Greenland Uber Alles

Happy Friday, all. Whether we’re talking melting ice sheets or attempted purchases by the Trump administration, the island of Greenland has often been in the news the last few years.

So here’s an appropriate map from xkcd comparing the size of Greenland to the rest of the world.

Some prime beachfront property in the north Atlantic looks pretty good to me…

Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

Greenland, the 51st State?

If you haven’t heard, President Trump wants to buy Greenland from Denmark. So is Greenland going to beat Puerto Rico to joining the Union as the 51st state?

No.

Not even close.

It would be the smallest state in terms of population, but also one of the smallest US territories. But in terms of area, Greenland dwarfs every state but Alaska. Though it still beats Alaska by almost 50% of its land area.

It's like a super-charged Seward's Folly
It’s like a super-charged Seward’s Folly

I had hoped to include some more economic data, but that will have to wait for a different post. Acquiring the population data was actually the most difficult—the US Census Bureau does not actually have easy to access data on the populations of US territories not called Puerto Rico.

This piece is mine.