ARCTIC: Bolstering Military Security & more – 13th Jan 2026

Terve from Oakley! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 13th of January twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

Diplomacy in the Arctic continues to fall. After years of threats that Donald Trump has made toward Greenland, the US has taken another step away from peace. On Sunday the 11th, the newspaper The Daily Mail wrote that it had received a report from the US government stating that Trump had asked special forces commanders to begin preparing contingency plans for a possible invasion of Greenland.

Prior to this escalation, world leaders were making their stance clear. On Friday the 9th, the leaders of every Greenlandic political party issued a joint statement with a simple but strong message. We don't want to be Americans, we don't want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders. On the same day, Politico reported that European governments are attempting to persuade Trump that any action against Greenland would be a major mistake, and hope to end this conflict without further pain.

One way that Europe hopes to persuade Trump not to invade Greenland is to bolster security around the island. Trump reportedly believes Greenland is vulnerable to Chinese and Russian influence, and that only the US can protect it, which is why he needs to annex Greenland. In an attempt to rebuff these claims, on Sunday the 11th, both the UK and German militaries said they will be bolstering Arctic military security.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he is considering sending British troops to Greenland, and Bloomberg reported that Germany will propose a NATO mission to monitor and protect the Arctic region. Only time will tell whether these proposals will help heal the diplomatic wounds that continue to spread in Greenland.

While the tug-of-war over Greenland and its importance to international security is being waged, another reason for keeping Greenland secure is being ignored. In a story by Martin Siegert, Chair of The UK Arctic Partnerships Committee, he comments on the value Greenland has provided to climate science over history.

The world’s largest island has long been a scientific haven, allowing scientists from around the world to unlock the environmental secrets preserved within its ice, rocks and seabed, which has helped us understand our world.

The Greenland ice sheet that covers eighty percent of the country is also holding back an estimated global sea rise of seven metres, about twenty-three feet. Keeping Greenland a place of peace might be needed to keep the world from drowning.

The fallout from the political showdown over Greenland is expanding across the Arctic. On Wednesday the 8th, the Norwegian broadcaster NRK wrote that the Norwegian islands of Svalbard are at risk of a Russian takeover if the instability in the Arctic continues. The following day, Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway’s Prime Minister, told journalists he wouldn’t speculate on the safety of Svalbard, calling such questions hypothetical and nonsensical.

The local media in Svalbard doesn’t agree though, with the editor of the newspaper Svalbardposten telling NRK on Saturday the 10th that she is no longer sure her home will receive US support in the event of Russian aggression.

Norway might say Russia isn’t a worry, but the Russian military is showing just how ready they are to dominate the whole Arctic Circle. On Monday the 12th, the Arctic news agency, The Barents Observer, reported that the Russian Northern Fleet has completed a world first. They flew two aircraft on a thirty-hour mission over the North Pole and back to Northern Russia, completing the first in-flight refueling near the North Pole. This isn’t just a symbolic achievement; it proves that the Russian navy is capable of staging high-endurance military operations as far as the literal top of the world.

The US and Russia aren’t the only concerns for Arctic security; China is still a worrying presence for some Arctic nations. In a story written by Lisa O’Carroll for the Guardian published on Saturday the 10th, she details how Sweden’s hopes of combating China’s dominance in the rare metals industry lie within its northernmost town of Kiruna, and its massive iron mine.

The mine, owned by mining company LKAB, is already Europe’s largest iron mine. But with rare earth elements becoming so important to new technology development, and China owning the vast majority of the rare element trade, Sweden hopes to find a hidden source of the valuable minerals deep down in the Arctic.

To read O’Carroll’s piece, check out the link in the show notes.

Northern Sweden is doing more than mining, as there’s progress being made to protect important forests. On Wednesday the 7th, the Swedish government published a proposal to compensate forest owners whose land gets restricted due to new species protections. With much of Swedish forest land under private ownership and used for the logging industry, it has been hard to agree on environmental protections, as this would mean a loss of business for the forest owners.

This proposal, however, presents a compromise. Forest owners who are told areas of their land are to be protected will be compensated by the government for the loss of potential revenue. This should provide a good balance between human and natural prosperity across Sweden.

Speaking of quality environmental protection, who are the best people to manage conservation programs? Well, according to a study published by Concordia University in Canada on Tuesday the 6th, the answer is Indigenous communities. The study measured the outcomes of two Indigenous-managed protected areas in northern Canada, Thaidene Nëné and Edéhzhíe in the Northwest Territories.

When comparing results for criteria such as carbon storage, species richness and climate adaptation to protected lands that are managed by the government, they found that Indigenous communities at least match and often exceed the environmental goals that the government achieves.

The study notes that this can only be achieved when Indigenous communities are funded properly though.

Simple conservation areas are good, but saving the Arctic might take something new. An unusual proposal from the University of Cambridge, published by New Scientist Magazine on Friday the 9th, says that deforestation could help the climate.

Boreal forests across the Arctic are excellent at storing carbon from the atmosphere. But increasing wildfires in the north mean that soon after this carbon is absorbed, fire releases it back into the atmosphere. Cambridge’s proposal then, is to fell 30,000 square kilometers, 3 million hectares, of forest every year and sink the trees in the Arctic Ocean where their stored carbon will remain.

The researchers believe that their method could save 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. But can such a destructive idea really be the answer?

In other science news, the Greenland shark might hold the keys to healing human eyesight. In research published by the University of California on Monday the 5th, scientists studied the eyes of the longest-lived vertebrate on Earth, the Greenland shark. They wanted to know how this deep-sea fish maintains its eyesight, showing no signs of retinal degeneration after centuries.

The findings suggest that Greenland sharks have an in-built DNA repair mechanism, which heals the eyes throughout the shark’s lifespan. Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk, the lead researcher, said that funding for this project has now ended, but if the funding is extended, we could unlock methods to treat ocular conditions ranging from age-related vision loss to eye diseases such as glaucoma.

Let’s close this edition in Finland, where some holidays are getting an unexpected extension. As reported by Finnish broadcaster YLE on Sunday the 11th, thousands of foreign tourists have had their flights home from Kittilä, in Lapland, cancelled, as a deep freeze has lowered temperatures to almost minus forty degrees Celsius, about minus thirty-eight Fahrenheit, for the last ten days. A spokesperson for flight company Finnair told YLE that conditions were too severe for safe de-icing, refuelling and ground control in such cold weather.

National weather services have said that Lapland weather changes rapidly at this time of the year, so grounded tourists will just need to wait it out and hope that warmer days arrive soon.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Quick question, is there a specific monopoly in the Arctic you think is a big problem? Let us know at info@rorshok.com

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