The USA’s intentions of annexing Greenland are rightly being opposed widely by many people. This opposition should continue. The base of this opposition is that any such annexation would be completely illegal, and would set a very dangerous precedent. However, even if complete annexation is avoided, any heavy militarization and excessive mineral exploitation of Greenland should still be opposed as this would be very harmful for the fragile ecology of the region and for sustainable and satisfactory life and livelihoods of indigenous people.

Even the limited military use of Greenland so far by the USA has been very harmful in terms of the environment harm and hazards this brought, and certainly heavier militarization by the USA or any other big power would be even more harmful and hazardous, while any wars fought here in the course of great power rivalry would be a complete disaster for environment as well as for indigenous people. Hence any militarization of Greenland should be avoided.

At the same time the injustices of Denmark towards the indigenous people should also be exposed. Despite the fact that the population of indigenous people or the Inuit people in Greenland is very less (today the number is just around 56,000 or so), the Denmark authorities enforced birth control measures on nearly one half of the Inuit women and girls in the fertility age group, often without their consent or even prior knowledge, in the form of insertion of intra-uterine devices following child birth or at the time of compulsory health examinations in educational institutions or elsewhere, in some cases affecting girls as young as 12 or 13 years of age. While this happened mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, according to some reports including those of the BBC this continued well into later years. This was followed by excessive bleeding and pain and other health problems for victims, including longer-term complications. After exposure of this ‘spiral’ or ‘coil’ case by a Danish broadcaster DR, a formal apology was made by the Danish government with promises of compensation, but in many cases the compensation process has dragged over for a long time. The Associated Press/PBS News reported in September 2025,

“The forced contraception of indigenous women and girls was part of centuries of Danish policies that dehumanized Greenlanders and their families. The policies included the removal of young Inuit children from their parents to be given to Danish foster families for reeducation and controversial parental competency tests that resulted in the forced separation of Greenland families.”

Other reports have spoken of the extreme grief of mothers who after child-birth worried about the separation of their child from them. 

A report by Humanium last year (2025) titled ‘Denmark’s experiment on Inuit children—a painful legacy of forced assimilation’ has stated,

“In Denmark and Greenland the legacy of colonialism continues to fracture Inuit communities—most visibly through the treatment of indigenous children. Despite formal apologies and recent policy shifts, deep-rooted biases still drive unequal treatment and lasting psychological harm.”

Further this report says,

“Denmark’s relationship with Greenland is rooted in a long history of colonial control, colonial dominance and attempts at forced assimilation. Although formal colonial rule ended in 1953, Denmark continued to exert significant influence over Greenland’s political and social structures…Danish government prioritized Danish language, values and institutions while marginalizing Inuit traditions.”

If there are serious depression and stress problems resulting in high self-harm tendencies among the indigenous people, then these are related closely to the policies of discrimination suffered by them, particularly those policies that uproot them from their culture and values while also creating confusion and crisis of identity.

Along with opposing US aggression, therefore, the unjust and discriminative policies of Denmark should also be exposed and opposed.

The demand should not be for retaining Denmark’s oppressive and discriminative control. Instead the demand should be for a UN-administered future which is led by the Inuit people and which is based on protecting and strengthening the environment and unique biodiversity of Greenland, as the heritage of the entire humankind and as a very important part of wider efforts for protecting the basic life-nurturing conditions of earth. In this arrangement, support of sustainable livelihoods of all Inuit people would be completely assured, and this would be based on protection of environment and biodiversity. This writer has been repeatedly arguing in favor of an ecologically protective future for Greenland which is also protective for the Inuit people.

Keeping in view the increasing dangers from about a dozen environmental problems including climate change, it has become increasingly important to plan for future on the basis of centrality of the objective of protection of environment, within a framework of peace and justice. The population of Greenland is very less while at the same time protecting its environment is of very high importance. Hence such a beginning of ecologically protection being at the center of future is best made from Greenland, supported by the UN and the entire world.

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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now with its SED Demand (demand to declare the next decade as the decade for saving earth). His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, Man over Machine and A Decade in 2071. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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