The Anchorage Daily News has an interesting story on polar bear research in the Arctic. This fall, scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks on board the US Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea, one of the world’s most powerful icebreakers, researched how melting sea ice is affecting polar bears. These animals rely on sea ice […]
Overview: At the beginning of the year, the Arctic 5 were rolling out strategies to enhance their regional military power. Concerns over sovereignty weighed on the minds of policymakers, with Russia and Canada coming to diplomatic blows over the flights of Russian fighter jets a few hundred miles outside Canadian airspace. Yet aggression gave way […]
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar conditionally approved Shell Oil Company’s plan to drill three “exploratory, information-gathering” oil wells in the Chukchi Sea during the next open season, which will be from July-October 2010. There will be tough environmental restrictions on the exploratory drilling, yet these still aren’t enough to satisfy environmental watchdogs. The Anchorage […]
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has introduced a bill into the Senate Armed Forces Committee proposing to study the feasibility of creating a deep water sea port in the Arctic. The port, which as a deep water port would be able to receive Panamax ships, would “protect and advance strategic United States interests within the evolving […]
In a symbolic move towards securing Arctic sovereignty, the Canadian House of Commons today passed an amendment renaming the Northwest Passage the “Canadian Northwest Passage.” The move was nearly unanimous. Some Inuit leaders initially expressed reservations with the renaming until House members agreed to allow for a provision that would permit an official Inuktikut name […]
In Canada, the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, an independent policy advisory organization consisting of representatives from the environmental, business, and government sectors has found that the country’s northern infrastructure is not ready for the consequences of global warming in the Arctic. Infrastructure refers to everything from ice roads to dikes to […]
From February 5-6, 2010, in the dead of the Arctic winter, the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G-7 will meet in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. The meeting will serve as preparation for the actual G-7 summit to be held in Ontario next summer. The population of Iqaluit is 7,500, the average […]
Last week, it was reported that an American submarine, the USS Texas (SSN 775), surfaced near the North Pole in mid-October. The submarine, part of the Virginia class, was the first ship in its kind to do so. It was taking part in an ICEX, or ice exercise. After surfacing, the submarine stayed moored to the […]
The Alaska Wilderness League organized a trip to the nation’s capital this week to lobby the Obama administration against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in offshore areas. Sarah James, an elder of the Gwich’in nation, was one of the leaders of the delegation. She traveled all the way from Arctic Village, […]
Erin Anderssen of the Globe and Mail has a strong piece on the future of the Canadian military in today’s online edition. Soldiers donning the Maple Leaf on their uniform now have a much more visible role in the world today, whether combating piracy off the coast of Somalia or fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. […]
On October 21, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree (in Russian) declaring that the State Technical University in Arkhangelsk, Russia will transform into the Northern (Arctic) Federal University. Arkhangelsk was medieval Russia’s primary seaport and is nicknamed the “Gateway to the Arctic.” The transformation from a state to a federal university must take place […]
In the wake of an announcement by British polar explorer Pen Hadow, leader of the Catlin Arctic Survey, that the Arctic will be ice-free within ten years, Russia announced that it will charge ships a “fair” fee to cross the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Northern Sea Route, the majority of which is Russian […]
On October 23, the House passed HR 3619, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010. While the bill delineates the appropriations for the Coast Guard, the significance of the bill for Arctic affairs is Section 311, the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment Implementation. This section was originally a stand-alone bill, HR 2865, written by Representative Don […]
© AP Photo/Al Grillo The International Arctic Fisheries Symposium convened in Anchorage, Alaska last week to discuss management of fish stocks in the world’s northern waters. 150 people from the fields of science, politics, and industry shared ideas about migratory, transboundary, and straddling fish stocks. Geopolitics, then, are even affecting cod and char. The symposium […]
Alaska Indigenous people in Alaska are facing the difficult problem of reconciling development with native traditions. After a delay of several years, the Minerals and Management Service (MMS) of the U.S. government has finally given Royal Dutch Shell the rights to drilling in Camden Bay in the Beaufort Sea. Provided it obtains the necessary permits […]