Timeline: Greenland

The Leif Eriksson Statue in Brattahlid, Greenland

A chronology of key events HERE

Iceland Declares War on Polar Bears

Sarah Palin and Iceland have something in common...both are willing to kill innocent creatures whose habitat is disappearing...seems what's really become extinct is humanitarianism.
An Icelandic commission has recommended that any polar bears that manage to reach the island nation from Greenland should be shot because it’s too expensive to ship the dangerous animals back to their natural habitat or to zoos.
The commission was appointed last summer after two of the bears were shot dead. They had apparently managed to swim up to 200 miles after ice floes that carried them part of the way from Greenland melted beneath their feet. Polar bear sightings had been rare in Iceland until this past June.
The killings sparked outrage from conservation groups that blamed authorities for not keeping the bears isolated until they could be safely relocated.
The arrival of two bears with a two-week period could lend credence to warnings that global warming is now melting the bears’ habitats.
more HERE

Nuclear Warhead On Ice

A U.S. nuclear warhead was abandoned under the ice in northern Greenland after a B52 bomber crashed in 1968, an investigation has found.
A declassified U.S. government video has been obtained by the BBC
more HERE

Radioactive Greenland

The fjord near Thule Air Base, Greenland has elevated radiation levels, the result of the 1968 crash of a B-52 carrying four hydrogen bombs. One of the H-bombs was apparently never recovered, a fact that provoked anger here in 2000, when it became public.
But in recent years, the most contentious issue has been the U.S. refusal to clean up dump sites.
The United States said if they were to clean up after themselves at Thule they would be met by similar demands in the Philippines, Japan, and elsewhere in the world and didn’t want to set that precedent.
more HERE

Girls of Greenland

Local girls in Kangermusset, Greenland.

In certain villages in northern Greenland something is completely out of whack—only girls are being born. These reports from villages near the U.S. Air Force base in Thule are now being explored by scientists. But studies conducted a few years ago now coming to light show that in other Arctic regions, the sex ratios of babies are also out of kilter.
'Living On Earth' transcript & podcast HERE

Melting of Greenland Ice on Hold?

Much noise has been made about how water lubricates the base of Greenland's ice sheet, accelerating its slide into the oceans. In a rare "good news" announcement, climatologists now say the ice may not be in such a hurry to throw itself into the water after all. Mother Nature, it seems, has put on the brakes.
ABC News story is HERE

Gay Greenland

Greenland ended up on a '10 Gay Adventures of a Lifetime' list...
The Adventure: With just over 56,000 inhabitants, travelers do not head to Greenland for the city life. This remote self-governing territory of Denmark (yes, Greenland has legal gay civil unions like its motherland) is a landmass of untouched ecosystems.
Tip: Don’t fly to Greenland itself, which can be expensive and iffy weather-wise, but grab a cruise leaving from Iceland—a cheaper and gayer way to go, since you can drink at Reykjavik’s queer bars before heading north.
more HERE

Iran Strike Imminent?

This story broke earlier this week and seems to be gaining momentum...

Is a military strike on Iran in the works?

According to several sources, Israel has requested and received connection to the US Ballistic Early Warning Systems (BMEWS) through its three main stations, located in Alaska, Thule Air Force Base in Greenland, and the British RAF long range radar station in Yorkshire, England.

This would be designed to give Israel a time edge in preparing its Arrow and Patriot missile defense systems, as well as an edge for the US Patriot missile facilities that are based in Israel in the Negev and near Ben Gurian airport and protect American facilities in Iraq and the Gulf as well as Israel.
connect the dots HERE

Greenland Update

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has completed the construction phase of the Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) at Thule Air Base, Greenland.
The radar is a key sensor for the Missile Defense Agency's Ballistic Missile Defense System, providing target detection and tracking to protect the U.S. and other nations from ballistic missile attacks.
Denmark, a NATO member, permits the development of U.S. missile defense systems in Greenland, which is a Danish province.

Related News:
Las Vegas-based Arctic Oil & Gas has controversially laid claim to nearly all of the Arctic Ocean's undersea oil said Thursday that new geological data suggests a "potentially vast" petroleum resource of 400 billion barrels.
That figure is backed by a respected Canadian researcher who recently signed on as the firm's chief scientific adviser.
story is HERE

Vancouver-based TRUE NORTH GEMS has committed $9.5 million for a pre-feasibility study and continuing exploration of its ruby-bearing prospects in Greenland.
more HERE

Ominous Arctic Melt

An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years.
Greenland's ice sheet melted nearly 19 billion tons more than the previous high mark...
the story is HERE

Climate Change Impacts Greenland

The United States is strengthening its air base at Thule on the extreme north of Greenland and the Russians have already planted flags on the sea bed.
Greenland is the land mass closest to the North Pole and has rapidly assumed greater strategic importance as its much more powerful and populous neighbors vie for a slice of the Arctic's supposed mineral wealth.
more HERE

The New Cold War

The reports from the world's diplomats and military planners say there's a new theater of war — at least cold war — where tensions are heating up because the world is.
In the Arctic these days, there are Danish commando dog-sled patrols guarding northern Greenland. While U.S. icebreakers are mapping the seabed, Russian subs are planting their flag on the same seabed.
And the Canadian navy is expanding its Arctic patrols, running new military exercises, ordering six new military patrol ships, while the Canadian government is building up two Arctic military bases.
The thought of big nations finding yet another vested interest in their landscape isn't universally thrilling in Greenland, which has been a strategic military outpost for the U.S. and Denmark since the Cold War. Inuit hunters were displaced when the American military set up camp at the Thule Air Base on the island's northwest shore in the 1950s, and Inuit hunters were the first to be exposed when a B-52 carrying hydrogen bombs crashed near the base in 1968.

TIME story is HERE
ABCNews story is HERE
video is HERE