Trump in Greenland: old-fashioned colonialism and acceleration of the climate catastrophe!

By Yorgos Mitralias

Almost everyone is currently talking, and rightly so, about Trump’s clearly stated intention to occupy and annex Greenland “by hook or by crook.” However, no one has even mentioned what would be by far the most important and serious consequence of this imperialist and colonialist act of unbridled Trumpism: the enormous acceleration and worsening of the climate catastrophe already underway! An acceleration of the climate crisis with nightmarish effects for humanity [and all life on the planet], which would be incomparably greater than all the much-discussed geopolitical and other consequences of its occupation by the United States.

Indeed, given that Greenland is the nerve center of global warming, warming about four times faster than the rest of the world, Trump’s intention to gut it in order to proceed with the widespread plundering of its subsoil, rich in rare earths and even gold and oil, in the name of “US national security,” will only greatly accelerate what is already happening: the melting of its ice cap — the second largest after Antarctica — which has the direct consequence of raising sea levels! A rise in sea levels that is already disrupting ocean currents, to the point of threatening them with collapse.

The shrinking Arctic ice cap from 1985 to 2021

And to leave no doubt as to the seriousness of this threat, here is what was reported by the world’s major news agencies two months ago: “Iceland has designated the potential collapse of a major Atlantic Ocean current system a national security concern and an existential threat, enabling its government to strategize for worst-case scenarios, the country’s climate minister told Reuters.” (1). Indeed, according to climatologists, the increasingly likely collapse of the ocean current system known as AMOC (Meridional Overturning Circulation) “would have devastating and irreversible consequences, particularly for Nordic countries, but also for other regions of the world.” It would raise sea levels in the Atlantic, alter monsoons in South America and Africa, reduce rainfall in Europe and North America, causing a winter cold snap in Europe, with sea ice likely to extend southward to the United Kingdom!

In short, the imminent (?) occupation of Greenland by Trump and his acolytes confirms once again not only how little the climate-denying Trump cares about protecting the environment, but also his total disregard for international law and the rights of indigenous peoples. This contempt was highlighted in all its facets a few days ago by the White House ideologue and strongman Stephen Miller during his interview with CNN.

Preaching a return to the good old days of unapologetic colonialism, Trump’s chief advisor and confidant Stephen Miller, who takes pleasure in drawing inspiration from… Goebbels in his speeches and ideas (!), caused a scandal by making the following statements: “Not long after World War II the West dissolved its empires and colonies and began sending colossal sums of taxpayer-funded aid to these former territories (despite have already made them far wealthier and more successful). The West opened its borders, a kind of reverse colonization, providing welfare and thus remittances, while extending to these newcomers and their families not only the full franchise but preferential legal and financial treatment over the native citizenry. The neoliberal experiment, at its core, has been a long self-punishment of the places and peoples that built the modern world.” And after this veritable eulogy to old-style colonialism, followed by an unequivocal condemnation of decolonization, Miller concluded by describing the frightening credo of Trumpism: “We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else. But we live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world. (…) We’re a superpower. And under President Trump, we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower .”

So we have been warned. The real novelty is not that the United States under Trump will act like a superpower, which it already did long before him, but rather that it will act like an old-fashioned colonial superpower! That is to say, practicing direct domination and plunder, unapologetic racism and brute military violence, without the intermediaries, the pseudo-solidarity and democratic hypocrisy, the half-measures, and everything that has made up neocolonialism over the last 6-7 decades! Clearly, the break with the imperialist past is quite significant. This means that Trump’s claims on Venezuela or Greenland are not the passing whims of a deranged and megalomaniacal old man, but rather the first signs and manifestations of a long-term global political, economic, and military project designed to upset all existing balances, including those between the imperialist powers. (2) All the more so as Trump no longer hesitates to publicly display his nostalgia for the good old days when white supremacists practiced their deadly racism with impunity, or his criticism of the American Civil War that saw the defeat of his beloved Southern slave owners…

How naive and irresponsible, then, are those who persist in confusing Trump with Biden, Bush, or the… European Commission. Or who are not preparing to face the racist, militaristic, and warmongering cataclysm heralded by this return to the most extreme capitalist barbarism promised by Trumpism through the mouth of its ideologue Stephen Miller. It is therefore up to all of us to stop Trump and his evil and criminal plans before it is too late. For only our fatalism and passivity can guarantee Trump the success of his predatory, criminal policies, steeped in delusional racism and deeply inhuman. In short, nothing is decided in advance and the outcome of this mother of all battles depends exclusively on us, on those from below everywhere in the world. Starting with those who are already fighting at the heart of the fascist monster, in the United States of America…

Oaklandsocialist adds: We have pointed out many times before that Trump adopts his version of Eurasianism. That is the concept first proposed by fascist Francis Parker Yockey that all of continental Europe is one whole. Yockey saw Germany dominating the continent. Nowadays its Russia dominating. Trump accepts that and sees all of the Atlantic – from Greenland to Canada to the southern tip of Latin America as being his. The corollary is that the western Pacific belongs to Xi. For more on this, see Trump for foreigners and Aleksandr Dugin: Alchemist of “Traditionalism”, mysticism and fascism

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Notes

1. Iceland deems possible Atlantic current collapse a security risk: https://www.reuters.com/

2. Testifying in 2019 before the US Congress, Fiona Hill, then Trump’s senior advisor on Russia and Europe, reported on “suggestions” from Kremlin circles regarding Moscow’s possible acceptance of the US occupation of Venezuela in exchange for Washington’s acceptance of Russia’s occupation of Ukraine. Returning a few days ago to her 2019 testimony, Ms. Hill said that the lack of reaction and relative passivity shown by the Kremlin in response to the recent US military operation in Venezuela and the subsequent looting of its hydrocarbons would suggest a possible update of this “exchange” suggested by Moscow in 2019 and rejected at the time by Trump.