More than glaciers are under threat in the polar regions. | Photo: Ethan Welty

“The Arctic is a double-edged sword”, said the science diplomat Paul Berkman on the German world service ‘Deutsche Welle’ in reaction to Donald Trump’s increasingly strident demands for Greenland earlier this year. “It is a region, potentially, of global conflict. It’s also potentially a source of global peace”. For decades now, researchers from all over the world have been working together in dozens of research stations in the northern Polar regions, including representatives from Europe and the big powers China, Russia and the USA.

“We’re feeling pretty uncomfortable”, said Maribeth Murray, an environmental archaeologist from Canada. She went on to explain that the tensions over Greenland have caused researchers to delay planning further projects in the region. And they already have experience of setbacks like this. In 2022, they saw how important collaborations with Russia were interrupted on account of its attack on Ukraine.

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