The Atlantic

The Next ‘South China Sea’ Is Covered in Ice

The State Department will soon have a permanent presence in Greenland for the first time since the 1950s.
Source: Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP / Getty

In a perfect world, the Arctic Council would meet around a massive spruce table in a castle of ice. It would include Erik the Red, Superman, several Inuit elders, Justin Trudeau, and Magnus Byrnison, King of the Polar Bears, and they would discuss villainous threats to the North. In fact, it is just another committee meeting for diplomats, and at the most recent meeting, Trudeau wasn’t even there.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did attend the meeting, held last week in Finland. (Finland actually has , but it was not used.) It was a strange event: Pompeo gave an ominous speech that made frequent reference to the effects of climate change, even as the U.S. delegation refused to recognize that it exists.

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