{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Paul Truesdell Podcast","title":"Greenland Is Not About Ice. It Is About America.","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2411,"description":"Greenland Is Not About Ice. It Is About America.Let me tell you something that most people do not want to hear. Greenland is not some frozen wasteland at the top of the world that we should ignore. Greenland is the key to North American security in the twenty-first century, and anyone who cannot see that is either not paying attention or does not want you to understand what is really happening on the global stage.The world got small. It happened faster than most people realize. When intercontinental ballistic missiles can reach any city on earth in thirty minutes, when satellites can photograph your backyard from space, when hypersonic weapons are being tested by our adversaries, the old rules about geography went out the window. Except they did not. Geography matters more than ever. It just matters differently now.Greenland is the largest island on the planet. Over eight hundred thirty thousand square miles. More than three times the size of Texas. And fewer people live there than in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In fact, the City of Ocala has approximately 20,000 more residents than Greenland. About fifty-seven thousand souls spread across a handful of coastal settlements, most of them Inuit descendants who have lived there for centuries because they are genetically and culturally adapted to conditions that would kill the rest of us in a week.Why so empty? The obvious answer is that eighty percent of the island is covered in ice up to two miles thick. The growing season is measured in weeks, not months. The soil, where it exists at all, is ancient bedrock scraped clean by glaciers. Farming is essentially impossible except for a few sheep operations at the southern tip. There are no roads connecting towns. No rail. You get around by boat in summer, by snowmobile and dog sled in winter, and by helicopter or small plane year-round if you can afford it and the weather cooperates. Which it often does not.The Vikings tried to settle Greenland a thousand years ago during a...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/115-XsjkdwCpJ99xv-8oZ76t6jr8ScWEC5MYSKzL0ig/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS82MTUx/OWRiNTc0NTk0Y2Nk/M2VjYTliMGVhN2Zm/YTZkZi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}