Sunday, December 14, 2008

Independent Greenland [get it before it's hot!]

Beyond the Ice [This is about the only place I'd be buying real estate right now.]

Greenland is four times the size of France, but with a population of only 57,000 - and as its huge ice sheets begin to melt, it could find itself sitting on a fortune in oil and gems. Now, it has voted to cut all ties with its Danish rulers.

When it does shake off the last of its colonial shackles, Greenland will become the newest and the most extraordinary country in the world, as well as one of the most isolated. Although its remote north-west coast is little more than 100 miles from Canada's Ellesmere Island, it is nearly 2,000 miles from Europe. Four times the size of France, Greenland contains the longest fjord and largest national park in the world; 85% of its territory is covered with ice. Ten per cent of the world's fresh water is frozen on Greenland's ice-sheet; if it melts, sea levels will rise by seven metres, sweeping away capital cities and countries around the world.

It's a Lex Luthor style strategy - you know: like buying up land along the San Andreas Fault - but without the hijacked nuclear missiles, bad wig and meddling guy in underpants. Hear me out though. Once you figure out how to harvest and sell all that melting fresh water to the expanding desert nations [like France and the United States,] you have not only a mind boggling amount of untapped mineral resources, but a new agricultural region the size of the Midwest - the breadbasket of the 22nd Century. Your formerly frozen Danish colony is now the most powerful nation on the planet. [Time to start learning Kalaallisut.]

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