Newsletter 2025 – An Arctic Dystopia?
American forces during exercise Arctic Edge 2023 at Pituffik space base, Greenland. (Photo: Andrew Adams/US Army)
Dear reader. The shiny new year started on a rough note! We barely awoke from the holiday food coma before President-elect Trump threatened to take Greenland by force and make Canada USA's 51st state. In the meantime, the incumbent president's last acts are about protecting the Arctic climate.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Trump was also clear that he does not rule out the use of force to gain control over Greenland. He also threatened Denmark with high tariffs in connection with Greenland if they did not comply.
Both the US and Denmark are members of the defense alliance NATO.
On Trump's own social media platform, Truth Social, Trump recently shared a map of the US which includes Canada.
The current president also used his last days of office to implement new measures to protect much of the US waters around the Bering Strait from oil and gas exploration.
Business and defense
In the first comment of the new year, Editor and Commentator Arne O. Holm addresses the business sector in the north, where it is said to be impossible to both earn money and build a solid business sector.
“However, statistics in The Economist tell a different story”, writes Holm.
Back in the USA, the US Coast Guard is set to finally begin work on its first heavy icebreaker in 50 years.
Things are worse off with Russia's nuclear icebreaker after the loss of two reactor hatch covers that sank with a cargo vessel in the Mediterranean Sea.
Also, read this review of the most substantial developments in the Arctic in the year that passed.
We also offer a most-read list in case you missed any of the past year's most popular articles.
Read all this and more at High North News! Feel free to follow us on social media, including our new account on Bluesky.
Best regards, Editor-in-Chief Trine Jonassen