Will Greenland become the 51st state? If a student asked you this question a year ago, you might have chalked it up to misinformation on Tiktok. But over the past few weeks, President Donald Trump has renewed his calls to bring Greenland under U.S. control.
Given the political nature of this topic, it is important for educators to have nonpartisan resources available to help their students make sense of the news they are consuming.
There are many angles you can take when discussing the situation in Greenland with your class. In this blog, we provide you with two ways to teach about why Greenland is important to powerful countries like the United States by focusing on:
- Climate change’s impacts on trade and resources
- Defense and international cooperation in the Arctic
At the end, you will learn how to merge these topics through two hands-on learning experiences.
Effects of a Changing Climate
Eighty percent of Greenland is covered by an ice sheet that, for years, melted in the summer and typically regained most of its mass as water refroze in the winter.
But climate change is interrupting this process. Greenland’s melt season is now longer than normal. More of the ice sheet melts with each year that passes, and less refreezes. As more ice melts, sea levels rise, putting millions at risk. If all of Greenland’s ice melts—which could happen if temperatures rise by more than 2°C—sea levels could eventually rise by twenty-three feet.
To give your students a fuller explanation of the science behind the feedback loop causing this, assign these two readings:
10-minute activity: 40 percent of the U.S. population lives in coastal areas, and eight of the world's ten largest cities are near a coast. Help your students understand the gravity of twenty-three feet, asking them to use the Climate Central Coastal Risk Screening Tool in this reading to look up their own zip code or a city they love. Have them write a "Postcard from 2100" describing what that specific city looks like based on the map's data, and explain, in their own words, the scientific reason behind the change.
Examining the Increased Interest in Greenland
The fact that the ice sheet is melting is certainly cause for alarm, but what does it have to do with the increased interest in the region? Ask your students to consider this question before diving into the reasons outlined below.
Reason 1: Trade Routes
As Greenland’s ice sheets continue to melt, Arctic trade routes are becoming easier to navigate, enabling faster trade between Asia, Europe, and North America.
Reason 2: Critical Natural Resources
Rising temperatures and a melting ice sheet are also making Greenland’s rare earth metals more accessible to extraction. These metals, including lithium, are essential for clean energy production and storage. A 2008 report estimated that Greenland has significant untapped oil and gas reserves.
Defending the Arctic
While news of Greenland's acquisition is new, U.S. national security experts have long been concerned about the Arctic because of its location. Situated between Europe and North America and in close proximity to the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans, Greenland is strategically important for military and defense purposes.
As Esther Brimmer, the James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance at CFR, said in her testimony to Congress, “renewed great power competition around the world is manifest in the Arctic region.”
Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, so while it has authority over its domestic affairs, Denmark still maintains control over Greenland’s foreign affairs, defense policy, and monetary policy. Since Denmark is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Greenland is also protected under NATO’s security guarantees.
Educator Tip: Trace NATO’s history and learn how the organization’s mission has evolved over seventy-five years, from the end of World War II to Russia’s war in Ukraine, using this timeline. Then ask your students to consider the impacts of a dispute over Greenland on the alliance.
This is not the first time that the U.S. has shown interest in Greenland. In 1951, Harry Truman signed a treaty with Denmark that “allowed Washington to retain its military bases on Greenland, as well as establish new bases or “defense areas” if NATO deemed necessary.”
Why would NATO need more defense areas in the Arctic? Russia and China, both famously not NATO members, have a presence in the region and are looking to expand it, both militarily and economically. They have even conducted joint military exercises in the Arctic.
10-minute activity: Ask your students to look at a blank map of the Arctic and predict how many military bases they think are in the region for each country (or draw dots themselves!), and then react to the real map to see if it matched their predictions.
Putting It All Together
Combine what your students have learned about climate change, trade, defense, and international cooperation by engaging them in two in-class activities.
Activity 1: Explore the impact of climate change on Arctic policy with a simulation
Acting as members of the National Security Council (NSC), your class should determine what the United States’ Arctic policy should be and what interests it should prioritize. The simulation provides three policy options, but you can add your own to tie it more to breaking news.
Activity 2: Extend the conversation with a brainstorming session
The situation in Greenland raises many additional questions beyond those this blog addressed. Provide your students with a list of core concepts, then ask them to identify how each relates to Greenland.
List of optional concepts to include:
- Arctic Geopolitics
- Climate Change
- Great Power Competition
- International Institutions and Alliances
- International Law
- Maritime Law
- National Security
- Realism and idealism
- Resource Diplomacy
- Sovereignty and Self-determination
- Trade Policy
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