Untapped Riches: Greenland Braces for Independence and Wealth

Normal is a word that applies to very little near the Polar Circle. The island, 85 percent of it covered in ice, is six times as big as Germany. The harsh living conditions are extremely demanding on the population of roughly 57,000, of which 89 percent are Inuit.
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...Greenland's greatest treasure lies on the ocean floor off the coast, at depths of up to 1,000 meters (3,280 feet).

Seismological analyses have pinpointed enormous oil reserves, especially off the west coast. EU governments estimate that Greenland's reserves total at least 110 billion tons. Two smaller fields west of Nuuk, with reserves of about 2 billion tons, are believed to contain as much oil as the amount produced in the North Sea over the last 40 years.
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Ironically, while the world worries about climate change, global warming is triggering great hopes in Greenland. If the Arctic waters were truly ice-free in the summer in five to 10 years, which would be significantly sooner than previously feared, this could be good for Greenland -- at least economically.
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According to calculations by Mininnguaq Kleist, the head of Greenland's equivalent of the German chancellery, if oil revenues exceed 6.5 billion kroner (about €1 billion or $1.28 billion), the island will have practically bought its freedom. When that happens, it will "no longer be up to Denmark to decide on our independence," says Kleist.