Greenland is a lot more than an object of Donald Trump's territorial ambitions. It's a place whose small population is facing big questions – about climate change, economic development, and identity. Today we bring you a reporter's notebook, traveling with NPR's Juana Summers and her team through Greenland at a time of huge political uncertainty. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Why is Greenland significant beyond Trump's ambitions?
When you're on the road as a reporter, you're bound to pick up some local vernacular.
There's this word that a woman that we met in Greenland told us. It's called sila, which means weather. But it also means, like, you can't control the weather. You just have to adapt around it.
That, of course, is all things considered co-host Juana Summers. Last month, she and a team went to Greenland for a reporting trip and encountered a ton of sila.
One thing to know about traveling in Greenland is that there are not roads between the major towns and cities. So you've got to take these little small flights on Air Greenland to get from place to place.
Chapter 2: What is the meaning of 'Sila' in Greenlandic culture?
One place they were trying to get to was a little town north of the Arctic Circle called Alulisat. But the Sela had other ideas. They had days of high winds and icy tarmacs.
We were supposed to leave on a Thursday. No flight happens. The next day we get up. We pack all our stuff. We get to the airport. We get on a plane. Plane gets diverted. We land in a completely different part of Greenland. We're there for like a half hour or something like that. Back on the plane. The cycle plays out over and over again. Finally, I think this is on Sunday. Pack up all our stuff.
Leave the hotel. Get on the plane again. Plane gets diverted again to this place called Asiat. So we're now here at the Asiat Airport in Greenland. On our way, we're attempting again for the third time to fly to Ilulissat. We're going to see if we're going to make it.
And finally, after about two hours of sitting there and wondering what's going to happen, this announcement comes over the loudspeaker. It is in either Greenlandic or Danish languages. I do not speak. I didn't have to understand those languages to know what was happening because everybody started cheering. And we actually made it four days later.
Understand that it seems like we're going to make an attempt to fly to Alulisat.
I don't know if you can hear the crowd got pretty excited.
What was Alulisat like when you finally got there? What did it look like?
I mean, it's one of the most stunning places I've ever visited. It's this sort of scenic, beautiful tourist town. It's a place where lots of people go to set out and see the icebergs to take boat tours. All of the houses are super colored. There's beautiful snowscapes. And I think the thing that sticks with me is the fact that you can just hear the sled dogs howling all the time.
Like even before you see them, you can hear them. And then when you see them, they're also pretty darn cute.
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Chapter 3: How do you travel between towns in Greenland?
They want that money to stay locally rather than to benefit outside operators. And that's a really big tension in the small town that we went to, too.
Speaking of outsiders, President Trump wants to acquire Greenland. This is something you as a reporter want to learn about. But you are also an American coming in from an American news outlet to talk to people about this. How are you received?
We were pretty well received. One thing that we were warned about from people that we were talking to in pre-interviews is that there was just a lot of fatigue around international journalists and American journalists. And You could really see that. I mean, as we were walking around Nuke in particular, we saw tons of other journalism, several other big U.S.
outlets were there at the same time we were there. People were nice, but people were pretty over it at times. I'll give you just one superficial example. We did a story where we asked people, you know, what they thought about President Trump's ambitions and how they felt about if that were to come to pass, potentially becoming a part of the U.S.
And we went to a place called Nuke Center, which is like the biggest mall in Greenland. And we're standing there at the doors and we're just like sitting there asking people, hey, do you want to talk to us? Hey, can I ask you a question about President Trump?
And at one point, things got so bleak that I was actually sitting there tallying in my notepad how many people said no and how many people said yes. And we got more than a dozen no's before we even got one yes and we only got one. Thank you.
I've been in situations like that where you're going into a community that has just been inundated by reporters. And I found myself that like I don't even get the syllables of reporter out before. I'm a – nope. Like I'm a – We'll stop. Yeah. Nope. Like – or they could just tell by the body language as you come up that you're – but then eventually you were able to make connections.
You were able to get people to talk about this. Did you find a wide range? You talk about it's a diverse place, but also it's a place with 57,000 people total. What was the mix of opinions on this strange situation Greenland finds itself in?
Well, on this topic, people were actually pretty uniform. There was a poll that came out shortly before we arrived in Greenland, and the stat was pretty striking to us. Just 6% of Greenlanders said that they wanted their island to become part of the United States. Just 6%. And that really bore itself out as we were going around and talking to people.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did the team face traveling in Greenland?
Wanda Summers, thank you so much for talking to us.
Thanks, Scott.
This episode was produced by Noah Caldwell and Matt Ozog. It was edited by Adam Rainey, Ashley Brown, and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Gannigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow.