ARCTIC: Instability in Greenland & more – 2nd Sep 2025

Haluu from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 2nd of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

Tensions between Denmark and the US over Greenland are escalating once again. On Wednesday the 27th, Danish broadcaster DR reported that police uncovered a covert US influence campaign aimed at stirring resentment toward Danish rule and promoting American control of Greenland. Anonymous sources suggested the effort sought to shift Greenlandic public opinion from Danish to American rule.

Denmark reacted sharply, with Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen calling the operation totally unacceptable and summoning the US’s top diplomat in Copenhagen. The American response was dismissive. As the BBC reported on Thursday the 28th, a White House official declined to confirm the allegations, saying only: “We think the Danes need to calm down.”

This week may go down as one of the most influential weeks in Danish-Greenlandic history after Denmark’s government issued an official apology for its role in the Spiral case on Wednesday the 27th. This case refers to the historic mistreatment of thousands of Greenlandic women and children over decades, where the Danish government ordered doctors to fit Indigenous women and girls with IUDs without their consent to control the population growth of the country.

Mette Frederiken, the Danish Prime Minister, said in her apology that her country can never change the past, but it can start taking responsibility for its actions and move toward a fairer future.

Meanwhile, Norway is boosting its activities in the Arctic with key investments. On Wednesday the 27th, the Norwegian government presented its new High North strategy, with national security being the biggest priority for the Arctic now. According to the document, Norway will be strengthening its defence capabilities in the north and deepening cooperation with European allies, Canada, and the US, in the hope of creating a safe and thriving northern Norway.

Science is also key to Norway’s Arctic future. On Tuesday the 26th, the Norwegian government announced a $100 million US dollar science project, called Polhavet twenty fifty. It will gather eighteen Norwegian academic institutions over the next decade to work together on a comprehensive new platform of academic research in the Arctic region, as Norway hopes to be the leading Arctic science nation.

To read the new direction for Arctic Norway, check out the link in the show notes.

On Monday the 1st of September, the US Navy revealed to Newsweek that over the last few days, the US and Norway staged a naval show of force in the Norwegian Barents Sea, on Russia's border. The operation involved a nuclear aircraft carrier, Norwegian frigates, and US destroyers, which patrolled the Norwegian coast to search for Russian attack submarines that had been tracked moving through northern waters.

This operation marks the third visit of the US Navy to Arctic Norway in the last five years, after decades of prior inactivity. The north continues to move away from a region of peace.

On another note, Canada’s Arctic economic future could change significantly soon. On Wednesday the 27th, Tim Hodgson, Canada’s Energy Minister, told Politico that he expects natural gas to be shipped from the Canadian Arctic to Europe in about six years.

With Europe looking for an alternative source of natural gas to Russia, Canada is seeking to fill that void. Hodgson says that his country’s plan is to build a new port and pipeline in the northeast settlement of Churchill, which can take natural gas and other sources of natural wealth abundant in Canada’s north and quickly deliver them to Europe.

Let’s move over to the European Arctic, where the fight against climate change is combining with the need to increase military defences. According to an article published by Politico on Tuesday the 26th, Finland’s defence and environment ministries will begin talks in the fall regarding repairing and restoring peatlands in the country’s north. Peatlands aren’t just a valuable carbon sink and key source of biodiversity, they also stop tanks.

With Finland fearing a Russian invasion, and Ukraine so effectively using wetlands to disrupt Russian troops and vehicles in their own ongoing war, the Finnish defence ministry believes it can use nature as a key ally in keeping the north safe.

Russia’s own Arctic environment needs serious repairs. On Tuesday the 26th, scientists published research in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles which studied the long-term impacts of the devastating Siberian heat wave of twenty twenty. This heat wave was considered one of the most extreme Arctic heat events in recorded history, and Siberia has yet to recover.

The scientists found that the soil is still warmer and wetter than expected across northern Russia. This is causing microbes in the soil to be more active, releasing additional carbon dioxide into the air, while reducing the amount of carbon the ground can store away from the atmosphere.

Even when extreme weather events end, their impacts can take years to recover from.

In previous episodes, we mentioned that the church in Kiruna, northern Sweden, moved due to the local mine’s expansion causing part of the town to become unstable.

But things just got much worse for Kiruna residents. On Thursday the 28th, the local mine owners LKAB announced that the fracture zone, the area that the mine will cause instability, is being expanded. The new zone contains about 6,000 people and 3,000 homes. About 6,000 people have already been forced to move due to the mine’s activities, and local residents are wondering: at what point do their needs become more than those of an iron mine?

Kiruna’s population might be about to fall, but a town in Iceland is having an unexpected population boost. On Monday the 1st of September, Icelandic newspaper MBL reported that the town of Grindavik, which has been battered by constant volcanic eruptions for the last two years and left virtually deserted, has seen people returning. Before the eruptions began, Grindavik was home to about 3,500 people. All but about 850 left once life in the town became unstable. However, official town statistics say that in the last two months, the number of registered residents has grown to 880 people.

On Sunday the 31st, the fire service of the North West Territories announced that due to an accelerating wildfire, an evacuation order had been issued for the community of Fort Providence, telling residents to move south to the town of Hay River, about two hours away.

This marks the second Arctic evacuation in a week, with the Fire Service evacuating the Indigenous Tłı̨chǫ community of Whatı̀ on Friday the 29th. This year is shaping up to be another of wildfires and destruction for the Canadian Arctic.

In sports news, the most successful Arctic football club continues to grow. On Tuesday the 26th, the BBC reported that Norway’s Bodo/Glimt won their match against Pafos FC of Cyprus to qualify for the Champions League. This success is not only the club’s first ever appearance in the competition, they will be the first ever football club from above the Arctic circle to compete in Europe’s premier football club competition.

Musical history was also made this week. On Sunday the 31st, the BBC Proms festival, one of the world’s largest classical music festivals, featured the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra alongside Katarina Barruk, who became the first Sami artist to ever perform at the festival. Katarina isn’t only a Sami singer, she is one of the last speakers of the Ume Sami language still alive. This performance now exists as a beacon for her critically endangered language and culture, and shows just how much beauty is at risk of being lost if the Arctic continues to disappear.

To listen to this rare performance yourself, check out the link in the show notes.

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

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Ilaannilu