For one thing, it’s huge
While many maps tend to exaggerate Greenland’s size, it’s still massive — at 836,330 square miles, it’s more than three times the size of Texas.
It’s considered to be the world’s largest island and, on its own, would be the 12th-largest nation on Earth. It is also the least densely populated territory on the planet. More than 80% of its 56,000 residents occupy about a dozen towns along its coast; its vast, icy interior is essentially uninhabited.
Adding Greenland would allow the U.S. to leapfrog Canada and become the second-largest country in the world — although it would still be a distant second to Russia.
Location, location, location
Not only is Greenland big, it’s also in a highly strategic area. Key sea routes that connect Northern Europe to North America run along its coastline, making it a critical location for managing both international shipping and military power in the Arctic.
The fabled Northwest Passage to the northern edge of Canada and the Arctic Bridge route, which connects Scandinavia and Russia to North America’s East Coast, both hug Greenland’s southern tip.
Greenland is also home to an American military missile defense base located far north of the Arctic Circle, a prime position to monitor — or potentially intercept — any Russian rockets headed toward the U.S. mainland.
Because of climate change, which has made many areas of the Arctic impossible to navigate due to melting ice, Greenland’s position will only become more important. Within the next 25 years, experts predict that enough ice will melt to open up the Transpolar Sea Route, a shipping lane that would cut straight across the North Pole and create a more efficient path between Asia and the Atlantic.
The U.S. and its allies are already jockeying with Russia and, to a certain extent, China, over control of this swiftly evolving area of the globe. Owning Greenland would give the U.S. an enormous advantage in this geopolitical tug-of-war.
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