UPDATE, 2 a.m. ET:  With 70% of the votes counted, the social democratic (and populist — it’s in opposition to loosening local laws to allow the importation of largely Chinese foreign workers) Siumut, which governed from self-rule in 1979 until 2009, leads in Greenland with 48.4% of the vote, to just 29.6% for the pro-independence, socialist Inuit Ataqatigiit, which has ruled the country since 2009.

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Though there are only 57,000 people living on the world’s largest island — technically an autonomous country within the kingdom of Denmark, today’s parliamentary election in Greenland couldn’t have more profound consequences.

For more background, read my piece from last week explaining why the election today has such important consequences not only for Greenland and independence, but also the European Union, the United States, China, climate change, global energy trends, sovereignty in the 21st century and the future viability of the Arctic as an economic zone.