By Tom Fries Arctic News 16
June – 22 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.
This will
offer you no new insight into today’s Arctic geopolitics, but it’s great nevertheless
to learn about the adventures of Willem Barentsz, the Dutch explorer for whom
the Barents Sea is named. Enjoy this
article from Barents Observer.
Scientists
at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute have been dragged in to the complex
lawsuit over the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in a very
dangerous way. I went to some lengths to put the content of their “Statement
on the Need to Protect the Scientific Deliberative Process” into one or two
sentences, but it is too important to suffer such abridgement. Please take a
few minutes to read it.
An in-depth
article from Japan’s Asahi Shinbun on Japanese interest and involvement in
the development of projects in Russia’s Far East is a great read, and offers
information that doesn’t crop up in the press that often.
In a fantastic
opinion piece, Craig Medred in Alaska Dispatch highlights the fiction that
the oil economy is not already an essential support for communities in the far
North – aboriginal and otherwise – pervading most aspects of daily life.
At Alaska’s
Prudhoe Bay, local communities are attempting to persuade BP to sell propane
locally, as it could reduce the community’s dependence on enormously expensive
fuel oil. They haven’t had much luck so far (fascinating article from EOTA).
BLOOD & TREASURE
The Russian
military’s drills provided fodder for much of this week’s military news. The
air force tested fighters, bombers, radar aircraft and tankers in long-range
missions over the Arctic (VOR),
and the development of new ammo to “plug a hole” in the air force’s
capabilities is planned. At sea, the PASSEX drills, held jointly by France and
Russia, took place this week, featuring both the French warship De Grasse and the Russian landing ship Alexander Otrakovsky. Primary tasks appear to have been defense-, rescue- and
communications-focused (VOR).
Video
is available as well (RIAN). To strengthen the Northern Fleet’s
search-&-rescue capabilities, the new rescue vessel Igor Belousov is under
construction at Admiralty Shipyards in St Petersburg. It’s the first such ship
built in Russia in more than 30 years, and is planned for testing starting
October 2012 (marinelink.com,
BO).
Meanwhile the submarine Yekaterinburg,
victim of an earlier fire, is slated to be repaired at the Svezdochka shipyard
near Arkhangelsk (BO),
and a new “stealth frigate” built in Russia, the INS Teg, has been delivered to the Indian navy (RIAN).
Despite all
this nearby military activity, tiny Iceland was honored as the world’s most
peaceful nation by this year’s Global Peace Index (IceNews).
Across the
ocean in Canada, Senator Colin Kenny scolded the Harper government in
the National Post for failing to make the investments in surveillance
technology that are necessary to protect Canada’s marine borders, Arctic and
otherwise, while an opinion piece from J L Granatstein in
the Ottawa Citizen suggests, perhaps rightly, that the Canadian military
has a great chance right now to choose its future direction, but is instead
drifting rudderless. A third opinion
piece in the Hill Times (registration required) highlighted the disparity between
the proportion of accidents that take place in Canada’s Arctic and the
proportion of search-and-rescue air equipment formally housed there (0%). Indeed,
planned purchases of further search-and-rescue aircraft in Canada are a subject
of debate as Boeing competes with Canadian companies like Bombardier and Viking
Air (CBC).
The Canadian coast guard is meanwhile seeking restitution for its expenses on a
rescue mission for the MV Clipper
Adventurer, a cruise ship that ran aground off of Nunavut in 2010 (CBC).
The possible
purchase of American-made Northrop Grumman Polar Hawk drones to survey Canada’s
Arctic reaches has been cause for much back-and-forth sniping about the wisdom
of sharing or outsourcing such technology. The debate is nicely covered by Mia
Bennett in Eye on the Arctic. On the US side of the border, Coast Guard
Commandant Admiral Robert Papp announced this week that the Polar Sea, one of
America’s few icebreakers, had gained a reprieve from the scrap heap (Juneau
Empire).
THE POLITICAL SCENE
In an
interesting turn of events connecting Russia’s Arctic to the wider world, the ship
Alaed, which was carrying weapons
from Russia to Syria, was turned back after the British company that insured it
withdrew its policy (BO).
In Murmansk it is likely to be re-flagged from Netherlands Antilles to Russia,
making it a much more serious thing to stop its progress (Telegraph).
Finnish President Niinistö meanwhile took the opportunity to meet President
Putin near St Petersburg to discuss economic matters, among others (YLE).
Underlying the talks was clearly the possibility of Finnish accession to NATO,
an idea about which Russia is less than thrilled (YLE).
A Russian general’s negative comments about the possibility seem, according to
one poll, to have marginally increased support for NATO accession within the
Finnish population (YLE).
On the other side of the coin will be the meeting between US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and Finnish foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja this week (YLE).
Meanwhile President Putin took pains to advocate for the repeal of the US’ 1974
Jackson-Vanik amendment, which puts Russia in a less favored category than
other US trading partners (RIAN). This is quite
fascinating for those of you who are interested in the messy overlap between
trade and diplomacy. At the local level in Murmansk, Barents Observer provided
us a
quick look at the new Murmansk regional government. Marina Kovtun, the
region’s newish governor, signed an agreement with her colleague from Norway’s
Finnmark region to add a further 100 million rubles to a large fund already
devoted to building what is essentially a company town to deal with radioactive
waste, stored at Andreyeva Bay (Bellona).
On the North
American side of the Arctic, further commentary came from Brookings, where
Senior Fellow Bruce Jones recorded
a brief interview advocating the US’s ratification of the UN Convention on
the Law of the Sea. The biggest news from Canada was the revocation of government-paid
trips for foreign ambassadors to Canada’s Arctic, which feels significant if
only for its symbolism (EOTA).
Terry Audla, new president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, highlighted the
similarity between his own views and those of Lloyd’s of London CEO Richard
Ward regarding engagement of local communities in plans for northern
development (Hill
Times). Tension between Inuit communities and the federal government was
highlighted by a tussle between the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern
Development and MPs from Canada’s northern reaches (NN),
while the federal government’s interest in the lost 1845 John Franklin
expedition might be explained by the possibility of declaring the site a UNESCO
World Heritage Site. Such a declaration would add weight to Canadian arguments
that Canada should have the prerogative to regulate traffic through the
Northwest Passage (reviewcanada.ca).
There
continues to be politicking in Canada around animal products as well, of
course. The Fur Institute of Canada will be meeting in Iqaluit this week to
discuss, in part, continued resistance to the EU’s ban on Canadian seal pelts (EOTA),
and an engaging
post from Anthony Speca via Northern Public Affairs discusses Canadian
whaling in the possible future context of a coherent, unified International
Whaling Commission.
ENERGY
What a week
it’s been for Shtokman. At the start of the week, Gazprom fired the entire
project staff (Bloomberg,
BN), but a company spokesman and
analyst both played down the news (Bloomberg).
CEO Aleksei Zagorovsky remained in his position (upstreamonline.com).
The next day, however, word came that the existing project company, based in
Zug, Switzerland, would be winding down after expiration on 1 July. A new
company will be set up that looks likely to incorporate Shell as a new project
partner (Reuters).
Shell’s possible addition leads to speculation as well that Total or Statoil
might depart the project (BO).
Background noise would seem to suggest that Statoil, more than Total, might be
looking at other, better opportunities elsewhere (Fox),
but RIA Novosti
says that it is Statoil who proposed inviting Shell in the first place. One
newsletter also reported that “sources” have said that Total is actually on the
way out (Reuters).
These and other decisions were discussed at the St Petersburg International
Economic Forum (naturalgaseurope.com),
where Total CEO Christophe de Margerie expressed his wish that all differences
be ironed out (Murmansk
& Shtokman News, Reuters).
The Forum played host to several high-level meetings between existing and
prospective partners (BO),
but as of this writing no firm resolutions had been made (Fox).
For a concise overview of the whole developing situation, you’d do best to turn
to Anna
Kireeva of the Bellona Foundation.
Meanwhile,
Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom’s deputy head, said that the company’s ongoing
talks with its top European clients have been going according to plan (Reuters
Africa). The EU itself may be moving closer to a common energy policy as
well (EU).
Rosneft,
which has recently looked as though it’s pursuing every available
opportunity (Johnson’s Russia List) for partnership, dramatically expanded
its international footprint by inking deals with both Statoil and Eni this week
(VOR). The deal with
Eni covers Russia’s Arctic shelf; that with Statoil covers the Norwegian shelf
– thus sayeth Igor Sechin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (ITAR-TASS). The deal with
Statoil also gives Rosneft the prestigious position of being the first Russian
major active on the Norwegian shelf. (Side note: Reuters
reported last week that China’s CNPC is also looking at ways to stake a
claim on the Norwegian shelf.) Best details (locations, stakes, cost-sharing,
history) on the Statoil agreement were published by Barents Nova, Eurasia
Review and Barents
Observer. Be forewarned: as always, one has to dig through thick layers of
content-free boilerplate from executives before getting to the interesting
details. Details on the Eni-Rosneft agreement come from Eurasia
Review. Rosneft might also consider taking advantage of the sale of support
ships from drilling/exploration company Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka to expand its
capacity in the Murmansk region (BO,
BN).
In a
wonderful quote, Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft, quoted the potential total cost
of operations on Russia’s Arctic shelf as $400bn, “comparable to the cost of
space exploration” (RT).
Meanwhile Russian Minister for Regional Development Viktor Basargin said that
federal and regional budgets are expected to contribute $44bn to investment in
Arctic projects by 2020 (RIAN). An in-depth
article from Japan’s Asahi Shinbun on Japanese interest and involvement in
the development of projects in Russia’s Far East is a great read, and offers
information that one just doesn’t see elsewhere.
The fun Statoil
is having with its Russian partners is equaled only by its optimism regarding
its North American projects, where it expects to triple oil output from
150,000bpd today up to 500,000 by 2020 (Reuters).
At home, things are less sunny: the internet activists’ platform avaaz.org has
taken it upon itself to fight Statoil’s involvement in Canada’s tar sands (AB),
a shortage of housing in Stavanger may mean that oil & gas majors must look
elsewhere in Norway to expand (AB),
and staff on the Norwegian Continental Shelf may be getting ready to strike (AB).
Such strikes seem to be happening a lot in Norway recently; is this common? Despite
such hurdles, drilling company Transocean is making predictions that the pace
of well-drilling in the Barents overall will rise from six in 2011 to 38 by
2017 (upstreamonline.com).
Elsewhere, the
Guardian published a quick snack covering some of the hesitation among
investors to support or insure Arctic projects. I will say it again: no
values-based argument is going to put the brakes on Arctic drilling so long as
these projects are easy(-ish) to finance and insure.
In North
American oil and gas, Shell continues to face pushback on its plans for the
Arctic this summer, but is doing whatever it can to make the road smoother (from
Richard Harris at NPR). The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
meanwhile completed a portion – not all – of the inspections required for
Shell’s drilling equipment that will be used up North (Maritime
Executive). At Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, local communities are attempting to
persuade BP to sell propane locally, as it could reduce the community’s dependence
on enormously expensive fuel oil. They haven’t had much luck so far
(fascinating article from EOTA).
In a fantastic
opinion piece, Craig Medred in Alaska Dispatch points out the fiction that
the oil economy is not already an essential support for communities in the far
North, aboriginal or otherwise, while Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor Mead
Treadwell comes down quite clearly on one side of the oil-vs-environment debate
in an op-ed
in Politico.
Two small
bits of news were all that I came across from Canada’s energy sector this week.
We heard that the powers and responsibilities of the Mackenzie Valley Petroleum
Planning Office (née Pipeline Office) have been substantially expanded (Gov’t
of the NWT) and that a pilot-project 2000-era windmill snapped into bits in
Rankin Inlet, Nunavut (CBC).
MINING
Rare earth
metals, China and Greenland were most of the chatter in mining this week.
Forbes published a
nice piece on the possibility of a future glut of rare earths, in contrast
to the present tight markets, while China – famed as the world’s top producer
of the elements – announced that its own reserves are actually running
dangerously low (BBC).
An interesting
article from EurActiv – to which I am referring belatedly – gives a nice
overview of Greenland’s surprising new stardom on the international stage, while
Arctic Portal offers a
good debrief of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to Copenhagen, and what
was – or might have been – discussed. CNBC also syndicated a Reuters piece that
highlighted other substantial deals with Danish brewer Carlsberg and shipping
firm Maersk.
Greenland is
not the only country enjoying China’s tender attentions; Russian aluminum
producer RusAl signed a $850mn deal with the Export-Import Bank of China to set
up a new production facility in Eastern Siberia (MT,
steelguru.com).
Diamond producer Alrosa is meanwhile looking at privatization of 14% of its
shares later this year (RIAN), and Norilsk
Nickel announced improvements in its shipping times that are saving it money (steelguru.com).
On the
Canadian side of things, Nunavummiut
organization Makita is putting in heroic, blindness-inducing work to
translate the socioeconomic section of AREVA’s proposal for its Kiggavik
uranium mine first into layman’s English and then into Inuktitut. Friends, I
salute you. That is no easy task. Meanwhile, BHP Billiton Canada is looking for
a way to exit its interest in the Ekati diamond mine in the Northwest
Territories, but De Beers is apparently uninterested in the stake (Reuters).
Apparently Canadian diamonds are becoming a non-core business for more than one
international mining conglomerate. In Nunavut, Shear Diamonds’ Jericho mine is
producing better than anticipated (NN).
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY
In general
business news, Russia is already ranked poorly in the World Bank’s Doing
Business Indicators, and of the 30 Russian cities recently ranked by the Bank,
Moscow came in last (MT).
Murmansk also did poorly, adding insult to the injury of the city’s 1.3%
decline in industrial production in 2011 (BO).
The Barents Monitoring Report pulled out a couple of interesting economic details
for Murmansk, highlighted
by Barents Observer: mining was a bright spot because of price increases
for iron ore and apatite; a decline in wild fisheries was partially counteracted
by growth in farmed fish; the largest part of Murmansk’s raw materials are
shipped to the Netherlands; and average monthly salaries in the region grew by
11%. Iceland’s economy is meanwhile being pitched as a good-news story, as it’s
growing at its fastest pace since the crash (IceNews). The economy in Norway is apparently friendlier
than in the US at the moment; advice from Estelle
Petersen via Aftenbladet on interviewing for jobs in Norway includes –
among several good suggestions – the hysterical admonition to “make the effort to
shower and look presentable on the day of the interview.” Ow - my sides ache
from laughter.
On the North
American side of things, an article
from Nunatsiaq News will give you – towards the end – some good insight
into the nature of the conglomerates that we know as native corporations. The
CBC also offered some interesting
data points about aboriginal businesses in Canada in general.
[Fisheries]
WCEL
provided a
worthwhile read on the back-and-forth between the federal and provincial
levels of the Canadian government over who will ultimately determine fisheries
regulations. Meanwhile the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has closed the
Kenai River king salmon season early because of low numbers (AD).
Side note: king salmon get as large as 60 pounds? That is like a Labrador
retriever. Also in Alaska, American Seafoods has been fined $700,000 by the EPA
for violations of its regulations regarding ozone-depleting refrigerants (KUCB).
[Shipping]
China is
sending the Xue Long through the Northern Sea Route this year, or at least is
planning to do so. If all goes according to plan, says Liu Cigui of the State
Oceanic Administration, it will be the first time a Chinese icebreaker has
reached the Barents Sea (RIAN). Here,
unrelatedly, is a geeky interview with Katherine Palmer of Lloyd’s Register
that will give you some good insight into what transport companies have to
think about for their ships (gcaptain.com).
And from Stratfor (email required to get the article as a sample), an article
on China’s Arctic interests pointing out that insurance premiums and draft
restrictions on large cargo ships will eat up the distance advantage of Arctic
Ocean routes for Chinese shippers.
SOCIAL
Protests
against exorbitant food prices in Nunavut again took place this week, this time
in the context of National Aboriginal Day. Protests were planned for Iqaluit,
Pangnirtung, Igloolik, Coral Harbour, Pond Inlet and Taloyoak on Thursday, as
well as elsewhere in Canada (CBC,
NN).
The EVP for North West Co (the owner of many grocery stores in affected
communities) Michael McMullen tried to stay ahead of the curve by offering “practical
advice based on success we’ve had just this year in lowering the cost of
healthy food and increasing the consumption of dairy, protein and fresh produce
in Nunavut” (NN).
A blog
post from Jean Crowder, an MP, suggests that Mr McMullen’s successes,
admirable though they may be, still leave gaping holes in the fabric of
Northern food security. Similarly, a letter from legislators from all of
Canada’s Northern provinces to the federal government suggested that the
Nutrition North Canada program has, if anything, made the issue worse (HuffPo).
Wilf Wilcox, the chair of the Nutrition North Canada Advisory Board, responded
that this is a mistaken impression based on the fact that NNC selectively
targets more nutritious foods for subsidies at the expense of less nutritious
items (NN).
A woman in Nevada responded to the challenge by starting an adopt-a-family
group on Facebook, and it’s interesting to read a wise response from Aaju Peter
in Iqaluit that charity, however useful in the short-term, is not a long-term
solution to this problem (CBC).
Festivities attached to National Aboriginal Day continued despite the protests
(NN).
The
aftermath of last week’s major flooding in Canada continued into the early days
of this week, with one gentleman spotting a cabin adrift on its way down the
Mackenzie River (CBC).
The washout of the Nahanni Range Road is meanwhile keeping a number of tungsten
miners out of work in northern Yukon – no boon for them and their families (CBC).
A report was also released this week cataloging the damage from fires in
Nunavut in 2011, which comes in at $35mn (NN).
On the
health side, the failure of a TB vaccine supply for children in Nunavut is bad news
for the territory’s constant struggle with the illness. After last week’s
recall by sole Canadian maker Sanofi Pasteur, Health Canada announced early on
that there was no expected date for new supply (CBC).
According to Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, the government is looking for ways
to expedite the approval process for new batches (APTN),
but Sanofi Pasteur announced late in the week that it would be making no more
until 2013 (CBC).
In general,
the health and well-being of Nunavummiut falls short of what residents in the
rest of Canada can expect. The Canadian Community Health Survey for 2011 was
finally released this week, and it highlights a collection of chronic issues
for the population, including obesity, poor nutrition, smoking and invasive
cancers, among others (NN).
Boredom itself seems to be at the root of some problems in isolated
communities; in Labrador, gas-sniffing among young people is apparently
becoming an issue (CBC),
and a substantial (for the North) marijuana bust was made this past week in
Pond Inlet, Nunavut (NN).
To deal with these and other persistent health issues for aboriginal Canadians,
the federal government will be investing $25mn in appropriate research over the
next 10 years. This accompanies $5.3mn in grants from the Aboriginal Health
Intervention Grants program (NN).
To some extent, it may be robbing Peter to pay Paul – funding is being cut or
redirected from some existing youth and health programs as well (CBC).
Minister Aglukkaq also unveiled new, even-yet-still-larger anti-smoking
warnings to cover more than half of Canadian cigarette packages (NN),
and a Habitat for Humanity initiative to house three families got underway in
Yukon (CBC).
In other
uncategorized social news…
TAI’s own Alison
Weisburger offered a
stinging critique of the cultural clumsiness of the Economist’s recent
article “One Man and His Dogs”.
There are
concerns that foreign workers in Canada are being exploited (CBC),
a claim that the Yukon government is investigating (CBC).
Metis in the
North Slave region are fighting the NWT government for the right to a portion
of this year’s caribou harvest, which follows a two-year ban (NNSO).
A new
cost-sharing agreement with the Government of the Northwest Territories may
rescue the Deh Cho Bridge project (journalofcommerce.com).
Also
released this week was an extensive report on obstetrics in Canada, which you can check
out here.
The city of
Iqaluit is trying to deal with destructive off-roading (CBC).
Flights
between the Kola peninsula and Moscow have been reinstated on a regular basis (BN).
It’s only an
abstract, but it’s enough to give a taste of some interesting research into
digital storytelling by Inuit on YouTube (ulaval.ca).
ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE and WILDLIFE
Worldwide,
the best-covered environmental news this week was, of course, the Rio+20
conference. Canada’s efforts to smother a resolution calling for an end to
government subsidies for oil companies drew the ire of some in Canada (Vancouver
Sun), and the country was the subject of withering critiques from
Greenpeace and others on a range of issues (CBC).
Premier of Québec Jean Charest was tracked down by a teenager from
Kangiqsualujjuaq (NN)
who expressed to him her belief that Nunavimmiut neither know about the
province’s Plan Nord for northern development nor support it (NN).
Puma chairman Jochen Zeitz also put himself in a camp with several celebrities
by dropping a great sound bite, saying that plans to exploit subsoil resources
in the Arctic are “the Mount Everest of unsustainable development” (Guardian).
General
sentiment seemed to be that the whole Rio+20 conference was an enormous waste
of time and money for very little, if anything, by way of consensus, much less
concrete plans and agreements. The US, Venezuela, Canada, Russia and Japan
collaborated to veto plans for preliminary discussion of a UN treaty to protect
international seas (New
Scientist), while a paper in Science (abstract here)
pointed up global abject failure to adhere to even the plans set forth in the
conferences 10 and 20 years ago. Greenland’s Kuupik Kleist offered a lengthy
piece on norden.org describing the fine balance that the Greenland
government would try to strike during the conference, both caring for the
environment and striving to increase living standards worldwide.
Greenpeace
made a splash at the conference by launching a star-studded campaign to declare the Arctic a global
sanctuary comparable with Antarctica, in which it seems all development
would be banned. Most of the news seems to have been about the celebrities on
board (Independent,
EcoWatch)
– showing a certain level of feral good sense on the part of Greenpeace in
recruiting said celebrities. To see a little more about the organization’s
plans to monitor Shell’s drilling in the Arctic, see their
blog. The US-Russia joint announcement of their intentions to “work to
protect the Arctic environment and develop potential oil and natural gas
resources while keeping environmental concerns in mind” (UPI)
does not seem to have convinced Greenpeace.
A new NASA
photograph of the earth from the vantage of the North Pole (Smithsonian)
was frequently tweeted this week, often accompanied by a depressing note that
“this may be your last chance” to see it. Folks felt the annotation to be
necessary as the result of headlines in which the precipitous drop in sea ice
cover (Think
Progress, NSIDC,
NN),
weird temperature deviations (EOTA)
and unexpected decreases in carbon storage as a result of increased plant life
in some Arctic biomes (Nature,
Daily
Mail) contribute to a negative picture of the Arctic’s future. New theories
to explain fascinating data from a 2.8mn-year ice core taken from a lake in
Siberia suggest that, in fact, the melting of the Western Antarctic ice sheet
may in some way act as an accelerant for the melting of the Arctic ice cap (Scientific
American, sciencedaily.com,
nsf.gov).
For some cool information on how and why ice sheets move, check out this
great post from Scientific American. This amazing
animated .gif from the US Navy also illustrates in an appreciable way the
motion of Arctic ice.
The
Interagency Arctic Research policy Committee recently released a five-year plan to
guide federally-managed research in the Arctic. Reading a review by Carey
Restino, it seems like the key bullet points are: greater integration with
state-level and aboriginal knowledge bases; greater outreach; and a big
question mark about funding (Arctic
Sounder). The US also agreed with Russia and, potentially, Norway, to work
to reduce impact on the Arctic from diesel emissions and other pollutants (UPI).
Meanwhile scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute released a
strongly-worded statement about some rough handling they’ve received from
the lawyers for BP in the Deepwater Horizon litigation. Readers: This is really
important. Give it a read. A group of 44 has meanwhile left Bremerhaven aboard
the Polar Stern, a German research
vessel, on their way to spend a month studying the Fram Strait and its role in
exchange between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans (marinelink.com).
The Bering Sea will meanwhile play host to non-human researchers in the form of
research buoys to collect a steady stream of data on ocean acidity, among other
things. State funding pays for the research (ADN,
AD).
In wildlife
news, I was tickled to see that US Representative Dave Weldon announced –
certainly intending it as hyperbole? – to all the world his belief that there
is no actual wildlife in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (politifact.com).
Bless his heart for letting that be caught on tape. Meanwhile, all were pleased
to read that levels of PCBs found in polar bears on Svalbard seem, at long
last, to be reliably in decline (BO).
Musk oxen however are making an odd move south – one was spotted this week in
northern Alberta (EOTA).
In marine mammals, the Center for Biological Diversity is suing the National
Marine Fisheries Service to force a decision on the listing of ringed and
bearded seals as threatened (Juneau
Empire). Meanwhile the sex organs of narwhals and beluga whales are the
subject of a gripping study out of the University of Winnipeg; turns out we
have very, very little idea of how they make baby belugas (NN).
Moving out of mammalia, some really interesting research and modeling suggests
that fish populations are likely to move in response to changes in pockets of
saline and fresh water in the Arctic (sciencenordic.com).
Finally, nobody
seems to have been hurt – or even to have noticed very much – when a 6.0
earthquake hit about 75 miles off of the USGS’s Attu Station in Alaska on
Tuesday (USGS).
Some resourceful reporter from the AP made an
actual story out of it. Simultaneously, Mount Cleveland, one of Alaska’s
most active volcanos, decided to make its presence felt with an eruption that shot
ash 35,000 feet in the air (AD).
THE SPORTING LIFE
I had no
idea that dog-pulled bicycles (bikejors?) exist, but apparently the Dog-Powered
Sports Association of the Yukon has actual events for this, including one that
took place last week. Also there is the “canicross,” which looks like it
involves humans running while being pulled by dogs. Please go and look at this.
You will not believe it (Whitehorse
Star).
The
relationship between Russia and Finland also took a step towards the positive
and the light-hearted with a scrimmage involving both Finnish president
Niinistö and President Putin who, according to this article in RIA
Novosti, is “learning to skate in an attempt to prompt more Russians to
take up sport and prove it's never too late.”
THE GRAB BAG
Now, all the
things that don’t fit tidily somewhere else.
This is only
imaginatively connected to the Arctic, but I feel like it’s pertinent, and it
is definitely awesome. A company in Ireland is going back to the future by
developing massive cargo ships that rely largely on wind power (gizmag.com).
Mary Simon
offered the graduation speech at the University of Alberta – the
debrief of her speech is worth a read.
Sweden, in
what is perhaps too great a step towards true egalitarianism, offers one
citizen each week the chance to run the @Sweden Twitter account. A certain Ms
Abrahamsson chose to use her time to offer up some incredibly tasteless
comments about Jews and gays. Umbrage has been taken (IceNews).
Wondering
what to do with that frozen caribou haunch in your garage freezer? Watchers
of the North has the solution.
The Pechenga
monastery, still under construction on the Kola Peninsula, will be consecrated
by Patriarch Kirill this fall (BO).
A massive
crane toppled over into Pangnirtung Harbor in Nunavut; this may delay the
construction of a small-craft harbor in the town (CBC).
There is no
end to what Americans will do or watch, apparently. A new reality TV show will
follow five men on a Seadoo-only trip across the Bering Strait (CBS13,
Sacramento). In a similar adventure sponsored by Shell, a Yukon teen will
be making the effort to drive all the way across Canada on five tanks of gas (CBC).
What happens if she runs out?
Sturgeon
require warmer water than can be found in the Arctic, so some clever Russians
have started up a sturgeon farm in waters warmed by the exhaust water from the
Kola nuclear power plant. They produce delicious caviar that glows faintly in
the dark (not really) (BN).
Bears are a
growing problem in Whitehorse (CBC),
but an influx of Alaskan dogs for a dog show is a delight (Whitehorse
Star).
Tromsø
played host to troupes of dancing people in celebration of the city’s
International Week (BO).
The city is also the home of the Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden, profiled
this week in the Wall Street Journal.
PHOTOS & VIDEOS
Here’s a
selection of great photos of…
…Deadhorse, Alaska (a
must-see slide show) – via Kadir van Lohuizen
…residents of the
Komi Republic ceremonially washing icons – via RIA Novosti
…Sweden’s Arctic forest – via
BBC
…a Yakut horse and the beautiful dog Laika – via Instagram
user yakutia
…a
small bird, a
loon, and woolly
lousewort – via flickr user Clare Kines
…north Norway – via Instagram user
yask76
…a
clearly awesome dog, Skunk – via Nunatsiaq News
…solstice sunset in Iceland – via
Instagram user officialstation
…a
Yellowknife summer sunset – via flickr user Kevin Klingbeil
…Kugluktuk,
Nunavut – via flickr user DnV Photo
…fishing
on Watson Lake – via flickr user Bruce McKay
…a
Whitehorse evening – via flickr user kdee64
And, if you
like your information via video…
…Helge Lund
makes a
fairly official statement to the UN Foundation about the future of energy
demand and supply
…a fun video on
Arctic botany from Cruise North Expeditions
…a quick
video from YLE on Finland’s midsummer celebrations
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)
