89 per cent Inuit, and for thousands of years the people lived semi-nomadically, moving from Greenland through the Canadian arctic into Alaska.
Popplewell tells Harewood that an 80-person Inuit delegation travelled from northern Quebec and Labrador and arrived in Nuuk in February to show support for Greenlandic sovereignty and stand side-by-side with its people, many of whom he described as “cousins” and “family” of the Inuit in Canada. They should really be thought of as “one people.”
“They just happen to live on the other side of the border that we put there,” he said.
Popplewell started to view the threats to Greenland through a Canadian lens — because Trump continues to threaten Canada’s sovereignty as well. “I went there thinking, if this domino falls, what’s to stop America from applying the same logic to Ellesmere Island or to Baffin island?”
With so many global super powers negotiating their future without them, the people of Greenland feel utterly alone. “No one should have to cry out for help to be heard,” he told Harewood. “The people of Greenland are longing for an earnest deepening of ties to Canada.
“Canadians and their government should listen.”
Listen to the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or wherever you get podcasts.