@leiawelsh he hasn’t even been president for a year. Sigh.

@sarae yeah…

@_holger yeah, I have previously been involved in big multinational science projects on the ice sheet, and I think those days are now sadly numbered

@jason indeed not - it was the idea of having to cancel a science project that I rated as “small beer” (ie relatively inconsequential) compared with the geopolitical implications!

@mloxton @mycotropic yeah, it’s Iridium, so American, but like you say, I’ll have the data. If we’re in that situation I’ll have bigger problems than lost data.

@Braganca yes, that’s why I said that a cancelled science project is “small beer” (i.e. inconsequential in the scheme of things)

@mortenlarsen basically we will keep an eye on the situation and if there’s evidence of unusual military activity pre-trip, we’ll cancel pre-emptively. If stuff starts to happen whilst we’re on site, we’ll decide whether to abandon camp and go back to town, or whether to stay in camp (relatively safe if the town and airport itself are being attacked) and deal with consequences later.

@mloxton indeed! Fortunately our data goes live by satellite so that’s one less thing to worry about.

@AngelaScholder indeed, hence my concern! I’ve been doing fieldwork in Greenland every year for the last four years, this is the first time I’ve had to take a threat of war seriously

@epicdemiologist that’s very sad

@trelord75 my main concern is the ensuing logistical chaos after an invasion, rather than the relatively small risk of being killed by military action

@trelord75 Greenland isn’t all ice-covered, and all the populated areas are just tundra. Seisure of strategic locations (airports) would be the obvious military objective. Greenland has no internal roads so everything travels by air or sea.

@trelord75 I know the typical US military air movements for a normal season (I’ve even flown on some of them, as military aircraft support science projects) and so any OSINT showing ships, helicopters, tanker aircraft or non-transport aircraft in the area will indicate something will happen.

@trelord75 I don’t need to quantify the risk particularly, but I do need to think about what would prompt me to cancel the trip before departure, or bring everyone home mid-trip. In both cases a military buildup nearby would be a trigger to cancel the trip and go home.

@pthane yes - basically we’ll cancel the fieldtrip if there’s a US military buildup before we leave the UK, and in any case we’ll make additional arrangements with the university and UK government science officials so people know where we are in case there’s a surprise

@ianRobinson yeah, the town we operate out of is a former military base and still one of the few long-runway airports in Greenland, so it’s an obvious place for military action to occur, heaven forbid…

I know this is pretty small beer in the light of world events, but I was not expecting to have to write “risk of invasion by the USA” into the risk assessment for my fieldwork in Greenland in June.