I don't have a lot of links for you, but suffice to say I'm now finding out that a LOT happened in 1913, and most of it bad. When the same guys behind the founding of the American Cancer Society are the great-grandparents of the guys trying to erase all memory of the Epstein files? You know there's something fishy going on. When mustard gas is treated as medicine, but human-grade natural dewormer is constantly threatened with being banned, when those with pharmaceutical monopolies are blood relatives of those who run the oliopoly of oil? Yeah. Also kind of explains why these guys are impossible to prosecute, no matter how often their drugs get pulled from the market for literally killing the patient! But why a missionary in Colombia not part of the club can treat himself with a well-known natural remedy, and is then immediately kidnapped and imprisoned by the FDA, along with his sons being kidnapped out of spite.

But it's not all bad news. Below, here's a gem of something nice:



That being said, as research for Anarteq: Top of the World, set in Greenland, I've found this lady's channel extremely helpful. Maybe if the book and tie-in media sell well enough, I can afford to actually visit Greenland in person.

It's green in Greenland in the south in the summer. And they have Qinngua Valley, though it's more birch white and brown than actual green. They also have the northern lights, which are mostly green. And they produce some of the greenest green plants. They also have even nicer strawberries than Egypt has. So their name isn't a misnomer in most of the settled areas. It's only once you get to the mountains just along the north edge of Qinggua that it truly becomes a barren, frozen, uninhabitable desert wasteland. Even then, the northern lights make the snow appear green, so the entire landscape looks like you're walking inside a giant Shamrock Shake from McDonald's.

However, the permafrost reaches even the southern portions. Hence why they have very few traditional cemeteries as we'd understand them. And also why they can't build a lot of basements. Which also limits expansion. This is also why they are so preoccupied with low-footprint lifestyles, and don't have many roads. The soil makes these things impractical.

To be fair, about the only northern place harsher than Greenland is Nunavut. Which somehow has it rough, even by the standards of Siberia! Grise Ford is a testament to the resilience of its locals, surviving in a place most wouldn't dare to even visit.

Iceland totally earns its name though, especially in the mountains where ice is permanent. And in the winter, where it's almost as cold as in Greenland. Granted, they don't have as much permafrost. Which also means Iceland can afford to grow a wider variety of crops, have more traditional European summers, etc. And have enough differentiation of wildlife from Greenland that they're able to have an easier time shipping their seafood exports to other markets. This is why you can by Icelandic food in Florida, but you can't buy Greenlandic food in Florida. (However, I've developed an entire menu of how to make Florida-legal-safe flavor pallet imitations of Greenlandic food.)

And these differences have affected the two lands culturally as well. When you look at the myths and legends in Greenland that children are still taught about, the Inuit population (many of them descendants of Canadian Inuk) know all about Sedna, Kaassassuk (Eskimo Hercules), Qalupaliks, and the Qivvitoq (those claimed by the wilderness to become wandering guardian spirits after being exiled from society.)

However, Iceland didn't have that strong Inuit presence before Vikings arrived. So in Iceland, it's all Thor this, Odin that, Loki the third thing, Frigga the fourth. In essence, very little separating early Icelandic culture from being just like Norway.

In many ways, Greenland is like a real life version of the planet Pandora from James Cameron's Avatar, but with fewer trees and swamps. And the locals think like Nav'vi. So when Trump wanted to buy them and extract their minerals, you can understand why they threw such a hissy fit. To them, the ice sheet is as sacred as the Nav'vi's tree in the movie was to them. In fact, the popular Greenlandic hymn "Silarsuaq Takuiuk" (inspiration behind "What Does Abound" in Anarteq: Top of the World) literally contains the line: "If this [the environment's integrity] disappears, you disappear."

Suffice to say, he really didn't read the room (or didn't care.) (Denmark facepalming was equally to be expected.)