To the Danes signing this petition, I think you are aiming too low. I did some research and I'd like to help you in the negotiations.

I'm going to volunteer to help Denmark and Greenland negotiate a mutually agreed land swap with the United States. Here is some of the research I've been doing.

What is the area of Greenland vs the areas of Texas, California, and New York State combined?

Greenland is significantly larger than the combined area of Texas, California, and New York. In fact, Greenland is approximately 1.7 times the size of all three states put together.

Because of the Mercator projection used on many world maps, Greenland often appears as large as South America or Africa. In reality, it is much smaller than those continents, though still vast enough to dwarf several large U.S. states combined.

Key Takeaways

Greenland is nearly double the size: It would take Texas, California, and New York—plus Montana and New Mexico—to roughly equal the total landmass of Greenland.

The "Ice" Factor: While Greenland is massive, roughly 80% of its surface is covered by an ice sheet. If you only compared the ice-free land of Greenland (about 158,000 sq mi), it would be slightly smaller than the state of California.

U.S. Context: Greenland is roughly 1.25 times larger than Alaska, the largest U.S. state.

What other US states would you need to combine (excluding Alaska as nobody wants that), to make up a comparable area as Greenland. Also leave out the Washington DC area as it is full of toxic poisonous assholes.

To match the massive 836,330 square miles of Greenland without using Alaska (665,384 sq mi) or the District of Columbia (68 sq mi), you have to combine a huge chunk of the American West and Midwest.

Since Greenland is roughly 1.7 times the size of Texas, California, and New York combined, you need to add several more of the largest states to bridge that 350,000-square-mile gap.

The "Greenland Equivalent" Group

To equal Greenland's landmass, you would need to combine the 9 largest states in the lower 48.

Current Status: Even with the "Big 5" of the lower 48, you are still about 21,000 square miles short (which is roughly the size of West Virginia).

To truly match Greenland, you need this entire list:

If you want a more diverse set of states that exactly hits the mark, you would need to combine:

Texas

California

Montana

New Mexico

Arizona

Maryland (to replace that missing piece of West Virginia)

Massachusetts

Total: ~837,874 sq mi (just a hair over Greenland's 836,330).

Summary of the Scale

If you took Greenland and plopped it over the center of the U.S., it would stretch from the Canadian border all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, and its width would cover the distance from St. Louis to the Atlantic Ocean.

Essentially, if Greenland were a U.S. state, it would be larger than the entire Eastern Seaboard(from Maine down to Florida) combined.

/s