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The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice

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31–40 of 217 posts

Re: The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice

#31
post #8

There are a few things that confuse me about this potential acquisition: 1. You won't govern it. Greenland has it's own Self-Government Act. [0] 2. You won't own the land. Almost all land is owned by the State. [1] 3. The Danes have no special land ownership rights. [2] 4. Land use rights, however, are granted for different activities (fishing, mining) subject to approval. [3] I'd imagine none of this changes under a…

What I wonder is about the second order effects. I mean, I'm pretty far from Denmark but here the talk is pretty much like an existential crisis. Even if the US does nothing about it, seems that many people has finally realized that Europe has no allies. This has a lot of implications regarding the Pax Americana, the US/EU financial system, Eurasia, and many others. I don't see any positive outcome for the west in ge…

> Even if the US does nothing about it, seems that many people has finally realized that Europe has no allies.

Indeed. But just because EU thinks too high of themselves and is turning down their last natural allies that is the South American/Mercosur countries. So whatever happens to EU is their own fault

Re: The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice

#32
post #13

The events of the past 12 months, culminating in Venezuela and now Greenland, has made me reevaluate a lot of my beliefs about unimpeded competition between free agents (i.e. a free market) leading to the best and most peaceful outcomes. Clearly, a few participants becoming disproportionately powerful is a failure mode. The way I've tried to reconcile my beliefs with what are clearly contradictory observations in the…

That's right. Entities must be acting as CITIZENS, first and foremost, bound by laws, norms, and shame. Shame, the glue of civilization, as I call it, is quickly disappearing. The Nothing Matters LOL world is bound to decompose.

I wonder whether this is a side effect of the self esteem movement, and the whole "don't care about what others think of you" ethos.

Re: The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice

#33
post #5

Hold on. In a few days we are going to find some narco-terrorists there as well.

It has enough oil and gas reserves to warrant some freedom™. People there need democracy for God's sake!

The whole meme of "America isn't a country, it's three corporations wearing a trench coat" seems to have been mostly correct, albeit that trench coat is starting to look a lot less like a modern trench coat and more like an actual Trench Coat.

Re: The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice

#35

Hold on. In a few days we are going to find some narco-terrorists there as well.

The president said the reason we toppled Venezuela was for oil. We're past false pretenses. His apparatus still comes up with the false pretenses, but it seems like it's more out of habit and stemming revolution more than acting on the president's behalf.

Re: The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice

#36
post #13

The events of the past 12 months, culminating in Venezuela and now Greenland, has made me reevaluate a lot of my beliefs about unimpeded competition between free agents (i.e. a free market) leading to the best and most peaceful outcomes. Clearly, a few participants becoming disproportionately powerful is a failure mode. The way I've tried to reconcile my beliefs with what are clearly contradictory observations in the…

Always has been. Big powers have always been meddling in other nations.

True, but after this led to the disasters of WW1 and WW2, there was a genuine international effort to constrain it. Of course, it was a deeply imperfect system, especially with the cold war going on, but it was still an improvement on the naked imperialism and genocide that preceded it. Unfortunately, it appears we're rapidly regressing to the former situation, except this time with atomic weapons.

Re: The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice

#37
post #13

The events of the past 12 months, culminating in Venezuela and now Greenland, has made me reevaluate a lot of my beliefs about unimpeded competition between free agents (i.e. a free market) leading to the best and most peaceful outcomes. Clearly, a few participants becoming disproportionately powerful is a failure mode. The way I've tried to reconcile my beliefs with what are clearly contradictory observations in the…

Yup, markets need regulation.

Re: The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice

#39
post #8

There are a few things that confuse me about this potential acquisition: 1. You won't govern it. Greenland has it's own Self-Government Act. [0] 2. You won't own the land. Almost all land is owned by the State. [1] 3. The Danes have no special land ownership rights. [2] 4. Land use rights, however, are granted for different activities (fishing, mining) subject to approval. [3] I'd imagine none of this changes under a…

The blind spot causing your confusion is that you “imagine none of this change under a new owner”. I’m almost flabbergasted by it.

The owner decides the rules.

Re: The mineral riches hiding under Greenland's ice

#40
post #8

There are a few things that confuse me about this potential acquisition: 1. You won't govern it. Greenland has it's own Self-Government Act. [0] 2. You won't own the land. Almost all land is owned by the State. [1] 3. The Danes have no special land ownership rights. [2] 4. Land use rights, however, are granted for different activities (fishing, mining) subject to approval. [3] I'd imagine none of this changes under a…

> It seems like that's exactly what it would have to do post acquisition--unless of course the US also plans to bulldoze Greenland's sovereignty.

That is how acquisition of territory works. When it becomes US land, US laws apply. Not whatever laws were in place before. What were you expecting?

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