Forgotten World (151): Greenland

It’s time to have another week of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that hardly feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 150 entries here.
Greenland is, by area, the world’s largest island that is not a continent in its own right. It covers 2,166,086 sq km (836,109 sq mi) but some 80% is covered by ice and it only has a population of about 58,000. Greenland has been ruled by Denmark but, in 1979, Denmark granted home rule to Greenland. In November 2008, a referendum among the Greenlanders voted for more increased autonomy which might lead to full independence.
Under the referendum’s plan the annual Danish subsidy of about 3.5 billion kroner (about £395 million), equal to around two-thirds of the island’s economy, would be replaced. The new arrangement would give Greenland the first 75 million kroner of annual oil revenue, with any income beyond that split equally between Greenland and Denmark. Extensive exploration has already been undertaken and other countries are also making claims to areas likely to be exposed by global warming as the Arctic ice cap melts.