The Arctic; China Wants in

choi

Elisabeth Rosenthal, Race Is on as Ice Melt Reveals Arctic Treasures; Resource-rich regions seen as barren wastelands. New York Times, Step 19, 2012 (front page)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/1 ... ff-competition.html
(China is muscling in Arctic only to meet resistance)

Quote:

"A European Union vice president, Antonio Tajani,  rushed here to Greenland’s capital in June, offering hundreds of millions in development aid in exchange for guarantees that Greenland would not give China exclusive access to its rare earth metals, calling his trip 'raw mineral diplomacy.'

"At one point this summer, 97 percent of the surface of Greenland’s massive ice sheet was melting. At current rates, Arctic waters could be ice-free in summer by the end of the decade, scientists say. 'Things are happening much faster than what any scientific model predicted,' said Dr. Morten Rasch, who runs the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring program at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Note:
(a) Born in 1953 in Rome, Antonio Tajani is currently European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship and one of the five Vice-President of the European Commission (EC).
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/tajani/index_en.htm
(b) The report states, "Greenland is close to North America, and home to the United States Air Force's northernmost base in Thule."
(i) Thule Air Base
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule_Air_Base
(1943-present; located 1,207 km (750 mi) north of the Arctic Circle and 1,524 km (947 mi) from the North Pole)

For pronunciation of Thule, see next.
(ii) Thule
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thule
("is, in classical European literature and maps, a region in the far north. Though often considered to be an island in antiquity, modern interpretations of what was meant by Thule often identify it as Norway")
(iii) Qaanaaq
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaanaaq
(a town; formerly Thule or New Thule; one of the northernmost towns in the world; population 626 as of 2010)

Quote: "The town of Qaanaaq was established in the winter of 1953 when the United States expanded their airbase at Thule and forcibly relocated the population of Pituffik, Dundas, and Uummannaq 31 km (19 mi) to the north within four days during the height of the Cold War. The settlement was subsequently moved another 100 kilometers to the north.
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choi

Elisabeth Rosenthal, A Melting Greenland Weighs Perils Against Potential. New York Times, Sept 24, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/2 ... inst-potential.html

Quote:

"One of the world’s largest deposits of rare earth metals * * * sits just outside Narsaq. This could be momentous for Greenland, which has long relied on half a billion dollars a year in welfare payments from Denmark, its parent state. Mining profits could help Greenland become economically self sufficient, and may someday even render it the first sovereign nation created by global warming.

"But the rapid transition from a society of individual fishermen and hunters to an economy supported by corporate mining raises difficult questions. How would Greenland’s insular settlements tolerate an influx of thousands of Polish or Chinese construction workers, as has been proposed?

"It has long been known that Greenland sat upon vast mineral lodes * * * But previous attempts at mining mostly failed, proving too expensive in the inclement conditions. Now, warming has altered the equation.

Note:
(a)
(i) Greenland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland
(table: Ethnic groups: 89% Greenlandic Inuit, 11% Europeans (mostly Danes); Norway ceded Greenland to Denmark in 1814)
(ii) CIA World Factbook:
(A) Greenland: population 57,695 (July 2012 est.); GDP per capita (PPP) $37,400 (2008 est.)
(B) Denmark: population 5,543,453 (July 2012 est.); GDP per capita (PPP) $37,600 (2011 est.)

(b) Narsaq
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narsaq
(The name Narsaq is Kalaallisut for "Plain", referring to the beautiful shore of Tunulliarfik Fjord where the town is located)
(c) fjord
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fjord