The Los Angeles Times has posted an audio slideshow by Robert Gauthier featuring photographs of the Alaskan Arctic, along with commentary by various residents. The images document the changing environment of the Seward Peninsula, whose coast lies along the Bering Strait. In two and a half minutes, the slideshow touches on topics such as the […]
Reuters put out an interesting story today on how development of the natural gas fields on the Yamal Peninsula could disrupt the indigenous Nenets tribe living there. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the conference held by the Russian government for foreign investors interested in developing these very resources. Gazprom is seeking to turn […]
Two speeches in the past couple of days have the tone for NATO’s position on conflict and cooperation in the Arctic. Currently, the organization is emphasizing diplomacy and communication over military disputes. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the new Secretary General of NATO and former Prime Minister of Denmark, spoke at a joint conference organized by NATO […]
Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said in an interview today with Vesti, a Russian news outlet, that the U.S. could deploy a mobile missile shield in the Arctic. He voiced his trepidations over the Obama administration’s decision to not erect an missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland, noting that now, American […]
In the northwestern Siberian town of Salekhard, Russia, President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the development of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry on the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic. In attendance were oil and gas companies from around the world, such as Shell, Exxon Mobil, and others from Germany, Italy, and Japan. Russia […]
An article from September 10 in The Globe and Mail discussed the possibility of Canada and Denmark working out a solution to the conflict over Hans Island. The half-square mile island has technically been in dispute since 1973. A treaty was signed between the two Arctic nations regarding the delimitation of the Canadian and Greenlandic […]
A recent article from Reuters paints a bleak picture for research in the Arctic. International conflict over resources has strained scientific cooperation, while oil companies’ financial means give them the ability to contract icebreaker ships for long periods of geophysical surveying, shutting out scientists. The good news is that there are also some bright spots. […]
With 99% of the votes counted, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s center-left coalition appears to have won the national elections held on Monday. 86 of the 169 seats in the Storting went to the Red-Greens, giving them a plurality. If the victory is indeed confirmed, Labour and its partners will be the first government to be […]
In the United States, issues of Arctic resource management are rarely national issues, let alone ones that could decide an election. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildelife Refuge in Alaska comes up as a hot button topic now and then, but is hardly as sensitive as oil drilling in Norway. The Norwegian elections on September […]
Andrew Revkin, the DotEarth blogger over at the New York Times, posted a lengthy entry on September 4 about the Northern Sea Route, which is finally nearing completion. The two German heavy-lift ships navigating the route are being led by a Russian nuclear icebreaker and have Russian pilots on board to supervise the transit. There’s […]
The Danish Defense Intelligence Agency (Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste) released an intelligence risk assessment on September 1 warning of possible diplomatic conflicts in the Arctic arising due to disputes over territory and resources. The assessment can be found on the FE’s website here (in Danish). Page 20 is devoted to the Arctic. The FE’s main conclusion in […]
Here’s some news out of the Arctic from the past week. I’ll be posting more in-depth analysis tomorrow. UN Secretary General visits Norwegian Arctic Ban Ki-Moon has just wrapped up a three day tour of the Norwegian Arctic prior to the global warming conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. This visit compliments Mr. Ban Ki-Moon’s […]
On August 20, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke approved a plan to close 200,000 square miles of the waters off the north coast of Alaska to commercial fishing. The plan, which was recommended by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in February, entails a ban on commercial fishing in the American sections of the […]
This month, both the Canadian government and military are ramping up their activities in the Arctic. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has embarked on his official visit to the Canadian High North, with his first stop in Iqaluit, Nunavat. He has taken a trip to the region every summer since he first became prime minister in […]
Russian mines that haven’t been in operation since the days of the Soviet gulags are being reopened in an effort to capitalize on the rise in the price of gold and recoup losses caused by the fall in the price of oil, Russia’s primary export. The Kupol mine lies within the federal subject of Chukotka, […]