The NY Times ain't happy. Greenland is about to strike it rich. Vast new mineral deposits have been discovered but here's how Elizabeth Rosenthal, a medical doctor and environmental writer, described things:
But the rapid transition from a society of individual fishermen and hunters to an economy supported by corporate mining raises difficult questions. How would Greenland’s insular settlements tolerate an influx of thousands of Polish or Chinese construction workers, as has been proposed? Will mining despoil a natural environment essential to Greenland’s national identity — the whales and seals, the silent icy fjords, and mythic polar bears? Can fishermen reinvent themselves as miners?
Side note: If you can find it, I would highly recommend you watch Mine Your Own Business as it's very apropos to how outsiders will likely go to great lengths to prevent Greenlanders from achieving prosperity through mining.
WOW, Sure pushing the racist part. (Greenland’s insular settlements tolerate an influx of thousands of Polish or Chinese construction workers)
Same people that want to make Canada a northern theme park.
Apparently, Elizabeth has never been to Canada....
Or for that matter, any New World country, including her own.
You mean according to New Yorkers those short little yellow skinned buggers have to perpetually remain in poverty? How's the environment situation in Manhattan? And rats aren't wildlife. Racist idiot!
"The government also wants to persuade the European Union to lift its 2009 ban on imports of seal products, which has devastated a crucial business for the Inuit people and resulted in a backlog of 300,000 skins — roughly five for every resident"
This is the real world consequence of environmental activism,and it's repeated all over the world. Enviro-loonies,as the Mc & Mc filmmakers say, "hate people".
Mine the f***ing stuff Greenlanders,it's not much use to anyone where it is now!
These aren't difficult questions at all, unless of course you work for the NY Times. Or maybe the difficult part is reading Dr. Rosenthal's hand writing.
Along with the quote dmorris pointed out at 1:00 PM, this one caught my eye:
"And for development to go forward, the government will have to revise a longstanding “zero tolerance” policy for the mining of radioactive material, an outgrowth of Denmark’s adamantly antinuclear stance."
No wonder they want independence - they aren't allowed to thrive on traditional industry and they aren't allowed to take advantage of their other resources.
Ezra was right on the money about his lable "media party" a subset IMHO of the axis of evil....leftists/environmentalist/Islamist/etc who have united in a campaign to destroy western society.....Mo Strong said it plainly.
Wow, think how rich they'll be when the 80% of the land that's under 2 miles of ice gets freed up for mining. /sarc in case y'all were wondering
They merely want to prevent development until it benefits the Right People. Just as the Keystone Pipeline was killed because it would have competed with Warren Buffett's oil tank cars.
Progress for me but not for thee is typical leftist thinking. How dare those others aspire to what I have.
How dare the natives want long term prosperity and a lower suicide rate! If my small town had to put up with temporary foreign workers in exchange for those two things, we would accept in a heartbeat, only an environmentalist would not.
A very good job by the Times. First we have incipient racism,
"How would Greenland’s insular settlements tolerate an influx of thousands of Polish or Chinese construction workers, as has been proposed?"
And then we have this gem,
"Many residents say they resent that better-educated Danes tend to run the small country’s few businesses."
Can't let the colonials get out of hand, can we? Got to keep 'em stupid, poor, and down on the farm or they'll be getting all kinds of inappropriate ideas about being as good as their so-called betters. Let alone being able to afford the kind of lifestyle that we take for granted.
Rosenthal did well in this one. Managed to get in both racism and the joys of economic colonialism and dependency all in the same article. This is the sort of silliness that resents diesel pumps because they make irrigating water by hand obsolete.
And naturally a nod to extreme environmentalism to justify all this repression.
"...and scientists predict the area could warm by 14 to 21 degrees by the end of the century."
Really sweetcheeks? Which scientists would those be? And don't tell me it's the UN and its IPCC, because this is way beyond their extreme estimates.
So what we have here is a vision of imperialism. In the past, the sort of imperialism that Rudyard Kipling imagined was imperialism with a view to enriching the home country through trade and development in colonies. The mission of civilization meant prosperity for all under the benign rule of the imperial power.
Here we have the reverse. Imperialism is necessary and good to keep the colonies poor and under-developed so they don't ecologically threaten us all. The 19th century notion of imperialism may ultimately have been a major failure, but this is much worse. 19th Century imperialism had the idea, however misguided, of improving the lot of the so-called natives. This envisions a deliberate policy of keeping them permanently cold, impoverished and in the dark.
It's worth emphasizing again: environmentalism is nihilism.
I'm guessing the native Greenlanders would be ecstatic to have the Polish and Chinese take over the whole damn place once they can earn enough money to get away from the frozen hellhole that is Greenland. Seriously, who would want to live there if they had a choice?
Totally agree, cgh. It's not a new observation: check out this link: http://www.eco-imperialism.com/
Oh, for the love of crumb cake!
Dare I ask, did she ever ask the Greenlanders what they think?
Probably not. Only sheltered white liberals know what is best for everyone else.
And if I was a Greenlander, I would think: "Thank God a Chinese restaurant is opening for these miners. I hate seal!"
Thanks Fred. I'm familiar with Driesen' work, and I'm firmly convinced he's right. However you cut it, anti-development means pro-poverty.
Here's another good zinger, John Brignell's definition of sustainable development:
"Western eco-paradise built on the bodies of millions of dead Africans."
To me, the enviromental movement is figuratively the bubonic plague of modern civilization.
I have "Mine your own business". Very good movie
They have between 30-50 billion barrels of oil reserves, too.
Scar @ 12:47, "You mean according to New Yorkers those short little yellow skinned buggers have to perpetually remain in poverty?"
That is just normal socialist thinking, and was for 70 years in the former Soviet Union. Mulcair would like to do the same here in Canada.
cgh @ 2:13, well said. I might just add the word socialism to your sentence "It's worth emphasizing again: 'socialism' and environmentalism is nihilism."
The environmental movement is the modern Bubonic plague is exactly right.
The Greenlanders aren't short little yellow skinned buggers. Not at all. The contrast between them and the Inuit on Baffin Island is huge, both culturally and physically. They are very capable people, and could easily learn to work as miners.
And Greenland has some awesome beauty to it. I'd be glad to go there again.
Shades of the Yukon! Same squawk, different geography; only here it is frothing from the mouths of locals who are living in luxury on the Fed gravy train.
This the same mob(NGOs) who promote grand schemes (that enrich NGOs) for Africa when all that is needed are condoms and stove pipes.