Right before your eyes

Imagine you live in a remote location and stare out at the majesty of nature. In fact, imagine you live in a city and walk through the park every day, enjoying the careful design to emulate nature so perfectly. Now imagine that everything you are looking at may not be as it seems and that serious money is coming to rip it all apart.

In Greenland, for centuries, locals have looked at the mountains and glacier-carved valleys as stark, foreboding and relentless. If you lived in Greenland, you’d understand foreboding. The fjords are deep with crystal blue water surrounded by sheer rock walls dusted with snow all year long. In winter the ocean freezes solid and, if anything, the rock that surrounds you becomes sharper, crisper, harder.

So, for centuries your ancestors have been eking out a living there, at the edge of the water, with the rocks at your back, protecting you, of course, but also always remaining permanent, unmovable, impenetrable. And then one day you find out that the rock has a secret, many secrets in fact, and people from all over the world want a piece of your nature.

It was just a matter of time. Industry, modern man’s needs for resources see the bare, unexposed rock, as easy to assess and sample. Greg Barnes is chief geologist for Australian mining company Tanbreez Mining. “It is the world’s biggest rare earth deposit, it’s probably got 50% of the world’s rare earth in it. This may be one of the world’s top 10 mining sites we think.”

OK, so what are rare earth deposits? Every modern product from mobile phones to solar panels to wind turbines to the newest generations of AI computers to, yes, Tesla batteries — they all depend on rare earth metals and elements. Currently, China dominates the world supply because they bartered with countries’ leaders all over the developing world and secured the exclusive rights to mines across the globe.

But now Greenland has the potential to be a major player globally. Of course, as soon as prospectors went looking for one thing, they found another: huge reserves of gold, iron-ore, rubies and uranium, as well as oil and gas. Population of Greenland? Fifty-seven thousand people. And what did the electorate say about the boom-time coming? They just held elections and said no thanks, not the way the industrialized nations usually strip mine and destroy nature. 

One fisherman said, “Yes, the promise of money and jobs is good, but not if they ruin what we already have.” 

Interestingly, the TV show “Gold Rush” was cited as proof of destruction of the land.

It will be interesting to see how Greenland handles this bonanza from their rocks and if the population can keep the billions and billions of dollars from corrupting and ruining nature’s pristine landscape.

Writer Peter Riva is a former resident of Amenia Union. He now resides in New Mexico