Wednesday, 05 January 2011 09:42
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| Photo: Gustaf Klarin, SR Science Department |
Kalistat Lund is a helicopter pilot, Social Democrat politician and opponent to uranium mining in his home town of Narsaq in southern Greenland.
"Uranium mining is planned in open-cut mines. This entails risk for contamination if operations expand, not the least with consideration to the strong winds that blow through the area and that can carry toxic matter to the town, which is just a few kilometers further down the valley."
But according to Kalistat Lund, the miners themselves are a problem that must be isolated.
"If a mine opens, many specialists will come from other countries, and there is risk that it will be the same as in 50s, 60s and 70s. Skilled Danish workers and other foreigners came to Greenland and they developed the country," says Kalistat Lund. "The Greenlanders didn't participate, we didn't steer our development and we were looked upon as second-class people. We shouldn't repeat the mistake."
Simon Simonsen is the town's mayor.
"We need the mine, unemployment is high and we need it to develop."
The Australian geologist Greg Barnes, a part-owner of the company that wants to mine uranium, is unsure of whether there will be any uranium mining due to the environmental consequences and the opposition to uranium. And the present government has said no to mining.
There is stronger political support for oil. The government estimates that there is the equivalent of 50 billion barrels of oil and gas off the west and east coasts, based on the results of a survey made by the US Geological Survey – USGS.
More than 30 international oil companies have concessions for oil exploration in Greenland.
Fifty billion barrels is 20 billion more th an the Norwegians have pumped up to date, but these figures must be used with considerable caution. This according to Mikael Höök, PhD in global energy resources at Uppsala University.
"The USGS has previously made overly optimistic estimates," says Mikael Höök.
The international environment movement, including Greenpeace, has drawn attention to the problem that the consequences of oil spills in the Arctic climate would take a long time to heal. Another threat to oil rigs is icebergs. Small icebergs can be towed away with boats, but this cannot be done with icebergs of several cubic meters.
The authorities in Greenland however, claim that if an iceberg cannot be moved, that the oil rigs could be disconnected and their bore holes in the sea bottom plugged before the iceberg comes too close.
Niklas Granholm at FOI, a research authority under the Swedish Ministry of Defence, conducts Arctic research and is following with interest developments as to whether Greenland will become independent of Denmark. Will Greenland become a Kuwait in the Arctic or another Micronesia?