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Mr. Beat compares and contrasts Iceland and Greenland.

Music by Ben Barthell: https://benbarthell.bandcamp.com/
Sources:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...
http://icelandreview.com/news/2010/04...
https://blogs.nasa.gov/icebridge/2013...
https://thehorseandthenorse.wordpress...
http://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/compar...
https://www.icelandtravel.is/about-ic...
https://www.thoughtco.com/geography-o...
https://www.cia.gov/library/publicati...
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...
http://icelandreview.com/news/2013/06...
http://worldhappiness.report/wp-conte...
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsand...

Photo credits:
Vincent van Zeijst
Greenland Travel
David Phan
Christine Zenino
Alan Levine
Ron Reiring
Patano
Yelkrokoyade
Poul Dalsgaard
David Stanley
Evgeniy Metyolkin
Avalean
Hervegirod
Adrian Boliston
Hedwig Storch
Helgi Halldorsson
Nick Russill
Arian Zwegers
Helgi Halldorsson
Alive87
Petr Novák, Wikipedia
Algkalv

Sound credits:
Mike Koenig

Iceland and Greenland
Both are countries….um, well, Greenland is not exactly its own country. It’s part of the Kingdom of Denmark, considered a self-governing constituent country. So it’s almost a country? Kind of a country? Well, most of the people who live there are not Danish. They are Inuit.

Iceland is a country. Both are wayy north. In fact, north of 60 degrees north of the Earth’s equator. So in the winter they have little sunlight, but in the summer the sun doesn’t seem to ever go down.
The Vikings, or more accurately the Norsemen, were the first European settlers of both Iceland and Greenland, reaching the two places hundreds of years before Columbus sailed west. However, Greenland was first settled by various Inuit tribes thousands of years before European arrival. The Norseman were the first settlers of Iceland, arriving around the year 870. So Iceland is one of the most recent islands ever settled by humans.

Islands? Yeah, both Iceland and Greenland are islands. Greenland is the largest island in the world.

Both have hardly any people. Iceland has a population of around 350,000, while Greenland has a population of around 57,000, despite being about 21 times bigger than Iceland. There are more people in the city of Omaha, Nebraska, than both Iceland and Greenland COMBINED.

Both have hardly any native species of plants and animals. There are absolutely no native reptiles or amphibians on the two islands. Get this, Greenland has mosquitoes, that can be pretty relentless in the summer especially since it’s been getting warmer there, but Iceland? Nope. Iceland apparently has no mosquitoes.

Most residents of both are concentrated in one single city. More than half of Icelanders live in or around Reykjavík, Iceland’s largest city, and about a third of Greenlanders live in Nuuk, Greenland’s largest city.

The biggest religion in both countries is Christianity, specifically having ties with Lutheranism. The Church of Denmark dominates in Greenland, and the Church of Iceland dominates in, um, you know, Iceland. But really, Iceland is much less religious than Greenland. It’s a very secular country, and church attendance tends to be low there.

Both are more politically and culturally aligned with Europe than North America, despite the fact that Greenland is part of North America. Both have a parliamentary system of government. As I mentioned earlier, Greenland is technically still part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but it governs itself. Denmark only still controls Greenland’s defense and foreign relations.

Both have economies that revolve fishing and fish processing and the metals. Greenland, however, is heavily dependent on Denmark in terms of investment dollars. Tourism is much bigger in Iceland than Greenland.

Both are members of NATO. Both are not members of the European Union. Well, Denmark is so Greenland is closely linked to it. Both Iceland and Greenland have universal health care.

Based solely on the names of the two, it may seem that Iceland and Greenland are two very different places, and yep, they mostly are, but they also have many, many differences.