Greenland is the biggest island in the world.
According to scientists, this Island got its name since it was covered in green grass around 2.5 million years ago. Today, it is covered with a thick layer of ice.
It is located northeast of Canada, northwest of Iceland, and between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. It is also a territory of the European Kingdom of Denmark. The capital and largest city of Greenland is Nuuk.
The population of Greenland mostly speaks Greenlandic, but you can also hear people speaking Danish and English. The Greenlandic Inuit is the most important ethnic group of Greenland. They are mostly Christian, Lutheran, or Catholic.
Greenland has the largest deposits of rare-earth elements outside of China. In total, the island has approximately 1.5 million metric tons of this rare source. Scandium, neodymium, yttrium, and dysprosium can be found there. Most of them are used to make electrical and battery components for the global energy transition.
Because the rare-earth element is beneath the ice, fishing for it is a significant challenge for Greenland’s population.
Since Greenland is part of Denmark, it is a member of NATO, a political and military alliance of 32 North American and European countries, including Canada, France, and the United States.
Greenland is also a strategic location for providing early warning to America in case of an attack from countries like Russia or China. Since 2019, Donald Trump has repeatedly asked to take control of the territory for national security concerns.
The Greenlandic and Danish prime ministers haven’t accepted his insistent demands since both the US and Greenland are in NATO, so if they get attacked, they would help each other anyway.
Because it is further north, it has an Arctic climate year-round. The winters are cold and long, from February to April, and their summers are cool but short, starting with June and ending with August. The average temperature in winter is about -27°c, and in summer, it hovers around 11°c.
In the wintertime, there isn’t much daylight, and the nights are called polar nights, when the sun is always below the horizon. In the summertime, the midnight sun is visible all day, which is when the sun can be seen for 24 hours. Fun fact, this is why it is called the land of the midnight sun.
