At the end of August, United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon will visit Svalbard on a fact-finding mission to learn about the effects of global warming in the Arctic. He will travel to the northerly Norwegian island accompanied by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Ban will also stop by […]
On Wednesday, Greenland’s left-wing opposition party, Inuit Ataqatigiit, won the elections with 44% of the vote. It will control 14/31 seats in the Greenlandic Parliament, the Landsting. The Siumut Party, which has ruled Greenland for the past thirty years, was ousted. The new government will form in time for expanded home rule, which begins on […]
The Governor-General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, traveled to Nunavut last week to celebrate the province’s 10-year anniversary. In Rankin Inlet, she participated in an Inuit ceremony where she ate a piece of raw seal heart. She was asked whether her consumption of the seal heart was supposed to send a message to the EU, which […]
A U.S. foreign policy analyst has suggested that the NATO-Russia Council could serve as a forum for Russia and the West to discuss issues in the Arctic. The Council had its second meeting yesterday after being suspended in the aftermath of the Russia-Georgia conflict. Dr. Charles M. Perry, vice president and director of studies at […]
For some news on the lighter side, extreme wilderness photographer Martin Hartley has just returned home after taking part on the Catlin Arctic Survey, a team of three British explorers who spent two and a half months walking across frozen sea ice, charting its thickness as they went. In total, Hartley has been on nineteen expeditions to […]
On Tuesday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg visited Russian President Dmitri Medvedev at his residence outside Moscow. The two leaders discussed cooperation in the Arctic, mainly regarding the issue of gas. Medvedev said, “The development of the region as a whole depends on how we form a coordinated position on exploring the gas fields on […]
Canada has just concluded a geological expedition in the Arctic in the run-up to its submission of territorial claims. A two-team expedition of federal geologists and oceanographers examined land from Ward Hunt Island, Canada’s northernmost point, to the North Pole. One group conducted research via a sonar probe from a helicopter and the other used […]
This year, Canada has involved itself in a number of trans-Arctic and trans-Atlantic disputes. In February, there was the military jet incident with Russia. Spats with Russia have spilled over into the NATO sphere, as Canada pushes for Georgia and Ukraine to join to the Kremlin’s chagrin. Then at the beginning of this month after […]
Like its fellow resident the polar bear, the little furry seal has been at the center of international disputes in recent weeks. There are three species of seal in the Arctic: the harp seal, the ringed seal,and the bearded seal. The harp seal is white and fuzzy when it is a baby, and this is […]
Two Arctic species – the two which happen to be the cutest and cuddliest, the poster children for Arctic wildlife conservation movements – have been in the news lately: polar bears and seals. I’ll cover the seal issue in my next post. Polar Bears To the disappointment of environmentalists, the Department of the Interior will uphold […]
Russia plans to build floating nuclear power stations in the Arctic in order to exploit its oil and gas reserves. The power stations, which will consist of two nuclear reactors atop a steel platform, will allow Gazprom to power its drills in the Arctic’s notoriously difficult waters. The floats would also maintain their own waste and […]
The second major event of the week in Tromsø was the biennial Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting. Representatives from all of the permanent member states of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States were in attendance, along with representatives from observer states. Climate change was of course high on the agenda this […]
This is a busy week for the normally sleepy town of Tromsø, Norway a city over 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, as it is hosting two conferences: one on global warming, and the annual Arctic Council meeting. Global Warming Conference On Tuesday, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and former Vice President Al […]
Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean arrived today in Oslo, Norway to embark on a three-day tour of the country meant to bring the two states closer together. The Governor General is the official representative of the Queen of England. She remarked that Canada and Norway’s shared northern geography makes them “brother and sister in the […]
Tonight at 10 PM, MSNBC will air the first installment of a four-part series on the environment, called “Future Earth.” Tonight’s episode, “Journey to the End of the World,” focuses on global warming’s effect on the Arctic. Most of the show is spent following the journey of an Arctic expedition onboard the ship Tara. The […]