Nuuk, Greenland. The Arctic air here carries a story written in ice cores and satellite altimetry. It tells of a world warming, of a Greenland ice sheet losing 260bn tonnes of mass annually. Yet the man sent by former President Trump to this thawing frontier operated under a different narrative: one of resource extraction, strategic military positioning, and economic courtship.
Kenneth Howery, the US envoy for Greenland affairs, arrived this week with a mission to make ‘friends’ for America. The hostile terrain he faces is not merely the crevassed glaciers or the shifting pack ice. It is the deep scepticism of a population of 56,000 who have watched their homeland become a pawn in great power chess, their melting permafrost a global heat engine their sovereignty a question mark.
Let us be clear on the physics. Greenland holds 7% of the world’s fresh water locked in ice. If that ice sheet were to completely melt, sea levels would rise by 7.4 metres. We are currently losing ice at a rate that adds 0.8mm per year to global sea level. This is not a hypothetical. This is measured by GRACE satellites and surface mass balance models.
Against this backdrop, the US delegation’s focus on rare earth minerals, uranium, and military access seems almost anachronistic. Greenland possesses some of the largest deposits of rare earth elements outside China. These are critical for wind turbines, electric vehicles, and defence systems. The irony is thick: the very technologies meant to decarbonise our economy depend on resources that the Arctic is yielding as it melts.
But the Greenlandic people are not naive. They have watched their ice recede, their hunting seasons shorten, their traditional knowledge rendered obsolete by a climate that no longer holds pattern. They have also seen Australia, Canada, and China court them. The ‘friend’ America seeks must offer more than cash and geopolitics.
Howery’s agenda included meetings with business leaders and government officials. He dangled infrastructure investment, digital connectivity, and educational exchange. Yet what Greenland demands is climate adaptation funding, a seat at the table in Arctic governance, and respect for its long path to self-determination from Denmark.
The envoy’s reception has been described as ‘polite but firm’. Greenlandic Premier Múte Egede stated plainly: “We are not for sale. But we are open to partnership.” That distinction is crucial. The US approach reeks of transactional diplomacy in a region where trust is built over generations, not press releases.
Let us examine the numbers. The US has invested approximately $12 million in Greenland since 2020, mostly in research. Compare that to China’s $200 million in mining and infrastructure pledges, or the European Union’s Arctic investment of $1.2 billion. The US is a latecomer to a climate-changed game.
Then there is the military dimension. Thule Air Base, now Pituffik Space Base, sits 1,200km from the North Pole. It is a critical node for early warning missile detection and space surveillance. The US wants to upgrade its radar systems. Greenlanders remember the 1968 B-52 crash that scattered four nuclear warheads across the ice. They are wary of being turned into a strategic outpost again.
The hostile terrain Howery faces is not just the weather. It is the legacy of colonialism, the urgency of climate change, and the mismatch of expectations. While the US thinks in terms of resources and basing rights, Greenland thinks in terms of survival. Their glaciers are melting faster each decade. Their winters are warmer. Their hunting is less predictable.
There is a fundamental incompatibility between short-term geopolitical gains and long-term planetary health. The US envoy may find that the best way to make friends in Greenland is not to offer money, but to listen. To acknowledge that the melting ice is not an opportunity for commerce but a warning for civilisation.
In the end, the story of this visit is not about diplomacy. It is about the collision of two realities. One sees a changing Arctic as a frontier for extraction and control. The other sees a home that is disappearing. Until those realities align, the ice will remain unbroken, and the friendship cold.
