ARCTIC: Iceland's Military Reform Plans & more – 18th Mar 2025

Bures from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 18th of March twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

The future of Greenland was decided when the nation went to the polls on Tuesday the 11th, with the national broadcaster KNR declaring the results in the early hours of Wednesday the 12th.

A huge upset in Greenlandic politics has occurred, with the incumbent IA party losing heavily to The Democratic Party, which has never held power in Greenland before. The Democratic Party won about thirty percent of the vote, so it’s currently in coalition talks to establish a government. The Democratic Party is in favor of a slow route to independence from Denmark, and against Trump’s recent attempts to take over the country.

NPR has written a nice summary of the results and what they mean for Greenland. Check it out with the link in the show notes!

Donald Trump’s reaction to the election results has been to continue to insist he will take control of Greenland. During a press conference on Thursday the 13th, Trump was asked about his goal to annex the island, to which he confirmed “I think it will happen.”

Mute Egede, the outgoing Greenlandic Prime Minister, responded immediately through a post on his personal Facebook profile. Egede revealed he had gathered the leaders of each of Greenland’s political parties together. Later that day, the gathered political leaders published a joint statement declaring their intention to counter any attempts to take control of their country.

Trump is having negative impacts on his own country too. Under the prior Biden administration, over a trillion US dollars were allocated to improve infrastructure across the US, with Alaska receiving billions. But according to a report by the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, published on Tuesday the 11th, Trump has frozen over $1 billion US dollars in funding for Alaskan projects.

The affected projects include renewable energy programs and erosion protection, meant to protect vulnerable Alaska communities that are both expensive and hazardous to live in. Unless this funding is released back to the state, the quality of life in Alaska is unlikely to improve.

With political stability in the Arctic becoming unclear, the need for increased national security is being felt in every Arctic nation. On Tuesday the 11th, Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir, Iceland’s Foreign Minister, announced on the government website that Iceland will accelerate its plans to reform the country’s defense and security policy.

While Iceland has no military, it is a key NATO territory due to its location in the center of a key North Atlantic shipping lane. Gunnarsdottir said Iceland would deepen NATO cooperation and build a new security center for police and coast guard to counter drone and cyber threats. Final plans are expected this spring.

Norway’s investment in Arctic security is causing tension with Russia. The high northern archipelago of Svalbard belongs to Norway, but has been home to two Russian settlements for over a 100 years in a show of cooperation and peace. However, now, this peace is under threat.

On Friday the 14th, the Russian Foreign Ministry published a statement accusing Norway of militarizing Svalbard and posing a threat to the Russians living there. The Norwegian government sent an immediate response denying the accusation. The country doesn’t have any military bases on Svalbard, but does operate military aircraft and ships to monitor the territory that borders Russia.

Life in Svalbard might get busier. According to the Svalbard treaty, citizens from any country that signs it are allowed to move to the islands free of any Visa requirements as long as they can financially support themselves.

On Tuesday the 11th, Turkey officially joined the Svalbard Treaty, according to a statement from the Turkish government. To those Turkish people willing to brave one of the coldest places on Earth, there are now opportunities to live, work and study in the far north.

Russia is exploring its own northern region more than ever before. On Monday the 17th, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources announced that Russia is launching an ambitious lithium mining industry, mostly in the far north. Lithium is a crucial metal for electronics production but Russia has always imported it in the past. The Ministry said that it has discovered three sources of lithium in Russia, two in the Murmansk region in northwestern Russia, and one in the Tuva region, which borders Mongolia. The ministry expects the mines to be operational by twenty thirty and fulfill Russia’s lithium needs for approximately twenty years.

Moving over to Canada, on Thursday the 13th, Inuit health advocates expressed disappointment over the country’s settlement with tobacco companies in an interview with the Inuit news agency Nunatsiaq News, calling it a missed opportunity. Earlier in March the federal government closed a decades-long battle with tobacco companies, but the Arctic territory of Nunavut is only set to receive under $70 million US dollars in compensation.

Garfield Mahood, a Canadian anti-tobacco advocate, called the financial compensation an embarrassment, saying that the companies caused damage worth billions more than what they are set to pay.

In better news for northern Canadians, students in the Nunavik territory in northern Quebec are set for a funding boost to their school food programs. According to a story published by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network on Tuesday the 11th, the territory of Quebec has received about $45 million US dollars in federal funding to extend its programs to provide all school children with healthy food.

An unspecified share of this money will be allocated to the Indigenous territories of the Cree and Inuvik to ensure that all children are provided with nutrition in Canada.

Speaking of Arctic diets, Greenlandic people may be suffering because their traditional diets have been contaminated. On Thursday the 13th, scientists from Aarhus University published a study revealing that Inuit hunters in eastern Greenland are facing serious health concerns due to the amount of toxic pollutants, known as PFAS, in their diet of polar bear and seal meat. The study took blood samples from inhabitants of the Ittoqqortoormiit hunting community and registered PFAS levels thirteen times higher than the risk threshold.

Eastern Greenland is the most PFAS-polluted region in the world due to ocean and air currents carrying the world’s pollutants directly to the region, which is now seriously harming the animals and humans that live there.

Traditional lifestyles in the Swedish Arctic are also under threat from environmental changes. On Sunday the 16th, Jonas Sjaunja, vice chairman of the Sami community Unna Tjerusj Sameby, told news agency SVT that around sixty percent of reindeer calves in northern Sweden died this winter—double the usual rate. The warm winter brought less snow than normal, leaving calves exposed to predators like eagles, wolves, and wolverines. Typically, reindeer hide their young in snow for protection, but without it, predation soared.

While the Swedish government offers compensation, Sami herders receive only about twenty percent of their lost revenue. Sjaunja warns that the losses will have severe financial and cultural impacts, making the year ahead especially difficult for Sweden’s reindeer herders.

With the long Arctic winters coming to a close, communities across the north are celebrating with traditional sporting contests. On Friday the 14th, Norway’s Finnmarksløpet, the longest sled dog race in Europe, began. The race will take sledding teams 1,100 km, almost 700 miles, across northern Norway and last until Saturday the 22nd.

Meanwhile, on Thursday the 14th, Jessie Holmes secured his first victory in Alaska’s Iditarod, the annual dog sledding race across the state. This year’s edition was the longest in history, at over 1,100 miles, more than 1,800 km, with Alaska’s recent warm winter causing the traditional route to be snowless.

These races highlight the deep bond between people and their dogs, and the enduring legacy of sled dog culture in the Arctic.

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

Did you know that you can send an episode as an MP3 file? You can download it directly from our website: www.rorshok.com/arctic. The link’s also in the show notes.

Mana