“Before, I was ready to die for my country but when I had a kid that changed everything,” she told AFP. The 40-year-old is one of many residents of the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, now weighing up options they would never have considered just a few months ago.
But US President Donald Trump has been clear about his desire to seize the vast, self-governing Danish island, rich in rare earth minerals and with an Arctic location coveted by US military hawks. Greenlanders are not panicking yet but they are thinking through what they would do if the worst were to happen.
“I’m thinking about where to hide and what medicines we need to stock,” said 35-year-old student Nuunu Binzer. “But I haven’t done it yet.”
Some are filling their freezers, stocking up on water and petrol, or buying generators.
‘We can hunt’
The authorities have not yet distributed any guidance on what to do if there is an invasion. Supermarkets in Nuuk are still well stocked, with little evidence that panic-buying has taken hold. But that has not stopped Andersen from looking for an exit plan.
The 40-year-old — whose living room is decked-out in Inuit-style decorations and the TV loops images of Trump — believes war is a distinct possibility. “I feel it could happen and you imagine what you will do,” she said. “When I take my dog for a walk, I imagine what these streets are going to look like.” Andersen, a tour operator, said she had two separate plans to flee with her 12-year-old stepdaughter, Anike. If the US takes over slowly, she and her family will fly to Denmark, she said. But if the takeover is sudden, they will flee by boat to a cabin along the fjord. The only routes out for Nuuk’s 20,000 residents are by air and by sea, as the ice-covered territory lacks roads.
“We can hunt, we can fish, we can live off nature. We are used to living under extreme conditions,” she said. We need each other’ -In the second scenario, her parents, both in their 70s, would have to stay behind.
“It would be too hard for them and it would weaken the group,” she said. However, not everyone is thinking in such extreme terms. Inger Olsvig Brandt, a 62-year-old entrepreneur, said she would stay. “I will not leave and I will try to help my country while I still have strength,” she said. “It can be tempting to think that we can just leave but we are so few that we need each other.”
