By Tom Fries Arctic News 9 June – 15 June, 2012
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READS OF THE WEEK
If you’ve
only got a few minutes this week, spend your time on these particularly useful,
informative, creative or well-written pieces.
It being in
all of our interests to bow to the éminences
grises resident at the Economist, I’ll lead off with reference to their
justifiably-lauded extended
section on the Arctic this past week. The analysis is thoughtful and the
writing is, as always, impeccable and a delight to read.
Although
it’s historical rather than current, this
article from Up Here magazine on a group of Labrador Inuit sent to Germany
to appear as human exhibits in a zoo in the late 1800s is well worth your time.
Rather than a rant about how backward our European forebears were, it’s a
thoughtful and eye-opening look at how the Inuit in the exhibit viewed their
experience. Another edifying historical review – this time, of some noteworthy
failures and successes of British and Canadian Arctic exploration – comes from Roger
McCoy via the Huffington Post.
The
business-vs-environment debate that accompanies any and all extractive-industry
proposals in the Arctic is sometimes exhausting to read about, because it so
often seems to be a war of opinions and values which could simply be copy/pasted
wholesale from one project to the next. Carey Restino of the Bristol Bay Times
wrote an op-ed that captured her (and my) frustration with the nature of such
debates perfectly (via AD).
There’s been
a great deal of back-and-forth in the press about food security in Nunavut in
recent weeks. Of all that I’ve read, this
blog post from Zoe Todd has offered the best, most thorough and
dispassionate overview of the situation and the many moving parts that affect
it.
A critical
skill for any successful CEO or diplomat is the ability to artfully not-answer
substantive questions, and thus I would not ordinarily recommend an interview
with a CEO as a read of the week. But a lengthy interview
by Maclean’s with Shell CEO Peter Voser offers, to a surprising degree, a
peek behind the curtain.
Please note
as well a call
for articles for the 2013 Arctic Frontiers conference. If you’ve got good
research to add to the pool, please dive in!
BLOOD & TREASURE
Russia’s Yury Dolgoruky,a new Borei-class submarine carrying nuclear ballistic missiles,
underwent sea trials over the weekend, leaving from the Sevmash shipyard on the
White Sea. The sub is 170m long, 13.5m wide, and has displacement of 24,000
tons. It carries 16 ballistic missiles (navaltoday.com).
It successfully finished those trials after the weekend, and it was announced
that the sub would be commissioned on Russian Navy Day (navaltoday.com).
Also undergoing sea trials out of the Sevmash yard was the Indian navy’s INS
Vikramaditya, formerly the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov (Russia
& India Report).
Meanwhile,
under the international Open Skies Treaty, Russian inspectors began overflights
of Sweden and Finland (RIAN), while
Finnish president Niinistö expressed an unwillingness to deploy his air force
on its own to monitor Iceland’s airspace (YLE).
Norway and Russia conducted successful joint drills for search-and-rescue and,
of course, oil-spill cleanup (BO
– video here),
while France sent the frigate De Grasse
to the White Sea to conduct one day of joint anti-piracy drills with Russian
naval partners (BO,
RIAN).
Across the
ocean in Canada, the Iqaluit coast guard center opened for the season (CBC)
and American defense contractor Raytheon announced that it had won a $19mn
contract to work with Navy and Air Force satellite communications systems to
improve secure coverage over the poles (spaceref.com).
THE POLITICAL SCENE
Secretary
Clinton met with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in Tromsø this
week to cover a number of common issues. It seems to have been their first
opportunity to share some quality time together (FP
blogs, from Mia Bennett). I’d love to have been a fly on the wall. Back at
Secretary Clinton’s home in Washington, DC, Senator John Kerry is bringing in
the big guns to encourage US ratification of UNCLOS (AD).
This past week he trotted out “no fewer than six four-star generals and
admirals” to make the point. Betsy Baker, via the Institute
of the North, discussed the further value to the US of accession to UNCLOS,
pointing out that the Convention serves, in part, as an underlying framework to
support more specific regional agreements.
Everyone
loves to read about China’s engagement with the Arctic, and this week provided
plenty of material. Hu Jintao became the first Chinese head of state ever to
visit Denmark (Arctic
Council IPS), and mutual interest in Chinese engagement with Greenland’s
sure-to-develop minerals sector seems to be the cause for friendly overtures in
both directions (Copenhagen Post 1
and 2,
both worth a read, plus politiken.dk,
in Danish). Iceland is also doing its best to be China’s friend in the Arctic (Arctic
Portal).
Cross-border
cooperation and influence continues to be a major theme as well, with Canadian
and Russian officials applauding themselves for a history of positive collaboration
(ITAR-TASS) and the
Nordic countries undertaking an admirable joint initiative to share the benefit
of their experience in sustainable development with other, more wayward
countries (norden.org).
The Nordic countries are also looking for ways to exert greater influence on the European stage (norden.org),
and a recent visit to Greenland by Member of the European Commission Maria
Damanaki seems to have focused primarily on fisheries (thefishsite.com,
Commissioner
Damanaki’s blog).
Across the
ocean in North America, Canada’s function as a role model on the international
stage was called into question by Jeffrey
Simpson in the Globe & Mail, and the country’s unwillingness to
encourage international interest and understanding was reviewed regretfully by Paul
Martin in University Affairs. Next door in Alaska, Governor Sean Parnell
was busy signing economic- and energy-development bills into law (press
release), while an open letter from Citizens for Ethical Government, published
in Alaska Dispatch, asked the federal government NOT to close its
investigation into corruption in Alaskan government.
There was
also a
really good post from the Institute of the North that I wanted to mention,
but the URL seems to have died and no amount of searching or clicking around
could resurrect the article for me.
ENERGY
Reasoned objections
to, and concerns about, the progress of Arctic drilling were highlighted by a good
piece in the Guardian and an excellent
piece from Betsy Beardsley in Forbes. Nevertheless, Shell’s northern
activities proceed apace. They’ve contracted with TransCanada to build a $4bn
pipeline from Canada’s interior to semi-coastal Kitimat on the Pacific coast of
BC to take LNG to Asian markets (Bloomberg),
while announcing in Alaska that they’re looking at a pipeline route across the
National Petroleum Reserve to link up with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (Alaska
Journal). The company’s drilling rig the Kulluk is nearing the end of its refurbishment in Seattle, and
Greenpeace is preparing its own navy of sorts, including submarines, to monitor
the company’s offshore activities this summer (AD,
KPLU).
Greenpeace won’t be the only one watching; federal inspectors from the Bureau
of Safety and Environmental Enforcement will be doing round-the-clock duty on
Shell’s rigs (San
Francisco Chronicle), and the Department of the Interior is paying special
attention to the initial review of Shell’s plans (The
Hill). Meanwhile an interview
from Maclean’s with Shell CEO Peter Voser is a definite read of the week,
mostly because it covers more bases than one usually gets.
In what is
certainly a creative protest to Shell’s drilling plans, Greenpeace brand-jacked
Shell with a
mockumentary of a send-off party for its Arctic rigs. The video sparked a
ton of joking on the intertubes and inspired its own Twitter hashtag. The
detailed story from Greenpeace is here,
and you can see the gallery of
their social ads as well. My own opinion: a lot of these are hilarious,
including “you
can’t run your SUV on ‘cute’”. The denouement of a less-successful earlier protest
took place as well, as actress and activist Lucy Lawless pled guilty to
trespassing on the Noble Discoverer,
another Shell rig currently on its long journey to the Arctic (AD).
In Russia,
most of the news this week was about Gazprom’s activities. Shtokman, of course,
continues to be a comedy of mixed messages –Total CEO Christophe de Margerie
said of the project partners that “it would be good to talk to each other
directly and not through the media” (BO).
One does get the impression that the partners don’t know a great deal more than
Average Citizen X can read in the newspapers. The Moscow
News also said that a final investment decision might – might – be expected
at the St Petersburg Economic Forum, while word goes around that ExxonMobil (WSJ)
and Shell might both be considering picking up a stake. I would imagine that
there are better places where either company might put its money at this point,
but I am no expert.
Gazprom is
also looking at selling “non-core business” Gazflot, an offshore-drilling
subsidiary (BO),
while upping its activity elsewhere in the Arctic. Preparatory activity at the
Novoportskoye field is underway; the oil to come out of this field is intended
for shipping out of a yet-to-be-built port at Cape Kammeny (oilandgaseurasia.com).
Oil from Prirazlomnoye will enjoy a 50% reduction on export duties (Reuters),
and work on the pipeline to bring gas from the Bovanenko field to the nearest
hub is continuing (Bloomberg),
while Gazprom Neft is on the prowl for a foreign partner to develop the
Dolginskoye field (marinelink.com).
Gazprom remained the world’s largest gas producer in 2011 (Platts),
but the possibility of unconventional gas resources coming on line in Europe
and the US has the company trembling (naturalgaseurope.com).
The
announcement that BP is looking to sell its 50% stake in TNK-BP has been
causing ripples, following on the recent resignation of Mikhail Fridman as the
joint venture’s CEO (RIAN). The sale
of half of Russia’s third-largest energy company would of course change the
shape of that country’s hydrocarbon industry, and the smart money seems to be
on acquisition of the stake by another Russian company (Telegraph).
Indeed, the government’s recent privatization initiatives seem to have been met
with more skepticism than enthusiasm (Moscow News).
Meanwhile Russia and its foreign partners both seem to be betting on
unconventional oil and gas resources in Siberia as a power play in world
markets for the near-term future. Siberia’s Bazhenov field is similar to North
Dakota’s Bakken, and ExxonMobil and Rosneft are working together to extract the
oil (BW),
while Rosneft announced that it would be looking at production of up to 300,000
barrels of oil per day from such resources (Reuters).
Moving on to
Scandinavia, a strike of oil workers from Baker-Hughes is having a serious
impact on Statoil’s drilling activities (fuelfix.com).
Aftenbladet
reports that the strike may be costing NOK30mn per day. A cessation of work on
drilling rigs doesn’t mean a cessation of rental costs, so this could become
enormously expensive both for the renting companies and for the Norwegian
government, which subsidizes rentals (AB).
Related work-environment claims against Statoil have been dropped after police
found insufficient cause to pursue an investigation (AB).
Despite all the
above grim news, business is booming in Norway: first estimates of 2013
investment in oil and gas activity in Norway run to $32.4 bn (AB),
and Transocean suggests that 158 wells will be drilled offshore in the Barents
in the next 5 years (BO).
Statoil also locked down its first major deal to ship LNG to Asia via an import
terminal in Malaysia (upstreamonline.com).
Meanwhile the Norwegian government is trying to scold its industrial partners
into waiting for government approvals before signing on to contracts, rather
than attempting to pressure the government to give approvals by signing on in
anticipation (Fox
Business). Meanwhile a (newly announced?) requirement from Canadian firm
Couche-Tard that 90% of Statoil’s shareholders approve the sale of Statoil’s
retail stations to the Canadian buyer seems an unusually high hurdle to set (AB).
But again, I’m no expert.
Smaller
tidbits of news: temporary, expected reductions in gas flows from Norway to
mainland Europe meant diversion of Norwegian resources to the UK (Reuters);
Swedish oil and gas firm Lundin has established its first office in Harstad,
Norway to serve its licenses in the Barents (BO);
and Finland is discussing linking its natural gas network to Europe’s to cut
reliance on Russia (Bloomberg).
In Canada, a
coalition of Norwegian companies is proposing seismic surveying in the Davis
Strait, against strong opposition from several environmental and aboriginal
organizations (CBC).
As usual, the best
coverage comes from Jane George with Nunatsiaq News. The president of the
Qikiqtani Inuit Association says that the organization does not oppose
development, but wants to be included and consulted on any plans (CBC).
In a related story, the new president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Terry Audla,
has said that ensuring Inuit inclusion in any resource development plans will
be a top agenda item for him (G&M).
If you’ve
got the time to take in your Arctic oil info via video, a recording of this
past week’s panel discussion at Brookings is available here.
MINING
We’ll start
elsewhere before moving to Canada. In Russia, the government announced its
readiness to sell its entire stake in diamond champion Alrosa (steelguru.com),
possibly piecemeal, for an approximate total value of $14bn (Business
Insider). Elsewhere, the Murmansk-based apatite producer and processor
Oleny Ruchey welcomed a visit from a Norwegian representative, who says his
intent is in part to help Norwegian companies get engaged with local economic
activities in Murmansk (BN). Meanwhile
Norilsk Nikel resumed shipments this week from its seasonal port of Dudinka at
the mouth of the Yenisei river (Reuters).
Moving
across the Bering Strait to Alaska, the environment-vs-business debate over the
proposed Pebble Bay mine prompted Carey Restino of the Bristol Bay Times to
write an op-ed that captured her (and my) frustration with the nature of such
debates perfectly (via AD).
The troubled Rock Creek gold mine elsewhere in Alaska is ready to be sold to
the Bering Straits Native Corp, permitting lame-duck owner NovaGold Resources
to focus on its Donlin property (WFP,
ADN),
while the announcement by Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game that it will be
enforcing a ban on mining within half a mile of the state’s salmon streams has
drawn the ire of all the reasonable, cool-headed people who have been inspired
by American reality TV to head to Alaska and try their luck seeking gold in the
Nome region (ADN).
Does everyone believe that that the forbidden ground is all that’s standing
between them and a lifetime of champagne baths and private jets?
Now to
Canada. Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver spoke at a recent mining
conference about Responsible Resource Development, which focuses on “[making]
project reviews more predictable and timely; [reducing] duplication of project
reviews; [strengthening] environmental protection; and [enhancing] Aboriginal
consultations” (press release).
At the provincial level, the NWT hopes to pursue a mineral development strategy
of its own to “send a clear signal of the value that we place on our mining
sector”; thus saith David Ramsay (speech
transcript). Meanwhile the new president of ITK, Terry Audla, is determined
to make sure that the development of natural resources supports the aboriginal
communities whose lives it impacts (G&M).
The review
process for Baffinland’s proposed Mary River iron mine continues to drag, with:
representatives of constituent organizations expressing concern over the path
and impact of the additional shipping that would result (NN);
a local filmmaker requesting a human rights assessment of the possible impact
of the project (NN);
and the Nunavut Marine Region Impact Review Board expressing concerns over the
project as well (NN).
I’m no fortune-teller, but I don’t see a quick resolution to this.
Other
proposed and existing mines are facing similar challenges. A proposed project
by Anconia Resources near Baker Lake in Nunavut is causing concern because of
its location in the middle of caribou calving grounds (CBC),
but Baker Lake is simultaneously calling it a catastrophe that another nearby
mine – the Meadowbank gold mine – is planning to close. This would drive the
community to 80% unemployment in one fell swoop, the mayor says (NN).
Not all is wailing and gnashing of teeth, though; a significant federal
approval from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada came through
for a zinc mine in the Nahanni National Park Reserve (CBC);
and the Stornoway Diamond Corp’s Qilalugaq mine near Repulse Bay in Nunavut
appears to promise 26.1mn carats of diamonds (NN).
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY
First,
thanks to Eva Holland and Up Here Business for a useful and
entertaining post on the perils of “Northern” branding.
[Fisheries]
Fisheries in
Canadian Arctic waters don’t get the press that they do in Alaskan waters, but CanNor,
the Canadian Northern Development Agency, announced this week that it will be
investing in commercial fisheries in Nunavut, calling it “one of the key
sectors for economic development in the region” (north.gc.ca).
Next door in Alaska, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council announced a
15% reduction in halibut bycatch
beginning in 2014 (alaskapublic.org).
The Alaska Journal of Commerce seems to grumpily approve the decision in an
editorial, in which they also clarify why a cooperative fishing program may
be the way to achieve the desired reduction in bycatch.
The earlier tribulations
of Alaska’s crab fishermen, a result of prolonged ice cover in the Bering Sea,
seem to be over – catches are going well at this late date in the season (AD).
NOAA will be surveying populations of this and other important stocks this year
(Cordova
Times), while Alaska’s state government has set up a lifeline of mariculture loans for small
and medium enterprises in Southeast Alaska (Juneau
Empire).
Around the
world, Russia’s Northeast Sakhalin Island salmon fishery has been certified by
the Marine Stewardship Council (worldfishing.net).
It’s interesting to read about the arrangement that resulted in the
certification. Next door in Norway, farmed-cod breeding programs are likely
looking at increased investment by government and industry; both classes of
actors have expressed interest (worldfishing.net).
In good news for wild cod, Norwegian and Russian experts have concluded that
efforts to reduce illegal cod overfishing in the Barents have been successful
now for the third year running (fis.com).
As a result, a 25% increase in cod quota for 2013 has been recommended. Meanwhile,
in Norway’s North Sea waters, the Norwegian government is attempting to create
a balance between fishing and other industrial needs (fishupdate.com).
[Shipping]
News on
shipping via the Arctic will doubtless become a larger and larger part of this
weekly briefing over time. This week featured plenty of chatter about the
Northern Sea Route, which looks ready to melt earlier than usual this year (Summit
County Voice) and which Michael Byers, an excellent writer and a logical voice
on Arctic issues, suggests should provide material for political cooperation
between Canada and Russia (Moscow
Times). Cargo volume through the NSR is expected to double from 2011 to
1.5mn tons this year (BO),
and the potential cost and time reductions are, of course, significant (Bloomberg).
Japan’s interests here could also have an impact, considering how much of this
traffic would pass through the Sea of Japan, as illustrated by this useful post
from the Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies.
There’s been
talk of Iceland’s potential new role as a shipping hub for this increased
traffic, and the Faroe Islands appear to be considering how they, too, might
get in on the game (Arctic
Portal). It’s not just shipping; Russia’s famous nuclear icebreaker 50 Years of Victory is preparing for its
summer season carting wealthy and/or extremely committed tourists to and from
the North Pole (BO).
A cautious
and well-reasoned response to all this excitement about increased shipping
came from MarineLink.
Land
transport is also critical in northern Russia, and the development of a new
Murmansk transport hub featuring a new rail line and a coal port on the Western
shore of the Kola Bay is looking more and more likely as well (BO).
However, overall shipping through Russia’s Arctic ports appears to have dropped
precipitously (23.5%) from 2011 to 2012 for the period Jan-Apr (blackseagrain.net).
In other
miscellaneous shipping news, we heard fear from Aftenbladet
that the Norwegian sailor, a species that works primarily on offshore rigs,
might go extinct if wage agreements that allow Norwegian labor to remain
cost-competitive with labor from elsewhere in Europe are allowed to lapse. In
Canada, there are whispers that the Harper government’s contracts for
shipbuilding to Halifax and Vancouver might shrink or be postponed further, no
boon to Canada’s shipbuilding industry either (Vancouver
Sun).
SOCIAL
Distress
over the incredibly high cost of food in Canada’s Arctic continues to garner
press this week. How high? Check out this
picture of a Nestle 24-pack of half-liter water bottles, coming in at
$104.99. Saturday saw protests both in Nunavut (AD)
and Ottawa (NN),
driven in part by an exploding Facebook Group “Feeding my Family”
which appears to have 21,000+ members as of this writing. The National Research
Council of Canada released a report pointing out that food insecurity often
means, in practical terms, reliance on cheap junk food for northern families,
resulting in growing problems of obesity and diabetes (NN).
It may be, however, that there has been progress in the past year; North West
Co released a spreadsheet showing that an undefined basket of healthy foods
costs 15% less now than a year ago (NN),
in part as a result of the Nutrition North Canada program.
Reaction to
this issue has come from many sectors, including a wonderful blog post giving
both good detail on the history of northern food subsidies and personal
experience of northern prices (zoeandthecity.wordpress.com).
The Manitoba provincial government has meanwhile expressed a tentative
willingness to do something – details unclear – about prices in that province’s
northern communities, but asks first that the federal government do more (WFP).
Attacking the issue from another angle, chef Rebecca Veevee is running a show
on the Aboriginal Public Television Network
offering updated versions of traditional Inuit dishes (Montreal
Gazette). I’d love to see a couple episodes online.
Under the
broader umbrella of human rights, two experts recommended the establishment of
a Human Rights Commission in Nunavut (NN),
while the relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in
Yellowknife particularly is also covered nicely in a blog post from
Michael Becker. On the health front, the rationing (CBC)
and eventual recall (CBC)
of a Sanofi Aventis tuberculosis vaccine used widely in Nunavut for newborns
cannot be a good development. Rates of TB in Nunavut are 75x the national
average.
In education
this week, Joey Flowers enjoyed the honor of being Nunavik’s first Inuk law
school graduate (NN),
while Aqqaluk Lynge, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, was awarded an
honorary doctorate from Dartmouth (NN).
At the primary school level there was both good news in the form of (modest)
scholarships from a Tata Steel project for students in Kuujjuaq, a town located
near a proposed mining complex (NN),
and bad news as government funding in the NWT for students with disabilities
dried up (CBC).
Meanwhile the National Aboriginal Health Organization is attempting to address
bullying in Canada’s aboriginal communities, calling it a major problem (NN).
Flooding in
the Yukon, NWT and Alaska was big news this week. Flooding of the Liard River
took out portions of the critical Alaska Highway (CBC)
, causing intense backups of traffic, and, while portions of the mudslides and
rockslides were cleared on Monday 11 June (Whitehorse
Star), further flooding downstream forced some residents in Canada’s three
northern territories to evacuate (CBC).
The unfortunate community of Nahanni Butte was essentially flooded out (article
& photos from CBC),
which obviously is awful but which also gave some people the opportunity to
show their best sides in caring for those who needed help (CBC).
In
connectivity elsewhere and of other kinds, the announcement was made this week
that the NWT government is preparing an environmental assessment for an
all-weather road from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, currently connected only by ice
road or by air (CBC).
Russia and its Scandinavian neighbors are working out an updated agreement on
which airlines get to fly from where to where (atwonline.com),
while the first Nuuk-Iqaluit flight by Air Greenland touched down on Friday (NN).
Government support for regular helicopter service to Little Diomede island in
the Bering Strait was announced to, I’m sure, positive reaction (AD),
but regular helicopter service in the NWT is a headache because of regular
noise – Iqaluit’s city councilors are looking at the possibility of reducing
“annoying” helicopter traffic for mines, archaeological sites, etc (NN).
Communications infrastructure is also slowly improving; an Industry Canada
program is subsidizing the provision of faster broadband to communities in
Nunavut (NN),
some of Alaska’s remote communities will soon enjoy 4G LTE service (akbizmag.com),
and a mobile company in Russia’s Sakha republic is upgrading its infrastructure
as well (telecompaper.com).
A couple of
final miscellaneous notes: The Assembly of First Nations in Canada may be
looking at its first female chief; four women are in the running (APTN).
Indigenous corporations in Alaska’s interior announced that, taken together,
they constitute the fifth largest economic entity after the military, the
federal government, the U of Alaska and the Fairbanks school system (FNM).
ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL SCIENCE
The bad news
came thick and fast this week. Volcanic activity in Iceland will be causing
serious melt to Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Iceland, and Europe, this
year (Arctic
Portal). Thawing permafrost in the Alaskan village of Selawik is causing a
host of health and infrastructure issues for residents (NN).
The NSIDC released a fairly discouraging report on ice extent across the
Arctic, nicely summarized by the International
Polar Foundation. Greenland saw the hottest May temperatures it’s ever
recorded (Ice
News). The East Siberian Sea is apparently now contributing more carbon
dioxide to the atmosphere than it takes in (AD,
EOTA).
One
surprising change was the giant algal bloom discovered beneath the ice this
week (Christian
Science Monitor) north of Alaska. Some are suggesting that it might be the
result of thinner ice and increased density of melt ponds on the surface of the
ice, which may act as magnifying lenses, bringing more light to the waters
beneath (CNN).
We also heard that increased plant growth is happening on land; the
northwestern Eurasian tundra is now playing host to tree-size shrubs, a new thing
(HuffPo).
In the face
of all this, a sort of crabby optimism is probably the only useful perspective.
It’s what one feels when one sees that nations like Norway are managing to
reach national agreement on at least some kind of climate agreement (AB),
or that organizations like Greenpeace continue to push hard for steep
reductions in international dependence on hydrocarbon energy (ecowatch.org),
even when that seems, at best, an unlikely near-term outcome. Technology also
helps us to gather ever-better data; unmanned aircraft are helping to
surreptitiously collect data on critical Arctic species (Frontier
Scientists), not just on you and your friends and neighbors. Derek Armitage
in the Guelph Mercury called
for greater support from Ottawa for Arctic science, while Roger McCoy in
the Huffington Post reminds
us that Arctic science has sprung from humble and benighted – if ambitious
– beginnings; perhaps it will grow in quality and quantity quickly enough to
have an even greater guiding influence on policy.
In wildlife
news, renewable energy efforts in British Columbia are running into wildlife
conservation issues, as wind turbines are beginning to kill an appreciable
number of endangered bats (Calgary
Herald). People, however, have been the unsuspecting victims of a habitually
dive-bombing eagle in Unalaska. The city has now gained permission to move its
nest elsewhere (AD). The United States’ efforts to ban
international trade in polar bear parts is facing significant resistance from Inuit
Tapiriit Kanatami (NN),
and Alaskan government representatives are making an effort to give the US
Commerce Secretary the right to set catch limits for Alaskan Eskimo whalers’
annual bowhead whale hunt, regardless of what the International Whaling
Commission might say (EOTA).
In a related – and weird – story, Eskimo whalers are also seeking the right to
manufacture exploding harpoons here in the US, rather than importing them from
Norway (EOTA).
Ptarmigans
are being studied by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for possible “admission”
to the endangered species list (Summit
County Voice), but the population of reindeer on Svalbard seems to be
exploding, perhaps due to the greater availability of vegetation (Svalbard
Post, in Norwegian). In contrast, Baffin Island’s caribou population seems
to be down (CBC).
Observational
research also had a big week, as a set of 360mn year old tracks were found near
Hay River, NWT (CBC)
and a second ADORABLE Pacific loon chick was born in full view of the Alaska
Loon Cam. It’s so fun to watch. Thanks to the operators.
In other
miscellaneous environment news, hearings will begin shortly in Alaska for a new
Coastal Management Program (Tundra
Drums). It looks as though it’s being used as a political football, but I’m
in no position to judge whether that’s opinion or fact (Alaska
Commons).
THE SPORTING LIFE
An
entertaining joke about moving
Canada’s world cup qualifying matches to Inuvik came out of the CBC this
week, but a story about Sweden’s national soccer team going a little over the
line in training doesn’t seem to be a joke (The Local).
THE GRAB BAG
Now, all the
things that don’t fit tidily somewhere else.
A site that produces haiku,
as inadvertently spoken by Canadian parliamentarians. Genius.
A compelling story from Up Here magazine on
a group of Labrador Inuit who were put on display in a zoo in Germany in the
late 1800s.
We
congratulate Arctic
Portal on being confirmed as a member of the UArctic system.
Interested
in some of the mythological demons haunting Alaska? I know you are. Alaska
Dispatch will tell you about five of them.
Nunavut’s
classic polar bear license plates are being stolen in ever greater numbers,
making them a hassle for owners in Iqaluit (NN).
If you’re
interested in the life of a seasonal stripper in Alaska, well, plunge in to this
article from Alaska Dispatch.
PHOTOS & VIDEOS
A video from
NASA
on the phytoplankton bloom in the Arctic Ocean.
A video from
Greenpeace
on the annual Russian snowmelt in the Komi Republic, and how it brings oil from
winter spills on land into local waterways.
A video on how
to identify bear tracks in Glacier Bay. From Frontier Scientists.
Two great
photo essays from: the BBC, on reindeer herders in the
Russian Arctic; and from Erika Larsen in the New York Times, on
Sami reindeer herders.
Great photos
from Instagram users rickardlarsson83,
ezoesch, ghveem and zaz600, from
Twitter users @oceanwideexp,
@yakutia
and @TrudePettersen,
from NASA’s Goddard
Spaceflight Center, from Flickr user jimbob_malone
and from photographers Bruce
McKay, Clare Kines (1,
2,
3)
and Laura
Dyer.
ABBREVIATION KEY
Aftenbladet
(AB)
Alaska
Dispatch (AD)
Anchorage
Daily News (ADN)
Barents Nova
(BN)
Barents
Observer (BO)
BusinessWeek
(BW)
Eye on the
Arctic (EOTA)
Fairbanks
News Miner (FNM)
Globe and
Mail (G&M)
Moscow Times
(MT)
Natural Gas Europe
(NGE)
New York
Times (NYT)
Northern
News Service Online (NNSO)
Northern
Public Affairs (NPA)
Nunatsiaq
News (NN)
Ottawa
Citizen (OC)
RIA Novosti
(RIAN)
Russia Today
(RT)
Voice of
Russia (VOR)
Wall Street
Journal (WSJ)
Washington
Post (WP)
[1] Photo Courtesy of Tom Parker, http://arcticresearch.wordpress.com/blogs-from-the-field/
