The Arctic is heating up. While China, the US and Russia are militarizing the North pole - sending submarines and ice-breakers - the ice itself continues to recede creating new trade routes and new opportunities for mining gas and oil. What is quietly unfolding in the polar north is a `great game' for territory and for resources, all against the biggest backdrop of all: the destruction of the Arctic caused by climate change.
And then last year things took a strange turn. The Kingdom of Denmark, through its colonial claim on Greenland, declared ownership of the entire European hemisphere of the Arctic. Its claims on a territory larger than Scandinavia overlap over 500 sq. km with Russia's, who have planted a flag on the ocean floor underneath the North Pole.
Investigative journalist Martin Breum has been at the front-line for a decade, and brings this secret story to life. He reports on researchers discovering Russian submarines beneath the ice, spy plane pilots flying over environmental research boats and uncovers the stories of the inhabitants of sleepy Greenland who are waking up to their new place in the universe - between the great aggressive military powers of the world. Thrillingly written, Cold Rush reveals a secret world in which the future of our planet is being decided.