Circumpolar News
Review: Hensley’s optimistic memoir a touching and riveting book 
(David James/Fairbanks News-Miner, 7 February 2010) -- FAIRBANKS - In 1964 a young Inupiat graduate student at UAF wrote a paper that explored legal documents pertaining to Alaska’s purchase and eventual establishment as a state. In these writings he had found language implying that the then-new state’s Native population held legal claim on a considerable amount of territory. Because the state was in the process of choosing which lands it would request for the 104 million acres it was allotted by the statehood bill, the young man knew he had little time to waste. He quickly returned to his home village of Kotzebue and began telling his family and friends to file claims of ownership with the federal government or risk losing forever the lands their forefathers had occupied for thousands of years. Had William L. Iggiagruk Hensley never done anything else, his place in Alaskan history would be secure, because with this action he set off the chain of events that led, just five years later, to passage by congress of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), the bill that guaranteed permanent title of vast swaths of Alaska to its original inhabitants. ... Hensley would probably blush at being told this, but he is one of the towering figures in post-statehood Alaska. Were it not for his ceaseless efforts, ours would be a far different — and unquestionably far less egalitarian — state. So he’s earned some bragging rights. Hensley isn’t one to brag, but he has chosen to share his story in Fifty Miles from Tomorrow, an engagingly written account of his life from his childhood in a sod hut 10 miles from Kotzebue all the way to the highest halls of power in Washington, D.C. It’s not a rags-to-riches story, however. Rather, it’s the tale of how growing up on the land, immersed in a distinctive culture, gave him the strength and the values to fight for and save what matters the most.
Posted 7 February 2010; 5:15:35 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Books, Blogs and Publications, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, February10, North America, People
Elisapie Isaac: Mapping her musical landscape
(Robert Everett-Green/Globe and Mail, 6 February 2010) -- “I can’t write by a fireplace,” says Inuit singer Elisapie Isaac. “I need a window. I need to feel connected to something, to see the sky or whatever. I think it’s because I’m from this small town where you can see far. No matter what building I’m in, my inspiration is the window.” Isaac spent almost three years sitting by her window, so to speak, and the songs she found there became the substance of her recent solo recording debut, There Will Be Stars. After several years as the singing half of the Quebec electro-folk duo Taima, the 32-year-old performer and filmmaker (who began a short Canadian tour on Feb. 4 at Toronto’s Drake Hotel) has mapped out her own musical landscape. “I just wanted it to be sweet and warm, I wanted it to breathe,” she says of the album, which was produced by Éloi Painchaud. She’s talking mainly about the shape-shifting sounds on the record. The songs, by contrast, are often about hard, uncomfortable situations: the ragged end of a love affair; the intensity of a deep winter spent in a small Northern settlement (Salluit, in Nunavik); the dislocation many Inuit feel whether they stay in the North or head south, as Isaac did 10 years ago. “Tears and emotions, that’s what motivates me,” she says. ... “There are so many energies, I sometimes wonder, where do I go?” she says. “I was named after four different women. I used to think that was such a cool thing. But when you’re named after four different women, you sort of become those different woman. I thought it was such a cool thing, but it kind of messed me up.” A fine mess, and a fine album too.
Posted 7 February 2010; 1:10:32 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Canada, Circumpolar News, February10, North America, Nunavut, People
Russian Barents population decrease
(BarentsObserver, 5 February 2010) -- The North of Russia is under the threat of depopulation. Since the year 2000 the population in the Russian part of the Barents region decreased by 462,000, or by almost 11 percent. According to the yearly demographic report of the State Statistical Committee the Russian territories of the Barents region in the beginning of 2009 had 31 thousand inhabitants less than one year ago. That is 0.8 percent less than in 2008. In the three-year period from 2006 to 2008 the total population of the Russian Federation decreased by 317,000 people. This is approximately as much as the population of the biggest city in the Barents region; Arkhangelsk. During the ten-year period from 2000 to 2010, the population of the Russian Federation was reduced by almost 5 million citizens, or -3.4 %. At the same time the population in the Russian part of the Barents region declined by 54,000 people from 2006 to 2008, or by 1.4 per cent, according to the 2009 edition of the Demographic Yearbook of Russia. The biggest population decline in the ten-year period since 2000 was observed in Murmansk Oblast (by 10.4 percent), in Komi Republic (by 9.3 percent), and in Arkhangelsk Oblast (by 9.2 percent). The population of Karelia decreased 6.5 percent. One year ago, in the beginning of 2009, the total population of Barents Russia was 3,793,000 people. Today, according to the preliminary data of the State Statistical Committee the population in these five territories decreased again by 24,000. The greatest declines occured in Murmansk oblast and the Republic of Komi.
Posted 6 February 2010; 11:10:04 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, February10, Northwest Russia, Research, Russia, Social Issues
(Sveriges Radio International, 6 February 2010) -- The indigenous people of northern Scandinavia, the Sami, are celebrating their National Day today with events staged around Sweden and neighbouring countries. The Sami, or Lapp, are the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia, and today they number around 85,000. Twenty thousand live in Sweden, perhaps twice as many in Norway, and smaller numbers in northern Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The Sami are regarded as the oldest peoples of Europe. Many of Sweden's Sami now live in Stockholm, and one of the country's major celebrations of the Sami national day is at Skansen, Stockholm's outdoor cultural museum. After centuries of exploitation at the hands of their Scandinavian neighbours, today the Sami face far fewer problems than many indigenous peoples in other parts of the world. However they do still have problems including a fight for land rights - Unlike Norway and Finland, Sweden still refuses to sign the UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples - fearing that the non-Sami residents of northern Sweden would lose their land rights. Sami Day falls on February sixth because this date was when the first Sami congress was held in Norway in 1917 with Norwegian and Swedish Sami coming together for the first time to try and solve their problems collectively. The first time Sami National Day was celebrated was in 1993. See also "YLE, "Saturday is Sámi People's Day," 5 February 2010.
Posted 6 February 2010; 10:53:56 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Celebrations, Circumpolar News, February10, Indigenous Issues, Sweden
Slain Iceland polar bear was young and healthy
Initial research of the carcass of the polar bear that was shot in Thistilfjördur, east Iceland, on January 27 show that the bear was a healthy female. Even though the bear was young, it had become independent from its mother, as reported by Keldur, the University of Iceland Institute for Experimental Pathology this week. Polar bear cubs follow their mothers the first 27 months of their lives. They are born in the bear’s lair in winter, usually in December or January, Fréttabladid reports. Detailed research of the bear’s teeth will determine its age accurately, but when its size—the bear was 173 centimeters long and weighed 138 kilos—is compared with measurements of polar bears from east Greenland, it appears to have been four years old. Further research, which is undertaken in cooperation with Danish scientists who have studied Greenlandic polar bears for years, will also determine whether the Thistilfjördur bear was infected by parasites. The animal’s skull and bones will be cleaned and preserved at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. Click here to read more about the polar bear.
Posted 6 February 2010; 10:58:39 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, February10, Flora and Fauna, Iceland, North Atlantic
Joe Sixpack: Adventurer seeks to re-create centuries-old Arctic Ale
(Don Russell, Joe Sixpack/Philadelphia Daily News, 5 February 2010) -- IN 1852, the British government dispatched Royal Navy Cmdr. Edward Belcher and a fleet of five ships to the Canadian Arctic to search for the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin. They came up empty, and four of Belcher's ships — including the H.M.S. Resolute — were abandoned in the ice. Years later, the Resolute was discovered adrift, salvaged, returned to Britain and disassembled. Its timbers were used to craft a pair of matching desks for the queen of England and the president of the United States. If the story sounds familiar, that's because you may have seen it in the Nicolas Cage movie National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. What you almost certainly have never heard, however, is the story of the ship's beer. A Bethlehem, Pa., homebrewer with a thirst for history has unearthed that story and will attempt to re-create the beer this summer during his own Arctic expedition. ... The beer was Allsopp's Arctic Ale, a bottled barleywine brewed in Burton, England. Made with just under 12 percent alcohol so as to survive the frigid temperatures of the north, it was described by Belcher as "a valuable antiscorbutic" for its ability to fight scurvy. ... Samuel Allsopp & Sons continued to brew the beer into the 20th century, but eventually the bottles dwindled and finally disappeared. ... Samuel Allsopp & Sons continued to brew the beer into the 20th century, but eventually the bottles dwindled and finally disappeared.
Posted 6 February 2010; 10:44:22 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Expeditions, field trips, tours, February10, People
Gazprom delays Shtokman gas field three years
(Dmitry Zhdannikov/Globe and Mail, 5 February 2010) -- Moscow - Russia has delayed the start of its giant Arctic Shtokman gas field by three years to 2016 after a dip in European demand and a surge in North American shale gas output dampened its export prospects. Russian gas export monopoly OAO Gazprom said in a statement on Friday it had agreed with partners Total SA and Statoil ASA to delay pipeline gas production from Shtokman from 2013 to 2016. Liquefied natural gas output will begin in 2017 instead of the earlier planned 2014. The decision was made due to “changes in the market situation and particularly in the LNG market“. Shtokman, one of the world's largest gas fields, in the stormy Barents Sea, is expected to require $15-billion (U.S.) of investment in its first phase. Gazprom saw a slump in exports last year amid a global economic slowdown and due to a surge in unconventional gas supplies, such as gas extracted from shale, in the United States.
Posted 5 February 2010; 11:41:29 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, Economic issues, February10, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources
Greenland MPs call for end to Danish political involvement
(Sermitsiaq via IceNews, 3 February 2010) -- The Danish parliament’s elected representatives for Greenland have declared that they are ready to begin negotiations aimed at discontinuing the semi-autonomous country’s involvement in Danish domestic politics. “This is a process we need to get started,” said Greenland MP Sofia Rossen. “This was something I said during the last election”. Rossen has not suggested a date for any withdrawal but claimed it would not happen until Greenland has been afforded full responsibility for the administration of its own domestic affairs. Sermitsiaq reports that the question of independence for both the Faroe Islands and Greenland is regularly debated in the Danish parliament, where the overseas territories are represented. Danish parliamentarians frequently question the fact that either region can use its elected representatives to determine the outcome of a close national election; while the territories themselves claim to be hamstrung by adhering to Danish political values which impinge on their national identities. Greenland has been under home-rule from Denmark since 1979, with more competencies being transferred to the local government in 2008. The present scenario sees the Danish Royal Government oversee Greenland’s foreign affairs, financial policy and security; with a DKK 3.4 billion (USD 633 million) subsidy each year: roughly DKK 60,000 (USD 11,300) per Greenlander per annum.
Posted 5 February 2010; 11:36:16 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, February10, Greenland, North Atlantic
Climate change causes wolverine decline across Canada
(Matt Walker/BBC News, 4 February 2010) -- The wolverine, a predator renowned for its strength and tenacious character, may be slowly melting away along with the snowpack upon which it lives. Research shows wolverine numbers are falling across North America. Their decline has been linked to less snow settling as a result of climate change. The study is the first to show a decline in the abundance of any land species due to vanishing snowpack. Details of the wolverine's decline are published in Population Ecology. The wolverine lives in boreal forest across Scandinavia, northern Russia, northern China, Mongolia and North America, where it ranges mostly across six provinces or territories of western Canada. This largest member of the weasel family eats carrion and food it hunts itself, including hares, marmots, smaller rodents and young or weakened ungulates. It has evolved for life on the snowpack, having thick fur and outsized feet that help it move across and hunt on snow. Wildlife biologist Dr Jedediah Brodie of the University of Montana, in Missoula, US, wondered how climate change might be having an impact on snowpack levels, and on the animals that depend on it. He had previously researched how declining levels of snow in the US Yellowstone National Park, caused by climate change, was changing the abundance of aspen trees and how elk feed on them. Dr Brodie and his colleague, Professor Eric Post of Pennsylvania State University, at University Park, US, gathered data on snowpack levels across six provinces or territories of Canada: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan and the Yukon Territory. In all bar the Yukon, he found that snowpack depth declined significantly between 1968 and 2004. ... They found a striking correlation between declining snowpack and falling numbers of the predator. "In provinces where winter snowpack levels are declining fastest, wolverine populations tend to be declining most rapidly," the researchers wrote in the journal article. "Spring snowpack also appears to influence wolverine population dynamics." The researchers found only one territory, the Northwest Territories, where wolverine numbers are increasing. There, snowpack levels are declining but they remain much higher and less variable than in most other provinces.
Posted 5 February 2010; 10:44:16 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, Conservation and Wildlife, February10, Flora and Fauna, North America
Nunavut proposes Baffin Island caribou survey
(CBC News, 4 February 2010) -- Nunavut wildlife biologists want to conduct the first extensive survey of caribou across Baffin Island as early as next year. Officials with Nunavut's Environment Department are proposing the idea in Baffin communities this year, with the hope that a survey could begin in 2011. "There's never ever been a population estimate for Baffin Island," Debbie Jenkins, the department's Baffin regional wildlife biologist, told CBC News. Government biologists have already conducted helicopter surveys of caribou on northern Baffin Island in 2008 and 2009. In those surveys, a total 170 caribou were counted in an area spanning more than 80,000 square kilometres. Jenkins said that seems like an alarmingly low number of caribou — and an estimate corroborated by anecdotes from local hunters and trappers organizations — but she said biologists need a more complete picture. "What we don't know is if this is indicative of the population of caribou, or if it's just indicative of that small area," she said. If it turns out the number of caribou from the existing surveys represents the island as a whole, Jenkins said conservation measures may have to be put in place. "With good foundation information, we can go ahead confidently with the communities, with our hunters, to discuss what options we have ahead of us to implement in terms of conservation measures, management measures," she said. But longtime hunters like Solomon Awa of Iqaluit said caribou populations are not necessarily in decline, but simply moving around the island. "There's a reason for that — the vegetation took a long time to grow after they have eaten them," he said.
Posted 5 February 2010; 8:15:43 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, February10, North America, Nunavut
Scant Arctic ice could mean summer "double whammy"
(Deborah Zabarenko, Environment/Reuters, 4 February 2010) -- Scant ice over the Arctic Sea this winter could mean a "double whammy" of powerful ice-melt next summer, a top U.S. climate scientist said on Thursday. "It's not that the ice keeps melting, it's just not growing very fast," said Mark Serreze, director of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. In January, Arctic sea ice grew by about 13,000 square miles (34,000 sq km) a day, which is a bit more than one-third the pace of ice growth during the 1980s, and less than the average for the first decade of the 21st century. Arctic ice cover is important to the rest of the world because the Arctic is the globe's biggest weather-maker, sometimes dubbed Earth's air-conditioner for its ability to cool down the planet. More melting Arctic sea ice could affect this weather-making process.... If Arctic ice fails to build up sufficiently during the dark, cold winter months, it is likely to melt faster and earlier when spring comes, Serreze said by telephone from Colorado. "We've grown back ice in the winter, but that ice tends to be thin and that's the problem," he said. "You set yourself up for a world of hurt in summer. The ice that is there is also thinner than it was before and thinner ice simply takes less energy to melt out the next summer." With less of the Arctic sea covered in ice in winter, and with the existing ice thinner and more fragile than before, "you've got a double whammy going on," Serreze said.
Posted 5 February 2010; 7:04:59 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arctic Ocean, Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, February10, Research
Alaskan congressman proposes Arctic port study
(Business Week, 3 February 2010) -- ANCHORAGE - U.S. Rep. Don Young has introduced a bill aimed at studying the potential for an Arctic deep water port. The measure is a companion bill to one introduced in December by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Young, a fellow Alaska Republican, says the measure will provide for a two-year study to determine strategic capabilities for an Arctic port and a favorable location. Young says the United States has the opportunity to address the prospects of future industry and can use changing Arctic conditions its advantage. This legislation has been referred to the House Armed Services Committee.
Posted 5 February 2010; 3:24:44 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, February10, North America, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Smart cars survive Arctic test
(CBC News, 3 February 2010) -- Seven Smart cars survived an Arctic challenge this week, having driven on the Dempster Highway from Inuvik, N.W.T., through the Yukon. Automotive journalists who were recruited to test drive the Smart fortwo coupes stopped in Whitehorse on Tuesday, and are now en route to Vancouver. The tour through the notoriously rough Arctic highway was sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, the car company that sells Smart cars in Canada. "The goal of the whole event, if you will, is to show that the Smart fortwo can tackle pretty much some of the harshest winter driving conditions imaginable in our country," Matt St-Pierre, a Montreal-based writer with Auto123.com, told CBC News on Wednesday. St-Pierre and the other journalists who tested the Smart cars began their journey last week from Kelowna, B.C., driving up the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse, then north to Dawson City and along the Dempster to Inuvik before turning back for the return trip to Vancouver. ... St-Pierre said other than cramped quarters — he, his co-driver and their gear were packed in the vehicle — the Smart car performed well on the Dempster.
Posted 4 February 2010; 10:02:23 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Expeditions, field trips, tours, February10, Yukon
Alaska Natives support chemical management reform for health of their communities and the Arctic
(Alaska Community Action on Toxics press release via PR Newswire, 4 February 2010) -- WASHINGTON - Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health will examine public exposures to toxic chemicals. Alaska Native leaders call on Congress to include circumpolar atmospheric pollution in their hearing. "Indigenous Arctic communities are suffering the most from chemicals emitted in the lower 48 states," said Vi Waghiyi, St. Lawrence Island Yupik and ACAT Environmental Health & Justice Program Director. "Because many industrial and commercial chemicals are long lasting and persistent in the atmosphere, they drift North on wind and water currents from where they are applied in Southern latitudes; they are in our traditional foods and affecting our health and the health of our children. We are calling on Congress and the Obama Administration to affect policy to regulate chemicals to end the 'contamination without consent' on our people from distant sources." The Yupik people of St. Lawrence Island, and rural communities across the state of Alaska, are concerned about health problems that are associated with persistent organic pollutants present in their air, water, and food. This past fall a delegation of local leaders and elders from the island communities of Savoonga and Gambell traveled over 3,000 miles to Washington, D.C. to raise awareness of the dire health effects in their communities. "While we are not physically near the action in Washington, D.C., Congress has a responsibility to address the needs of tribal governments throughout the United States, especially remote Alaska," said Jane Kava, Mayor and St. Lawrence Island Community Health Researcher from Savoonga, Alaska.
Posted 4 February 2010; 9:33:41 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, February10, North America, Social Issues
(Vivian Belik/Yukon News, 3 February 2010) -- Gwich’in elder Edith Josie, the voice of Old Crow, died Sunday of natural causes at the age of 88. The Whitehorse Star journalist was known around the world for the colourful reports she gave from her isolated, fly-in community. Josie’s column, Here Are the News, ran for more than 40 years giving Outsiders a look into the day-to-day happenings of the people of Old Crow. “She had her own unique style of telling stories to people and it really carried through to others,” said her son, William Josie. Josie wrote exactly the way that she spoke — in broken English with Gwich’in syntax — flavouring her columns with local expressions and a quirky sense of humour. In one of her first articles she describes the unsuccessful “ratting” (muskrat trapping) in Old Crow Flats that year. “John Joe Kay and his family and Dick Nukon and family came into town from their ratting camp,” she wrote in the spring of 1963. “They reported no rats around there but they say too many mosquito. Too bad no prize on mosquito.” ... Josie managed to put the tiny northern community of Old Crow on the map. “People in the South didn’t know there was a community of Old Crow until my mother started writing,” said Josie’s daughter, Jane Montgomery. ... Josie’s column was syndicated in the Toronto Telegram and the Fairbanks News-Miner and was plucked by other newspapers looking to run her column for free. “Sometimes she would get phone calls from people in the South thinking that she lived in an igloo,” said Montgomery. “And my mother would just laugh.” Eventually her work was translated into German, Italian, Spanish and Finnish, prompting fan mail from all corners of the globe. And then, the awards started to roll in. ... Josie had a huge impact on her community. And she knew it. “I write my big news. That’s how all of the people know where is Old Crow. Before the news go out nobody know where is Old Crow,” she wrote in one of her columns. “Just when I pass away, that’s the time my news will cut off.”
Posted 3 February 2010; 7:42:19 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, February10, Indigenous Issues, People, Youth
Yukon First Nation passes own Family Act
(CBC News, 2 February 2010) -- The Carcross Tagish First Nation in Carcross, Yukon, has recently passed its own Family Act, as it plans to take over child welfare services from the territorial government. While the Yukon government currently retains final legal responsibility for aboriginal children in care in Carcross, that power will eventually be transferred to the First Nation. Carcross Tagish spokesperson Nina Bolton said the First Nation wants to keep its children in the community, as well as keep families together using a traditional model. "It's something that's been talked about for years, with concerns about how our families and children were treated," Bolton told CBC News on Monday. "Things had to change … we should be looking at going back to how things used to be handled, and taking things into hands ourselves." Bolton said child welfare regulations and procedures are being finalized, while the First Nation is in talks with the territorial and federal governments over details of the transition, such as financial transfers. In the meantime, First Nations staff are being trained and officials plan to create safe houses within the community.
Posted 3 February 2010; 12:26:09 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, February10, Governance, Indigenous Issues, Laws and legal, North America, Yukon
G7 finance ministers to taste raw seal, travel by dog sleds
(EUBusiness, 2 February 2010) -- OTTAWA - G7 finance ministers will sample Arctic life when they meet in Iqaluit in Canada's far north this week, traveling by dog sled, eating raw seal meat and discussing the elite club's future by fireside. Host Canada wants ministers to gain a cultural understanding of the Arctic at the February 5-6 talks, in addition to the usual economic and financial banter that takes place at the gatherings, officials told a briefing. It will be an opportunity, for example, to showcase the importance of the seal hunt for northern peoples to key members of the European Union, which announced a ban on importing seal products last year. Four of the Group of Seven industrialized nations (G7) -- Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- are European nations. Japan, the United States and Canada round out the group. The EU in July 2009 adopted a ban on seal products, ruling the goods could not be marketed from 2010. Exceptions were made for products not sold for profit and products coming from Inuit hunts. Aqqaluk Lynge, president in Greenland of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference [sic, Council] (ICC), a non-governmental organization representing some 150,000 Inuit from Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia, argued that the "Inuit exemption" was flawed. The market has suffered greatly since the EU legislation was announced, Lynge told AFP last month. Canada and Greenland account for more than 50 percent of the 900,000 seals slain in the world each year. Other seal-hunting countries include Norway, Namibia, Iceland, Russia and the United States. Last month, Inuit in Canada and Greenland filed a suit in the European General Court to overturn EU legislation banning the import of seal products.
Posted 3 February 2010; 12:09:36 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Conferences, February10, International, Nunavut
Feb. 2 now 'Marmot Day' in Alaska
(Anchorage Daily News, 2 February 2010) -- JUNEAU - Alaska now has its own version of Groundhog Day. Then-Gov. Sarah Palin signed a bill last year to make every Feb. 2 Marmot Day in Alaska. The bill was introduced by state Sen. Linda Menard, R-Wasilla. Because groundhogs are not common in Alaska, Menard says it made sense for the marmot to become Alaska's version of Punxsutawney Phil, the Pennsylvania groundhog famed for his winter weather forecasts. Menard's bill didn't give marmots any weather forecasting duties, but she hopes the state will create educational activities around the animal.
Posted 2 February 2010; 8:50:41 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Celebrations, Circumpolar News, Communities, February10, North America
Stomach bug puts 200 children in hospital in Russia's Far East
(RIA Novosti, 31 January 2010) -- Over 200 children, most of them younger than three years, have been hospitalized with acute intestinal infection in the Magadan Region in the Russian Far East, Rossiya TV channel reported on Sunday. Doctors believe the children were poisoned after eating imported fruits - bananas, apples and citruses - largely supplied from China, the TV channel reported. Local health authorities are taking measures to contain the spread of the virus, the TV channel said. Doctors say the virus has affected whole families in the area, with children hit hardest, the TV channel said. The infection is likely to subside in spring when navigation will allow domestic food supplies into the subarctic region, the TV channel reported.
Posted 31 January 2010; 12:26:25 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Far East Russia, Health and wellness, January10, Russia
Changing climate impacts gray whales, walrus locations
(Victoria Barber/The Arctic Sounder, 28 January 2010) -- Observers in the Arctic are seeing more species like gray whale and walrus as the sea ice retreats, said scientists at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium last week in Anchorage. "The Arctic is really in a new state," said Sue Moore, research biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Scientists predict an entirely ice-free September in the Arctic as early as 2037, she noted. "The biggest change in terms of ice habitat is the loss of multi-year ice and delay in freeze up, particularly in the Pacific Arctic," Moore said. There has been a 42 percent loss of multi-year thick ice between 2004 and 2008, and 2007 posted the most extreme retreat of sea ice on record. As the ice melts, it has driven some species that depend on it to land, while other species are able to drift further north than in the past. Scientists at the symposium said these shifts are consistent with recent movements of gray whales and walruses. In 2004, the National Science Foundation hoped to learn about the affect of melting sea ice on bowhead whales, which are an important subsistence resource in the north. Their project was to place audio recorders in Arctic water to study bowhead whale movement. But instead of bowhead, they heard gray whales, all the way through winter and into May. "This was a big surprise for us," Moore said. "Here we have a temperate species, a species that's not thought to be ice-adaptive, over-wintering in the Arctic."
Posted 31 January 2010; 12:22:30 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, Conservation and Wildlife, Flora and Fauna, January10, Research
Greenland powerless to prevent EU sealskin ban
(IceNews, 29 January 2010) -- Greenland has once again been left without an international voice due to its membership of the Danish Kingdom, with the self-ruling administration unable to formally complain against the newly approved European Union ban on seal-product imports to the World Trade Organisation. Greenland’s international affairs are still governed by Denmark and accordingly, as a member of the EU, Denmark is powerless to argue against EU rules at the WTO, because it is an EU member state, says the Greenland Foreign Ministry’s Christian Wennicke in a report by Sermitsiaq. Not being an individual member of the EU means that Greenland now finds a repeat of the situation experienced during the recent whaling debate, where the self-rule state’s favourable policy towards expansion is subservient to Denmark’s agreement to the hard line approach issued by Brussels in relation to whaling. The seal-product ban is set to take effect this August while both the Norwegian and Canadian governments have already lodged complaints last November with the World Trade Organisation over the EU proposal. No decision is expected to be made in relation to the complaints in the next two years. The EU seal import ban can be partially circumvented through a stipulation allowing natively produced goods to be imported; but the Greenland administration argues that the ban will still impact negatively on all seal-related products, irrespective of origin.
Posted 30 January 2010; 11:14:50 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Europe, Greenland, International, January10
(Rolleiv Solholm/NRK via The Norway Post, 30 January 2010) -- Arctic weather has settled over Northern Norway, and the cold, drifitng snow and icy winds have created problems for traffic on both land and sea as well as in the air in the counties of Finnmark and Troms. In the low temperatures both ferries and passenger boats quickly ice down, resulting in cancellations. Driving conditions are difficult, and several roads are open only to convoys. The cold weather is moving south along the coast during the weekend.
Posted 30 January 2010; 11:12:50 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, January10, Norway
(IceNews, 27 January 2010) -- A polar bear was spotted today in Thistilfjordur, northeast Iceland by a farm worker who was stood less than 100 metres from the bear when she noticed. Police took the decision to shoot the bear, as conditions need to be right to affect a rescue – chief among them the stipulation that people not be endangered. The bear’s arrival in Iceland is highly unusual. Two polar bears were shot and killed in Iceland in the summer of 2008 and no others had been spotted for around 20 years before. The three reasons stated for the decision to shoot the bear were: human safety, the abundance of polar bears in eastern Greenland (where the bear was almost certainly from) and the huge costs involved in capturing it alive and returning it home.
Posted 28 January 2010; 10:26:54 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, Flora and Fauna, Iceland, January10, North Atlantic
Nunavut college explores creating tourism program
(CBC News, 27 January 2010) -- Nunavut Arctic College is about to study and develop a unique cultural tourism and hospitality program for the territory's communities. The college is receiving just over $40,000 in federal funding to work on the program, which would build on Nunavut's strengths in the cultural and arts sectors and help boost local economies. The funding, which is being administered by the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, will allow the college to work with other Nunavut organizations towards developing curricula for the program, agency director Hagar Idlout-Sudlovenick told CBC News. Nunavut Arctic College will use the funding to collect information about similar programs in the circumpolar world, said Cindy Cowan, the college's director of academic studies. "We may be doing some research ... in Norway and Finland, and looking at what that the circumpolar indigenous people are doing with their universities in terms of cultural tourism," she said. "Then phase two will be another proposal. I'm not sure who we would be going to, but we'll find a partner who will assist us in actually writing some of the courses."
Posted 28 January 2010; 9:45:07 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, January10, North America, Nunavut, Tourism
When the sun returns, Igloolik comes alive
(Chris Windeyer/Nunatsiaq News, 25 January 2010) -- IGLOOLIK — On a quiet, cloudy Sunday morning, elder Tipporah Qaunaq sits inside an igloo, tending two qulliqs and a camp stove. Despite the boiling tea and the burning seal oil, the smell of naptha overpowers everything else. The temperature inside is comfortably above zero and the igloos walls have developed a slick, icy crust. Sunday is the quiet day on the schedule of the Festival of the Return of the Sun. Qaunaq oversees the igloo as grandson Elmo, 11, and friend James Evaluarjuk, 9, hang out with, and do a little interpreting for, a visitor. The igloo, on the edge of town near Igloolik’s signature inuksuit, serves as a sort of drop-in centre during the festival. ... When Inuit still lived in igloos, Qaunaq said, they were happy to see the end of the dark season. The festival is a way to keep that tradition alive, she said. For more than a month, the sun skirts just below the horizon here, offering a few hours of dim light. High Arctic residents might say that while it’s nothing compared to their endless months of darkness, it’s still a good reason to throw a party. To Leah Otak, who runs Igloolik’s oral history project, the return of the sun might be more significant than New Year’s. “When I compare these two, [the return of the sun] is a much more meaningful celebration,” she said.
Posted 28 January 2010; 8:27:41 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Celebrations, Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, January10, Nunavut
Arctic marine health focus of circumpolar meeting
(CBC News, 27 January 2010) -- Scientists want to bring together people from Canada and other circumpolar nations in Iqaluit next year to talk about the health of the Arctic marine environment and the North's fisheries. The annual Ocean Innovation Conference, to be held in the Nunavut capital in October 2011, is being organized amid concerns about the effects of climate change in the North. Conference organizers from the Fisheries and Marine Institute at Memorial University in St. John's, N.L., are in Nunavut this week to meet with government officials and Inuit hunters. Randy Gillespie, the institute's director of applied research, said organizers will work closely with partners in Nunavut to hold a conference that will include representatives from Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States. "We want to explore the relationships between science and technology and traditional knowledge, recognizing that all three have something to contribute to a sustainable understanding of the marine environment," Gillespie told CBC News. Conference delegates will discuss everything from pollution to ship traffic, Gillespie said. Arctic fisheries will also be discussed, as Nunavut works to expand both its offshore and inshore fishing industries.
Posted 28 January 2010; 8:23:21 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Conferences, Health and wellness, International, January10, North America, Nunavut, Resource Issues, Social Issues
Hunter rescued from ice floe in Northwest Passage
(Mark Iype and Allison Cross/National Post, 25 January 2010) -- A hunter who was stranded on an Arctic ice floe for nearly four days is finally safe after a military rescue team plucked him off the ice yesterday afternoon. A military rescue team had been trying for days to reach David Idlout, trapped since Friday on a floe in the Northwest Passage near one of Canada's most northern communities. The team had been repeatedly hindered by bad weather. They were finally able to reach Mr. Idlout with a military helicopter at about 3 p.m. local time, said Capt. Pierre Bolduc, from the search-and-rescue co-ordination centre in Trenton, Ont. "He was cold, tired but otherwise in good health," said Capt. Bolduc, adding that Mr. Idlout didn't need any medical treatment. Mr. Idlout was flown to the airport in his nearby hometown of Resolute, Nunavut, and his family was there to greet him, Capt. Bolduc said.
Posted 26 January 2010; 12:06:49 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Celebrations, Circumpolar News, Communities, January10, Nunavut, People
Census count starts with No. 1 in Alaska
(Haya El Nasser/USA TODAY, 25 January 2010) -- When World War II veteran Clifton Jackson — at 88 the oldest resident of Noorvik, Alaska— answers his door at 1 p.m. local time Monday, he will become the first American counted in the 2010 Census. The painstakingly choreographed event will unfold in the tiny Inupiat Eskimo village north of the Arctic Circle. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves will arrive in Noorvik by dogsled with state officials. He'll meet with local children and tribal leaders and watch traditional dancing, cooking and other festivities. Then he will walk the five minutes from the Aqqaluk School to Jackson's house in sub-zero temperatures to deliver the Census questionnaire. "It's a real big thrill for a lot of us here in the community," Noorvik Mayor Bobby Wells says. Why all this Census ballyhoo more than two months before the official April 1 Census date? The state's geography, climate and demographics are so unusual that the Census Bureau must begin counting Alaskans early and in person or risk missing a big chunk of the state's population. The Census is using targeted approaches to reflect the lifestyles and cultures of an increasingly diverse population across the nation. For the first time, for example, the Census Bureau is sending 13 million English-Spanish questionnaires and printing the forms in six languages. The challenges in Alaska are daunting. The largest state in the union stretches across 586,000 square miles. That's more than twice the size of Texas, the biggest state in the Lower 48. Yet Alaska has one of the nation's smallest populations at less than 700,000. More than 260,000 live in Anchorage, the state's largest city. About 13% of residents are American Indian and Alaska Native, and almost half of Alaskans live in rural areas. Many live in villages so remote they are not connected to roads and receive mail through a post office box. Mailing the Census forms to these far-off places won't work because the Census must count people where they live, not where they pick up their mail. If the questionnaires can't be delivered to a street address, Census takers bring the forms in person. Workers would prefer to go door-to-door in balmier weather but can't wait because once the ice begins to melt, crossing rivers by sled or snowmobile is impossible. Many airports shut down because the mud is too deep for landings. "You have to start early before the spring breakup, before the native community starts to move to summer fishing camps," says Ingrid Zaruba, an analyst with the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Posted 25 January 2010; 9:51:10 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, January10, United States
Nunavut hunter's rescue nears: wife
(CBC News, 24 January 2010) -- The rescue of a hunter stranded on a drifting ice floe in the Northwest Passage is only hours away, his wife said Sunday. A Canadian Forces helicopter from Nova Scotia is expected to lift David Idlout to safety from his icy raft in the darkness south of Resolute, Nunavut, early Monday, Tracy Kalluk said. Blizzard-like conditions had delayed the helicopter's journey, but Kalluk reiterated forecast reports that the weather was improving. Idlout, 39, left Friday on a seal hunt and was hunting at the edge of the sea ice, about 15 kilometres from Resolute, Nunavut, when a large chunk of ice broke free and he drifted out to sea. The experienced hunter had a satellite phone with him and called his wife, Tracy. She called her father who called the coast guard. Idlout built himself an ice shelter and has spent two nights on the ice. Idlout's wife, who has been talking to him every two hours said, her husband is well-versed in cold weather survival. Early attempts at a rescue were thwarted when a helicopter sent to Resolute to pluck the man off the ice was unable to take off due to mechanical problems. Rescuers have since dropped food, water, a tent, fuel and a locator beacon to him — but they haven't been able to get any closer to pick him up because of strong winds, snow and ice pellets in the area. Resolute remains under a blizzard warning. There's poor visibility and winds of 50 km/h, gusting to 80 km/h. But a gradual improvement in the weather was expected Sunday evening.
Posted 24 January 2010; 9:54:36 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Expeditions, field trips, tours, January10, Nunavut, People
Greenpeace calls for Arctic Ocean drilling ban
(Greenpeace International press release via Scoop New Zealand, 25 January 2010) -- Tromsø, Norway - Greenpeace is calling for an immediate moratorium on all activity by extractive industries in the Arctic Ocean, as representatives from oil companies, governments and scientists meet to discuss the future of the region at the Arctic Frontiers Conference (25-29 January) in Tromsø, Norway. Greenpeace Nordic Executive Director Mads Flarup Christensen will address the conference plenary on Tuesday 26 January. The moratorium needs to cover the part of the Arctic Ocean that has historically been covered by sea ice and remain in place until a permanent international agreement is established, similar to the agreement that protects the Antarctic. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Arctic Ocean seabed contains over 20% of the world’s fossil fuel resources. With the urgent need to cut carbon emissions drastically and avert catastrophic climate change, these must stay underground. Scientists from Greenpeace’s summer 2009 Arctic ice expedition will present their preliminary findings on their research on the impacts of climate change in the Arctic, demonstrating the impacts of climate change are taking place faster than predicted The conference will be attended by Greenpeace campaigners from Norway, Denmark and the United States.
Posted 24 January 2010; 9:52:10 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conferences, Education and Civil Society, International, January10, Norway
Oil spills do more damage in the North
(Rolleiv Solholm/NRK via The Norway Post, 24 January 2010) -- An oil spill in the far North will do more damage to the environment than a spill further south. The reason is that the eco-systems in the North are more vulnerable, a new scientific report shows. The report is made by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) for the Directorate for Nature Management (DN), and is part of the background material to be used when the Government will be discussing the administration plan for the waters around Lofoten and in the Barents Sea. The Lofoten-Barents waters contain some of the world's largest fish stocks, rare coral reefs and other marine life, as well as some of the largest collections of sea birds. The new report confirms much of what has been previous information. "Today's knowledge tells us that it would not be advisable to open up for oil drilling off the coast of Lofoten and Vesterålen," says Lars Haltbrekken, leader of Friends of the Earth Norway (Norges Naturvernforbund).
Posted 24 January 2010; 10:55:10 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, Environment and Landscape, January10, Norway, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources
Norway, Russia pleased with progress in delineation of the Barents Sea
(BarentsObserver, 22 January 2010) -- Russian and Norway are pleased with the progress in the talks on delimitation of the Barents Sea, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "We are in a process of negotiation which should not be called a regulation of a dispute," Mr. Lavrov said today in a speech on the key notes in Russian foreign politics in the previous year. "We are in a process on delimitation of the Barents Sea, and this process is advancing," he said, according to news agency PRIME-TASS. "Parts of the delimitation are already agreed upon, signed and approved by the governments," Mr. Lavrov said. "This has laid down important principles that will be used when regulation the rest of the delineation." The Russian Foreign Minister would not name a date for when the process will be ready, but underlined that both the Russian and Norwegian sides are pleased with how the process is advancing.
Posted 24 January 2010; 10:45:17 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, International, January10
Military mounts rescue for Inuit hunter stranded on drifting ice floe
RESOLUTE, Nunavut - An Inuit hunter was preparing for his second night on a drifting ice floe in the Northwest Passage Saturday as air rescue crews attempted to drop him more supplies. "That's basically what we're going to do, is drop more kit to him," said Sgt. Rob Wilson from the search and rescue centre in Trenton, Ont. The man was hunting near the edge of the sea ice about 15 kilometres from Resolute, Nunavut, when a large chunk broke free and began drifting out to sea, carrying him along. The hunter, who is carrying a satellite phone, was able to contact his wife. He was also carrying a light source, which enabled a Hercules airplane to find him in the Arctic dark at about 10:30 p.m. Friday. The Hercules dropped supplies including food, water, a tent, extra clothing, fuel for his stove and a locator beacon. However, a helicopter sent to Resolute to pluck the man off the ice has been unable to take off due to mechanical problems, Wilson said. A second supply-laden Hercules was scheduled to drop him more equipment later Saturday. The man, who Wilson described as an experienced hunter, is said to be in good condition and remains in contact with his wife. He built himself an improvised snow shelter and was preparing to settle in for the night. "He is fine," said Wilson. Meanwhile, the weather is deteriorating in the area, with snow, high winds and frigid temperatures anticipated. His icy raft, however, is expected to remain stable. "It is a very large floe," Wilson said. Wilson said the rescue is likely to proceed Sunday. "We don't foresee an issue," he said.
Posted 24 January 2010; 10:17:34 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Disasters, etc., January10, Nunavut, People
Pen Hadow admits battery was the problem on Arctic climate change expedition
(Louise Gray/Daily Telegraph, 23 January 2010) -- The £3m Catlin Arctic Survey, backed by the Prince of Wales, was the first attempt to measure how fast the sea around the North Pole is melting by using "surface penetrating radar". But the cutting-edge equipment, worth around £500,000, failed to work from day one. At first it was thought freezing temperatures caused the problems but it has now emerged that it was the battery. Mr Hadow said the team spent hours during the 73-day expedition taking apart the equipment and trying to work out what was wrong and it was "beyond frustration" to realise when they got home that it had been something so simple. But he insisted the trek was still a success as the team managed to take hundreds of measurements of the sea ice using a traditional drill. The average thickness of ice floes was 1.77 metres, suggesting the ice sheet is now largely made up of first year ice rather than "multiyear" ice that will have built up over time. Cambrige University scientists who analysed the data said it proved global warming is happening faster than ever and the Arctic could be largely ice free within a decade. "It was not a disaster that the radar did not work because the radar had never been used in this capacity before, they were always going to be cautious and use it as a field trial so the more important thing was the manual stuff," he said. The expedition set out for the North Pole in February last year to measure the effects of global warming by measuring the sea ice. The Surface Penetrating Radar for Ice Thickness Establishment or SPRITE worked in test runs and was set to take more than 10 million readings.
Posted 24 January 2010; 10:01:16 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Arctic Ocean, Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Expeditions, field trips, tours, January10, Research
Population in Severodvinsk shrinks and ages
(BarentsObserver, 22 January 2010) -- Nearly one quarter of the population has moved from Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast in course of the last 16 years. Every sixth inhabitant is now over 60 years. The latest demographic statistics for Severodvinsk are worth some reflection, local newspaper Northwestern Worker writes. The town’s population is constantly shrinking, and the average age of the remaining people is increasing. The population has shrunk from 258.600 people in 1991 to 188.000 in 2009. Severodvinsk has always been regarded as a young town. In the Soviet period this was an industrial center where the best specialists from all over the country came to work. Severodvinsk is the second largest city in Arkhangelsk Oblast. Its main industry remains defense related - Russia’s largest shipbuilding company Sevmash is located here, as well as the major ship repair yard Zvezdochka. Nearly 70 percent of the working population is employed in the ship building or ship repair industry. The main factor in the population decline is migration. The number of people moving from Severodvinsk exceeds the number of people moving to the town by 2-3 times. Only in 2008, 2583 people moved from Severodvinsk, while 431 decided to settle there. Many of the people leaving Severodvinsk are young people who decide not to come back after having finished university or college. The situation got somewhat better in 2009, Northwestern Worker writes. The economic crisis did not have such a big impact on Severodvinsk as on many other Russian towns, and many young people found it more profitable to stay home. At the same time, the remaining population is getting older. For every 1000 persons in active working age, there are 450 children, juveniles and pensioners. The number of pensioners is growing every year, and now every sixth person in Severodvinsk is 60 years or older. Most of the elderly people in Severodvinsk are women, as the average life expectancy for men is only 59 years, while it is 73 years for women.
Posted 23 January 2010; 10:44:55 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, January10, Northwest Russia, Russia, Social Issues
Canada bans Baffin Bay polar bear exports
(CBC News, 22 January 2010) -- Inuit in Canada are not pleased with the federal government for quietly banning the export of polar bear parts in Nunavut's Baffin Bay area. In a report issued last month, Environment Canada enacted the ban, starting Jan. 1, on the export of fur, claws, skulls and other products from polar bears harvested in Baffin Bay. In the report, a copy of which was obtained by CBC News, the department says the export of legally-obtained polar bear parts from Canada is "considered non-detrimental except for polar bears taken from the Baffin Bay management unit." Scientists and Inuit have long clashed over the number of polar bears in Baffin Bay — an area shared by Nunavut and Greenland — with scientists saying overhunting from Inuit in both countries has led to a population decline. But Inuit hunters have argued that they've seen more, not fewer, polar bears in the region. "It's ludicrous," said Titus Allooloo, a hunting outfitter who takes sport hunters from around the world to Baffin Bay. "According to the local scientists, the Inuit traditional knowledge, the population of that particular area is increasing." Allooloo said he has seen upwards of 10 to 15 polar bears a day when he's in the region. Environment Canada does acknowledge Inuit observations of more polar bears in Baffin Bay, but says it is imposing the trade ban as a precautionary measure "as there is available evidence for conservation concern," its report states in part. But Allooloo said the ban will mean a loss of business, as many of his clients come from Europe and won't be able to export their hunting trophies out of Canada. "This will have a big impact. Like, my company will probably lose around $300,000 a year, which most of it goes into a community," he said.
Posted 23 January 2010; 10:39:39 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Flora and Fauna, January10, Nunavut
Disaster declared: Alaska's Yukon River Chinook salmon run fails
(ENS, 18 January 2010) -- WASHINGTON, DC - There has been a commercial "fishery failure" for Alaska's Yukon River Chinook salmon due to low salmon returns, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has formally determined. "Communities in Alaska along the Yukon River depend heavily on Chinook salmon for commercial fishing, jobs and food," said Locke on Friday. "I have determined that a fishery disaster has occurred due to consecutive years of low Chinook salmon returns. Alaska fishermen and their families are struggling with a substantial loss in income and revenues." The Yukon River once hosted the largest migrating Chinook, chum, and coho Pacific salmon stocks in the world. But in 2008, because of low Chinook salmon returns, the state of Alaska reduced the 2008 commercial Chinook salmon harvest to 89 percent below the recent five-year average. No commercial Chinook salmon fishery was allowed in 2009 on the Yukon River. The state also restricted subsistence harvests. Over 800 Alaskan fishery permit holders are directly affected by the salmon failure, along with crewmen, processing employees, and those who provide support services. Although the reasons for the decline of Chinook salmon are not completely understood, scientists believe changes in ocean and river conditions, including unfavorable shifts in temperatures and food sources, likely caused poor survival of Chinook salmon. ... "While subsistence fishing is not a factor in determining a commercial fishery failure, for Yukon River communities the commercial and subsistence fisheries are inseparable," said Doug Mecum, acting administrator of the NOAA's Fisheries Service' Alaska region. "These communities are very isolated and do not have the economic diversity to withstand the disastrous economic impact of extremely low or no commercial harvest coupled with a decline in subsistence harvests," Mecum said.
Posted 23 January 2010; 4:45:37 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Canada, Circumpolar News, Disasters, etc., Flora and Fauna, International, January10, North America, Resource Issues
Greenland financial independence predicted by 2015
(IceNews, 22 January 2010) -- Mineral and oil income is expected, within five years, to surpass the current handouts from Copenhagen that Greenland lives off. Negating the need for the DKK 3 billion (USD 580 million) handout means that national financial independence may be just a few short years away, according to forecasts from the leader of the Raw Materials Directorate in Greenland in a report by Sermitsiaq. The Danish state provides an annual block grant to the country but according to Jorn Skov Nielsen, the planned oil drilling tests across four sites this summer could see new capital flowing by 2015. Although the veracity of claims to Greenland’s purported oil-reserves remain unproven, the Raw Materials Directorate has predicted that a single oil strike could fetch an annual DKK 10 billion (USD 1.9 billion). Under the new rules which assist the transition to self-rule, Greenland will split profits from any natural resources after the initial DKK 75 million (USD 14.5 million) which would remain in Greenland. The block grant will be discontinued should a level of DKK 7 billion (USD 1.3 billion) be surpassed. “If we start earning a lot of money on minerals, we’ll need to save a lot of it in order to ensure that we can use them once the block grant disappears,” said Nielsen, who expects up to six new mines to generate mineral wealth in excess of the block grant. While oil would create maximum revenue, additional jobs would be created in the mining sector with a miner-training school already being established in Greenland. “Right now, there are 90 people working with mining in Greenland,” Nielsen said. “Within seven years there were will be 1,500 new tax paying positions”.
Posted 22 January 2010; 10:41:41 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Greenland, January10, North Atlantic
Digital scribes transfer ancient words into bits and bytes
(Chris Windeyer/Nunatsiaq News, 20 January 2010) -- IGLOOLIK — In the corner of a quiet government office building, Leah Otak spends her work days in front of a computer and a cassette deck, poring over hundreds of hours of recorded interviews dating back as far as 1986. The interviews contain a massive trove of quickly-disappearing information: the traditional knowledge of elders from the Igloolik area covering everything from shamanism and kinship to traditional navigation methods and hunting and sewing techniques. “It’s not boring,” Otak says. “I think I have the best job in Nunavut.” Otak, manager of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangiit and oral history research at the Igloolik Research Centre, and assistant William Qamukaq are organizing the interviews by subject, with the long-term goal of getting the information into books and learning materials. The process is vital to preserve traditional knowledge that’s threatened by everything from social ills and modern — mostly English — media to the universal tendency of young people to shun advice from their parents and elders. And while the advent of southern-style education brought new kinds of learning to Nunavut, it also disrupted traditional ways of passing along knowledge. “It was the elders who had the desire to pass on the knowledge that they noticed is not being carried on,” Otak says. “When kids started going to school they didn’t spend time with their parents anymore, didn’t go hunting anymore, so all of the knowledge was being lost.” The knowledge is also subject to the ravages of time itself. Of the 31 elders who contributed to the project, only two are still alive and are now in their 70s and 80s, Otak says. But the wisdom is preserved on tape and in the process of being digitized, a process that should be finished this spring. It’s also a vital source of Inuktitut vocabulary, preserving words and ideas that have faded from regular use. Plans call for a dictionary, and Otak hopes to see more classroom materials, with a simplified vocabulary for younger students and a more traditional form of Inuktitut for high school. “I don’t think we’ll ever speak this language again, because we’re already speaking a translated version of English, rather than a real Inuktitut language,” Otak says.
Posted 22 January 2010; 10:37:41 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Communities, January10, North America, Nunavut, People, Research, Social Issues
Ship with 30 aboard stuck in ice off Russia's Pacific coast
(RIA Novosti, 22 January 2010) -- YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK - A ship with 30 crew on board sent a distress signal on Friday, warning that it could sink after becoming stuck in ice in the Sea of Okhotsk, off Russia's Pacific coast, local emergencies officials said. "The information that the refrigerator ship had become iced-in was received by the emergencies department of the Sakhalin Region at 07:40 Moscow time," the official said. All crew members on board the vessel are Russians, he said, adding that bad weather conditions could hamper any rescue operation. He said that emergency and maritime rescue officials were "exploring the possibility of involving ships located in the area ... to conduct a rescue operation." A local rescue center official said the trapped vessel had lost power and was unable to move.
Posted 22 January 2010; 10:27:20 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Disasters, etc., Far East Russia, January10, Russia
NASA research finds last decade was warmest on record
(Xinhua, 21 January 2010) -- WASHINGTON - A new analysis of global surface temperatures by NASA scientists finds that January 2000 to December 2009 was the warmest decade on record and the past year was tied for the second warmest since 1880, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Thursday in a press release. Although 2008 was the coolest year of the decade because of a strong La Nina that cooled the tropical Pacific Ocean, 2009 saw a return to a near-record global temperatures as the La Nina diminished, according to the new analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. The past year was a small fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest on record, putting 2009 in a virtual tie with a cluster of other years — 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007 — for the second warmest on record. Looking back to 1880, when modern scientific instrumentation became available to monitor temperatures precisely, a clear warming trend is present, although there was a leveling off between the 1940s and 1970s, scientists find. In the past three decades, the GISS surface temperature record shows an upward trend of about 0.36 degrees F (0.2 degrees C) per decade. In total, average global temperatures have increased by about 1.5 degrees F (0.8 degrees C) since 1880. GISS uses publicly available data from three sources to conduct its temperature analysis. The sources are weather data from more than a thousand meteorological stations around the world, satellite observations of sea surface temperatures, and Antarctic research station measurements.
Posted 22 January 2010; 1:20:42 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, January10, Research
Arctic photos fetch $5,100 at auction
(Randall Beach/New Haven Register, 16 January 2010) -- And the winning bid is: $5,100. Sold, to “Collectibles Buyer” of California. Francis Boucher of Tolland, who discovered in his attic an album of Arctic photos taken a century ago by New Haven’s Harry Whitney, was delighted to accept the bid. It was lodged on eBay Tuesday, about five seconds before the bidding closed. The high bidder squeezed out a runner-up who offered $5,000, Boucher said. As reported in Monday’s Register, Boucher was putting away his Christmas decorations when he came upon the album, an artifact he dimly recalled receiving from his parents 15 years ago. He had originally dismissed it as “just a bunch of Eskimo pictures.” But Whitney was a well-known traveler and a contemporary of Robert Peary, who claimed to be the first man to make it to the top of the North Pole in April 1909. Whitney was not on that expedition, but he sailed on Peary’s ship during one of its Arctic explorations. The album documents his trip in 1908. After Boucher realized what he had might be worth something and contacted eBay, he monitored the bids for the 10-day auction period. He said 526 people looked at the item and there were nine bidders who made a total of 26 bids. Boucher has not been able to find out much about “Collectibles Buyer,” but he assumes the outfit will resell it. “I’m hoping it goes to somebody who appreciates it. I’d like to know whose hands it ends up in but I’ll probably never find out.” Boucher plans to use his winnings to help pay for his daughter’s third year of nursing school.
Posted 21 January 2010; 10:50:56 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Expeditions, field trips, tours, January10, Photography
Heavy snow and high winds expected in southern Kamchatka
(Regnum.ru with aid from Google Translate, 20 January 2010) -- Southern Kamchatka is under a weather advisory for the period 21-23 January. Meteorologists are expecting snow and blizzards with visibility reduced to 500m and winds gusting to 60 km/h. The press service of the Far Eastern Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia warns of increased risk of avalanches in the mountains during the same period. Local officials are preparing to respond to disruptions of some essential services, and the possibility of damage to heating and electrical infrastructure. In addition, billboards, awnings, electricity and power wires could be damaged by strong gusts of wind. Ships in coastal areas, too, are being cautioned.
Posted 20 January 2010; 11:42:29 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Far East Russia, January10, Russia
New 100-mile dog sled race to start in Whitehorse
(Annalee Grant/Whitehorse Star, 19 January 2010) -- The Dog Powered Sports Association of the Yukon has announced a brand-new 100-mile race that will start from Shipyards Park on Feb. 27. The Road Runner 100 will be open to 25 sled and 10 skijor teams, making it the longest skijor race in North America. “We don’t think there’s another 100-mile race in North America, we think it’s the longest skijor race,” said Jonathon Lucas, vice president of the DPSAY. The race grew out of the Yukon Brewing Copper Haul Twister League. Many participants in those races felt there was a need for a mid-distance race closer to Whitehorse. Lucas said there are three races near Whitehorse every two years, including the Yukon Quest, the Yukon Quest 300 and the Percy de Wolfe Memorial. The Quest 300 starts in Whitehorse once every two years. Besides those, mushers have to drive to Alaska or other destinations to participate in the sport of mid to long-distance mushing. Another concern was that spectators only get to see the start and finish of the races that do start in town. The Road Runner 100 will run close to the Alaska Highway at parts, so spectators can follow the entire race if they want to. The close proximity to the road also helps increase the safety of the mushers along the way. “At any point you’re pretty close to rescue,” he said. The DPSAY board plans to grow the race from 100-miles to 200 in future years.
Posted 19 January 2010; 4:00:43 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, January10, North America, Sports and Games, Yukon
Amazing underwater photos show beluga whales meeting divers at Arctic rehabilitation farm
(Lizzie Smith/Daily Mail, 18 January 2010) -- They don’t get visitors in these parts that often. That’s because these beluga whales live under three feet of ice in the freezing waters of northern Russia’s White Sea. But when some underwater photographers arrived, they certainly weren’t shy - as these stunning images show. The whales are not endangered but under threat from pollution and loss of habitat. They are thriving, however, at this whale sanctuary, where a natural bay under the ice provides a haven from the strong currents of the wider ocean. The 'natural farm' acts as a nursery for breeding whales, as well as acting as a rehabilitation centre for former performing animals before they are set into the wild. Photographer Franco Banfi, who took these shots [see them at the original item page; follow the title link] after his team carved through the ice with a handsaw, said: ‘When a whale comes up to us and swims by, it looks you right in the eyes. Sometimes, I’m sure they’re trying to figure out what we are and where we came from.
Posted 18 January 2010; 12:02:03 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, January10, Photography, Russia
Old wooden house takes to the streets of Reykjavik
(IceNews, 17 January 2010) -- The so-called Grondalshus House was this week ripped off its foundations at Vesturgata 16b in Reykjavik and carefully moved to Orfirisey, where Reykjavik’s master renovators are based. Preparations for the epic move were visible on the street all day long, with traffic banned from the corner of Aegisgata to Gardarstraeti and even lampposts moved out of the way. A crane came to the scene on Thursday evening to begin lifting the 33 tonne timber house, now with steel bottom support, away. Grondalshus was built in 1882 and is a good example of a period Icelandic timber house in good condition and mostly structurally unchanged. It has a special place in Reykjavik’s cultural history as the once home of poet and naturalist Benedikt Grondal. The move has been discussed and planned for several years. Professional renovators will restore the house both inside and out and hope to be finished before the end of the year. A permanent new spot for the house has yet to be decided upon.
Posted 17 January 2010; 10:31:24 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Iceland, January10, North Atlantic, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Seal hunters face battle with EU over trade
(Carl Mortished/Times Online, 18 Jnuary 2010) -- Hunters in Canada and Greenland are challenging a European Union regulation banning the import of seal products. Aboriginal people in northern Canada and Greenland fear that the EU law will destroy the trade in seal pelts, remove a vital source of income for families and force Arctic communities to live off handouts. Adopted in response to pressure from animal rights activists, the law prohibits the import of seal products, including meat and pelts, into the EU. Auctions at Copenhagen are a leading trading centre for fur and Inuit hunters had been earning 300-500 Danish kroner (£35-£60) for each seal pelt. But the new law, which came into effect in September, caused the price to collapse and two Inuit organisations — Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, of Canada, and Inuit Circumpolar Council, in Greenland — are challenging it even though it includes an exemption “for traditional hunting by indigenous communities which contribute to their subsistence”. The prohibition is suspended until July while the European Commission seeks to define the scope of “traditional hunting”. Inuit groups have expressed dismay over the attempt by civil servants in Brussels to regulate their way of life.
Posted 17 January 2010; 10:25:53 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Europe, Indigenous Issues, International, January10, Laws and legal
Arctic polar bears imperilled by man-made pollution
(Matt Walker/BBC News, 14 January 2010) -- The long-term survival of polar bears is being threatened by man-made pollution that is reaching the Arctic. This conclusion comes from a major review of research into how industrial chemicals such as mercury and organochlorines affect the bears. The review suggests that such chemicals have a range of subclinical effects. When added together, these can have a dramatic and potentially fatal impact on the bears' bones, organs and reproductive and immune systems. The review, an analysis of more than a decade's research into the effect of pollution on bears, is published in the journal Environment International. A range of man-made pollutants reach the polar Arctic region, carried there in the air and water. These include toxic metals such as mercury, organohalogen contaminants (OHCs) including organochlorines, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and perflourinated compounds (PFCs), which are used industrially in insulating fluids, as coolants, in foams and electronics and as pest control agents. Such chemicals are often fat-soluble and accumulate in the fat of many animals, which are then eaten by top predators such as polar bears. These top predators are then exposed to increasingly concentrated levels of toxins. But the impact of these toxins on polar bears has been difficult to measure, with the only previous studies done by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme in 1998 and 2004.
Posted 17 January 2010; 12:52:36 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, Contaminants and Pollution, January10
Most Norwegians want Arctic drilling study: survey
(Wojciech Moskwa/Reuters, 14 January 2010) -- OSLO - An industry-backed survey published on Thursday shows most Norwegians favor an impact study that could pave the way to open a pristine, fish-rich Arctic area to oil activities and prolong Norway's energy boom. The oil industry says the waters near the Lofoten and Vesteraalen islands in the Arctic now have the most prospects off Norway and must be tapped to prolong the North Sea state's oil bonanza as output from mature oilfields declines. Environmentalists say that any spill in the unspoiled region would be disastrous for its diverse eco-system, which includes unique cold water reefs, pods of sperm whales and killer whales, some of the largest seabird colonies in Europe as well as being the spawning grounds of the largest cod stock in the world. A number of opinion polls over past months suggest that Norwegians are split nearly down the middle on Arctic drilling and the issue was a major theme in last year's general election. The survey by pollster Synovate, carried out for the oil industry lobby group OLF, shows that seven out of 10 Norwegians want the authorities to conduct an impact study of how oil and gas exploration would affect the Lofoten region. "For us, this is a confirmation of our position that the impact assessment is reasonable," OLF chief Gro Braekken said in a statement publishing the results of the survey. Two small parties in the government — the Socialist Left and the Center Party — are against drilling, but the main Labour Party has not yet made up its mind.
Posted 17 January 2010; 12:49:40 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic issues, January10, Norway, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources
Exhibit planned on 1913-18 Arctic expedition that redrew map of northern Canada
(CP, 15 January 2010) -- GATINEAU, Que. - The Canadian Museum of Civilization says it is developing an exhibition on the 1913-18 Canadian Arctic Expedition, which returned with crates of natural specimens and redrew the map of Northern Canada. The museum says it is teaming with the Canadian Museum of Nature on the project. Tools and other supplies used by expedition members will be featured, along with clothing of the Copper Inuit and preserved plants, mammals and birds, says a release. The expedition, sponsored by the Canadian government, was divided into two groups. A northern party, led by Manitoba-born polar explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, carried the Canadian flag into the unexplored northwestern high Arctic. A southern party, led by zoologist R.M. Anderson, conducted scientific research along the Arctic mainland coast. Seventeen men died during the effort, mainly due to exposure, starvation and disease. As well, the principal vessel was crushed by polar ice. The exhibition is scheduled to open at the Museum of Civilization in June 2011 and run for about a year, a museum spokesperson said. It will later tour other Canadian cities and abroad.
Posted 16 January 2010; 1:48:27 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, January10
Inuit groups sue EU over seal trade ban
(CBC News, 13 January 2010) -- Inuit groups in Canada and Greenland are taking the European Union to court over its import ban on products derived from the seal hunt. The lawsuit, announced Wednesday in Ottawa, aims to overturn the ban adopted by 27 European countries last year. The court documents have been filed in the European General Court, the first level of the EU's court system. The coalition of groups involved in the lawsuit includes the Canadian Inuit organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Inuit Circumpolar Council in Greenland and several Inuit individuals from both countries. "I suppose the best alternative would be for the EU not to have adopted this legislation, but that ship has sailed," Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Mary Simon told CBC News on Wednesday. "We are seizing the moment and we've gone to court."
Posted 16 January 2010; 1:39:46 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Europe, Indigenous Issues, International, January10, Laws and legal
Pictures: Various views of the Arctic
(Claire O'Neill/The Picture Show - NPR, 15 January 2010) -- Olaf Otto Becker goes out of his way to make a photograph. He'll travel up to 10 hours carrying his weight in equipment to find the right location — then maybe even wait a few more hours for the right light. He's also using a large format film camera, which is pretty much the furthest thing from convenient. His photos of Greenland accompany Celine Clanet's series from Norway, currently at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Ore. While Becker, who was trained as a painter, is interested in making visual documentation of a changing environment, Clanet is interested in people: her project documents Sami — people indigenous to Maze, a small Norwegian village above the Arctic Circle with a population of about 350.
Posted 15 January 2010; 11:57:02 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Circumpolar News, Greenland, January10, Norway, Photography
Concern over possible loss of fossil resources
(Society of Vertebrate Paleontology press release, 14 January 2010) -- DEERFIELD, IL - A proposed coal mining project by Westar Resources, Inc. on Ellesmere Island (Nunavut) in Canada's eastern High Arctic is currently under review by the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB), an environmental assessment agency established under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement whose objectives are to protect and promote the well-being of the residents, communities and ecosystems of Nunavut. The proposed development area includes fossil sites of a broad range of ages that include some of the most significant sites in the world, and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is deeply concerned over the possible loss of these valuable resources. These unique, world-renowned sites near Strathcona Fiord include fossil plants and animals that lived during one of the warmest times in all of Earth history, when Ellesmere Island was blanketed in forests inhabited by alligators, turtles, primates and hippo-like animals. Despite over three decades of searching the High Arctic, no sites of comparable age and fossil richness have been discovered elsewhere in the Canadian Arctic. ... Whilst not disputing either the need for finding new sources of energy, or the economic benefits that may accrue from the development of the coal mining, it is the hope and belief of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, as representative of vertebrate paleontologists worldwide, that it will be possible to preserve the invaluable fossil resources in the area alongside other objectives.
Posted 15 January 2010; 11:43:17 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Expeditions, field trips, tours, January10, Research, Resource Issues
Nellie T. Kusugak appointed Deputy Commissioner of Nunavut
(INAC press release, 15 January 2010) -- Ottawa, Ontario - The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, today announced the appointment of Ms. Nellie T. Kusugak to the position of Deputy Commissioner of Nunavut. “Ms. Kusugak's years of teaching experience in Nunavut demonstrate her commitment to the future of the territory,” said Minister Strahl. “As Deputy Commissioner she is well placed to further this commitment and work towards a brighter future for all Nunavummiut.” Ms. Kusugak is a professional bilingual teacher with an extensive background in traditional and cultural education, teaching English as a second language and working with community elders. The Commissioner of Nunavut acts in accordance with any written instructions from the Governor in Council or the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The Deputy Commissioner is called upon to act if the Commissioner is unable to carry out his or her duties. The position was created by the Nunavut Act and the appointment is made by Order-in-Council.
Posted 15 January 2010; 1:36:44 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Indigenous Issues, January10, North America, Nunavut, People
Polar bear poo helps in superbug hunt
(Ben Hirschler/Reuters, 14 January 2010) -- LONDON - Polar bear droppings are helping scientists shed light on the spread of deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Bacteria such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are a growing problem in hospitals and researchers are anxious to understand how they evolve. Norwegian researchers said they had found little sign of such microbes in the feces of polar bears in the remote Arctic, suggesting the spread of resistance genes seen in the droppings of other animals may be due to human influence. In contrast to the results from polar bears on the Svalbard archipelago, antibiotic resistance has been discovered in a range of animals including deer, foxes, pigs, dogs and cats that live close to humans. Trine Glad of the University of Tromsø said her team's research, published on Thursday in the journal BMC Microbiology, was important evidence in the debate as to whether resistance occurs naturally or is caused by exposure to human antibiotics. The rise of superbugs is prompting some drug companies to look again at antibiotics, a field that has been neglected in recent years. Both AstraZeneca and Sanofi-Aventis have signed new antibiotic research collaborations this week.
Posted 14 January 2010; 8:33:29 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, January10, Norway, Research
Arctic fiber-optic cable could benefit far-flung Alaskans
(Elizabeth Bluemink/Anchorage Daily News, 13 January 2010) -- Alaska Native corporations and a multinational firm are planning to build the first fiber-optic cable between Asia and Europe through the Arctic. The project, estimated to cost roughly $1 billion, involves laying 10,000 miles of undersea fiber-optic cable from Tokyo, along the Alaska coast, through the Northwest Passage, past the southern coast of Greenland to London, company officials said Wednesday. The cable would have two landing points in Alaska — Dutch Harbor and Prudhoe Bay. It would be a major gateway linking Alaska to the rest of the world, particularly to the Pacific Rim, said Walt Ebell, chief executive of the Kodiak Kenai Cable Co., one of the companies involved in the project. He said the project is in large part possible because the shrinking polar ice cap, which has spurred increased vessel traffic in the Arctic Ocean. Though the Asia to Europe project will rely on private financing, KKC has already requested $350 million in federal stimulus grants and loans to lay undersea fiber along the Alaska coast, from Kodiak to Prudhoe Bay. Most of that Alaska line — the portion from Dutch Harbor to Prudhoe — would be part of the larger Asia-to-Europe cable that the company also is pursuing, executives said. If the Alaska-cable portion is funded and built, it could provide high-speed, reliable Internet to Bethel, Kotzebue, Nome and other communities. In the future, the network could be expanded to bring broadband Internet to 142 villages, company executives say. For now, most rural Alaska communities rely on satellite-based Internet, which is expensive and sometimes transmits data to households and businesses even more slowly than a dial-up Internet connection. "It's really, really slow," said Denise Michels, the mayor of Nome, one of 14 rural communities that have written letters in favor of the Kodiak Kenai Cable project. She said high-speed Internet could create a lot of economic opportunities in her town and improved communication between local doctors and national medical experts. "It would be so great to be connected like the rest of the U.S.," she said.
Posted 13 January 2010; 11:42:28 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Internet Resources, January10, North America
(Svalbardposten, 13 January 2010) -- An earthquake, measuring between 4.5 and 5 on the Richter scale, struck Storfjorden, between Spitsbergen and Edgøya, today at 11:08 am. "We have not yet analyzed the earthquake and can not say exactly where in Storfjorden it had its center," said seismologist Tormod Kværne of Norsar at Kjeller. Kværne also said that the quake was only detected by instruments, which are located on Janson Haugen in Adventdalen, in Ny-Ålesund, Hopen and Hornsund. "We have not had calls from people who felt the shake. If anyone should have known something it would be the crew of the Polish research station in Hornsund," he said. [See more about the earthquake here from NORSAR, an independent geo-scientific research foundation established in 1968, specializing in software solutions and research activities in the fields of applied seismic and seismology.]
Posted 13 January 2010; 9:54:08 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Disasters, etc., Environment and Landscape, January10, Norway
Quebec pitches Plan Nord to Cree
(CBC News, 12 January 2010) -- Quebec ministers met with Cree leaders on Monday to discuss the province's ambitious Plan Nord, a long-term road map for economic development in its farthest geographic reaches. The province is keen to allay fears among First Nations leaders that the far-reaching resource development project will affect existing treaties, and impede aboriginal sovereignty over land use. Deputy minister Nathalie Normandeau told some 100 Cree leaders gathered in Mistissini that the plan hatched by Jean Charest's Liberal government will be adjusted to reflect existing treaties with First Nations in Quebec. The Cree are signatories to two treaties: the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement land claim settlement; and the Paix des Braves, which provides for revenue sharing and joint management of mining, forestry and hydroelectric resources on Cree land. Normandeau and her colleague Indian Affairs Minister Pierre Corbeil said they hope to work in partnership with northern communities when the Plan Nord project gets underway. The plan includes $19 billion in new energy projects, which would add 3,500 megawatts to Hydro-Québec's grid by 2035 — enough to power roughly 600,000 homes. A significant portion of those megawatts would come from damming the Romaine River. Premier Jean Charest has said the project could generate as many as 2,000 jobs per year between 2012 and 2016. But some aboriginal groups who say the Plan Nord will raze their traditional way of life have resisted meeting with the Quebec government to discuss the project. Five Innu communities boycotted a closed-door meeting with Normandeau late last year. Chief Ghislain Picard, who heads the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, has called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to intervene in the project.
Posted 13 January 2010; 9:42:42 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Indigenous Issues, January10, North America, Nunavik, Provinces
Exploratory work to start at historic N.W.T. mine
(CBC News, 12 January 2010) -- The former Pine Point zinc and lead mine in the Northwest Territories may be brought back to life after Tamerlane Ventures Inc. starts exploratory drilling at the site next month. The company wants to look for a 50-million-tonne unmined deposit near the former mine site, based on documentation that dates back to when the original Pine Point mine existed. Tamerlane officials say they already know there is an eight-million-tonne deposit at the site, but they will now spend $300,000 to verify the larger deposit. "We know as much about it as we can without going underground to mine it," Ross Burns, the Tamerlane president and CEO, told CBC News. "We're very, very far advanced. "Tamerlane's probably one of the very few companies that has … a reserve that's got all its permits, it's got its feasibility study, it's got great infrastructure, which was left from the previous mining there." The original Pine Point mine, on the south shore of Great Slave Lake between Hay River and Fort Resolution, N.W.T., was run by Cominco Ltd. from 1964 until 1987, when it closed because of rising costs. Hay River Mayor Kelly Schofield said that he hopes Tamerlane's efforts to revive Pine Point will eventually create jobs for residents.
Posted 13 January 2010; 9:27:37 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Economic issues, January10, North America, NWT, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources
Northern Labrador calls for improved phone, internet service
(CBC News, 12 January 2010) -- People on the north coast of Labrador want Bell Aliant's communication infrastructure improved after ice toppled a transmission tower last week, leaving them without internet and long distance phone services. "If this was somewhere else in Newfoundland, we'd probably have crews in from the States helping. So I don't think it's good enough," said Charlotte Wolfrey, who lives in Rigolet. Its service was restored by last Friday. Stormy weather kept a Bell Aliant crew away from the damaged tower at Double Mer, north of Rigolet, until last weekend. Company spokesperson Isabelle Robinson said an estimated 30 tonnes of ice had built up on the tower before it collapsed. She said the circumstances were extraordinary. "This infrastructure has been in place for many, many years, and it's built to be outdoors and withstand some weather," Robinson told CBC News Tuesday. "But certainly given the extraordinary circumstances that we've had here, it's certainly difficult to plan for these types of weather circumstances and have a backup infrastructure in place." Robinson says the company is prepared for many problems such as power outages. It has onsite generators and can reroute circuits to solve some breakdowns. Five locations, including Nain, Hopedale, Makkovik, Natuashish and Postville remained without long distance telephone and internet services on Tuesday. They've lost those services on Jan. 6. There's still no estimate on when all services on Labrador's north coast will be restored.
Posted 12 January 2010; 11:24:55 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Communications and media, Disasters, etc., January10, North America, Provinces
Oil wastes threaten Dvina River
(BarentsObserver, 12 January 2010) -- A six-hectare area used as dump site for oil wastes from the shipping industry now threatens to seriously pollute the Northern Dvina River. The area located near the river bank has been used as a storage site for waste waters from the Arkhangelsk Port since the 1960s. According to Regnum, a significant part of the dangerous substances has already been washed into the river. The sandy ground in the area contains up to 95 times more oil substances than what is allowed. Up to 180 tons of oil is believed to be stored at the site. According to the regional Environmental Committee, pollution from the site threatens both local and regional environment. The Rambøll Barents company has been commissioned with finding alternative solutions for the problem.
Posted 12 January 2010; 11:12:23 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, January10, Northwest Russia, Russia
'Yukon Gem' improves on well-known potato
(CBC News, 12 January 2010) -- U.S. biologists say they've improved on the Yukon Gold potato, which has already been making a name for itself — and the northern Canadian territory it's named after — in kitchens around the world. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been working on a new type of spud, the "Yukon Gem," by crossing the Yukon Gold with a strong potato variety from Scotland. "One of its parents is actually Yukon Gold, and the other parent is actually a Scottish variety called Brodick," plant geneticist Richard Novy of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service in Aberdeen, Idaho, told CBC News in an interview that aired Tuesday. The resulting variety, Yukon Gem, has the same smooth yellow skin, pale yellow flesh and pink eyes as the Yukon Gold potato. But Novy said it has also inherited the hardiness of the Brodick. "What we found is in most areas we have trialed it, it tends to have higher yields than Yukon Gold does," he said. "There is actually some moderate resistance to late blight. So a lot of these attributes make it a better potato variety than Yukon Gold, especially if you are a home gardener or an organic producer." As far as the Yukon Gem having any connection to the Yukon, there isn't one — yet. Steve Mackenzie-Grieve of the Yukon Grain Farm, the territory's largest potato producer, told CBC News that he already grows Yukon Golds quite successfully, but he would consider planting Yukon Gems because their disease resistance could be a big bonus in northern conditions. Novy said he expects limited supplies of Yukon Gem seed to be be available this spring to commercial growers. However, he said it could take a year or two before the seed becomes available to home gardeners. [See also the USDA press release, "Golden success for Yukon Gem yellow-fleshed potato," 11 January 2010.]
Posted 12 January 2010; 10:47:21 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, International, January10
Research centre combines Western, Inuit knowledge
(CBC News, 12 January 2010) -- A new Ottawa-based research centre will help bridge the divide between Western science and Inuit knowledge about Canada's Arctic, national Inuit leader Mary Simon announced Tuesday. The Inuit Knowledge Centre, also known as Inuit Qaujisarvingat, will help scientists "interact fully and appropriately" with Inuit in northern communities, while also helping Inuit access Western science systems. Simon said the centre will allow Inuit to have more input on research into such issues as Arctic sovereignty, resource development and climate change. "We could actually do the research that is related to the North and the Inuit from the centre so that's it's more related to what we feel are the priority areas," Simon told CBC News on Tuesday. Simon said that Inuit knowledge is based on observation, hypotheses and experimentation, similar to science. She added that Inuit knowledge is often undervalued in Arctic science and policy, but it can stand on its own and can often work with scientific processes. The new centre will offer training materials on appropriate research processes and practices for researchers going to Inuit communities, Simon said. Inuit Qaujisarvingat will be based at Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami's headquarters in Ottawa. [See also Nunatsiaq News, "ITK Launches Arctic Research Centre," 12 January 2010.]
Posted 12 January 2010; 9:31:46 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, January10, North America, Research
Iceland’s Hekla could erupt with short notice
(Iceland Review, 12 January 2010) -- Freysteinn Sigmundsson, geophysicist at the University of Iceland’s Institute of Earth Sciences, believes that the volcano Hekla in south Iceland could erupt with short notice. However, it is difficult to predict when the volcano will start to erupt. Some people contacted the Icelandic Meteorological Office last week, reporting snow-free spots near the volcano’s summit. Erlendur Ingvarsson from the nearby farm Skard told RÚV that this is unusual considering the cold weather, mbl.is reports. Sigmundsson said changes to Hekla’s geothermal pattern aren’t necessarily a sign that the volcano is preparing to erupt; it could be the consequence of increased expansion of the volcano’s inner structure, which makes it easier for the heat to travel to the surface. Since 1970, Hekla has erupted every ten years; the last eruption was in February 2000. Hekla can be monitored through a live webcam on RÚV’s website. Click here to read more about volcanoes in Iceland being ripe for eruption.
Posted 12 January 2010; 3:27:27 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Disasters, etc., Environment and Landscape, Iceland, January10
Strange: Norway time hole “leak” plunges northern hemisphere into chaos
(Pakistan Daily, 8 January 2010) -- Russian scientists are reporting to Prime Minister Putin today that
the high-energy beam fired into the upper heavens from the United
States High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) radar
facility in Ramfjordmoen, Norway this past month has resulted in a
“catastrophic puncturing” of our Plant’s thermosphere thus allowing
into the troposphere an “unimpeded thermal inversion” of the
exosphere, which is the outermost layer of Earth’s atmosphere. To the West’s firing of this ‘quantum’ high-energy beam we had
previously reported on in our December 10, 2009 report titled “Attack
On Gods ‘Heaven’ Lights Up Norwegian Sky”. To how catastrophic for our Planet this massive thermal inversion
has been Anthony Nunan, an assistant general manager for risk
management at Mitsubishi Corporation in Tokyo, is reporting today that
the entire Northern Hemisphere is in winter chaos, with the greatest
danger from this unprecedented Global event being the destruction of
billions of dollars worth of crops in a World already nearing the end
of its ability to feed its self. So powerful has this thermal inversion become that reports from the
United States are stating that their critical crops of strawberries,
oranges, and other fruits and vegetables grown in their Southern
States, are being destroyed by record cold temperatures. The US is
further reporting record amounts of snowfall in what they are now
warning may be their worst winter in 25 years. [This item was brought to the attention of CM by its long-time friend, Jonas Qvale, of http://www.hornorkesteret.no/ Thanks!]
Posted 12 January 2010; 3:04:02 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, International
1908 Arctic expedition photos on eBay
(UPI, 11 January 2010) -- New Haven, CT - A Connecticut man said he hopes to get up to $8,000 on eBay for a rare find in his attic — 85 photographs from a 1908 expedition to the Arctic. Francis Boucher of New Haven said the photo album, which had been passed down to him by his parents, spent years in a trunk in his attic until he stumbled upon it about two weeks ago and decided to research its origins, The New Haven (Conn.) Register reported Monday. "This time, I started really looking at their historical value," he said. "I was surprised and kind of excited. It's one of those things you stick in a box and forget about." "The book documents Harry Whitney's expedition with the Inuit Eskimo to the north and south of Etah (Greenland), along the Arctic frontier and overwintering in Annoatok," he wrote in an e-mail announcing his auction. "The images portray what real big-game hunting and survival in the wilderness was all about, making today's reality TV look like child's play." The auction had reached a high bid of $1,612 as of Monday evening.
Posted 12 January 2010; 2:10:46 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Photography, Tourism
Navy testing waters on AK maneuvers
(Jay Barrett, KMXT – Kodiak via APRN, 8 January 2010) -- A team of about a dozen Navy employees and contractors are visiting a handful of coastal Alaska cities presenting a draft Environmental Impact Statement for proposed Gulf of Alaska naval maneuvers. Depending on the alternative selected by the Navy, those maneuvers could involve use of high-powered sonar used in anti-submarine warfare, and even the sinking of derelict ships using artillery, missiles or torpedoes. Alex Stone of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet is project manager for the Gulf of Alaska EIS. He said a major part of the study was analyzing the potential effects of the high-powered sonar on marine mammals that live and migrate through the gulf.
Posted 10 January 2010; 11:33:22 PM. ann-20100108-05.mp3 Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Circumpolar News, January10, North Pacific
Six Alaska long-range navigation stations to close
(Dutch Harbor Fisherman, 8 January 2010) -- KODIAK - The Coast Guard has announced that Alaska's six Long Range Aids to Navigation stations (Loran-C) will stop broadcasting a signal this year. The U.S. Global Positioning System and other technological advancements have meant the stations are no longer needed. Loran-C stations in Alaska include Attu, Shoal Cove in Ketchikan, Tok, Narrow Cape in Kodiak, Port Clarence (near Kotzebue) and St. Paul Island. All of the stations will be closed, and the 100 or so employees at those stations relocated. The North American Loran-C signal will cease broadcasting Feb. 8, with the exception of stations Attu and Shoal Cove which are bound by bi-lateral agreements with other nations. Attu and Shoal Cove are expected to stop broadcasting later in the year. "Coast Guard men and women, working largely with antiquated systems and little fanfare, have stood a steadfast watch for more than fifty years in some of America's most isolated regions," said Admiral Christopher Colvin, Commander, 17th Coast Guard District, "I am proud of their professionalism and hard work." Loran-C is no longer required by the armed forces, the transportation sector or the nation's security interests, and is used by only a small segment of the population. The Coast Guard is urging users of Loran-C to make the transition to GPS navigation and plotting systems immediately. The decision to terminate transmission of the Loran-C signal reflects the President Obama's pledge to eliminate unnecessary federal programs. The president did not seek funding for the Loran-C system in fiscal year 2010. Termination was also supported through the enactment of the 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill.
Posted 10 January 2010; 7:25:16 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, January10, North America, North Pacific, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction, United States
Resource: Inuit publisher - Inhabit Media
[Inhabit Media is] an Inuit-owned publishing company that aims to promote and preserve the stories, knowledge and talent of the Canadian Arctic. Since 2007, [it has] been promoting research in Inuit mythology and the traditional Inuit knowledge of Nunavummiut (residents of Nunavut). [Its] authors, storytellers and artists bring this knowledge to life in a way that is accessible to readers in both northern and southern Canada. As the first independent publishing company in Nunavut, [Inhabit hopes] to bring Arctic stories and wisdom to the world. Watch for the release of ... exciting new projects in the coming years.
Posted 10 January 2010; 1:31:03 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Books, Blogs and Publications, Canada, Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, January10, North America, Nunavut
January 8th: Order of Canada appointee Murray Angus and ... [mp3]
(Editor's Choice, CBC podcast, 8 January 2010) -- Murray Angus is one of the founders of The Nunavut Sivuniksavut Program, developed to teach young Inuit about land claims. We'll hear his reaction to being named to the Order of Canada.
Posted 10 January 2010; 12:54:26 PM. editorschoice_20100108_25441.mp3 Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, January10, Nunavut, People, Prizes, awards and recognitions, Youth
Opinion: Preventing damage in a very cold place
(Marilyn Heiman/McClatchy Newspapers via Juneau Empire, 8 January 2010) -- Wedged between Alaska and Siberia, the Chukchi Sea is one of the most productive ocean ecosystems in the world. Its vast shallow sea floor and ice cover provide rich habitat for many species, including walrus, whales, polar bears and millions of seabirds. In winter, the Chukchi is a foreboding place, dominated by moving packs of sea ice, extreme storms, sub-zero temperatures and darkness. Even the short Arctic summer brings temperatures in the 40s, gale-force winds, week-long storms and heavy blankets of fog nearly one-third of the time. Despite such challenges, the Obama administration recently gave the green light for industry to drill exploratory oil and gas wells in the Chukchi and neighboring Beaufort Sea next summer. Trying to extract these resources poses huge risks. The ever-present danger of oil spills is one of the biggest concerns. People make mistakes, equipment fails. Remote locations, harsh conditions and technological limitations exacerbate the risks of offshore drilling in the U.S. Arctic. One week in December, bad weather stymied the cleanup of two separate land-based spills on Alaska's North Slope. An oil rig blowout in the relatively warm, calm waters of the Timor Sea off Australia's north coast several months ago spewed oil for ten weeks until the company finally capped it. An incident like that in the Chukchi or Beaufort seas would be disastrous. If the industry cannot adequately respond to spills on land or in warm waters, the public has little assurance it can cope with broken ice, darkness and high winds. ... Before approving new lease sales and new drilling, the federal government must look hard at the deficiencies in oil spill response capabilities in the U.S. Arctic Ocean. Thus far, only incomplete plans have been submitted. What is needed instead is a transparent, independent, peer-reviewed oil-spill risk assessment. The nation must have clear answers — and understand what is at stake before it risks serious harm.
Posted 10 January 2010; 11:53:58 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Arctic Ocean, Circumpolar News, Environment and Landscape, January10, North Pacific, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Opinion
Russian musical to open Tromsø International Film Festival
(BarentsObserver, 8 January 2010) -- The Russian rock musical “Hipsters” (Stilyagi) will be the opening movie at the 2010 Tromsø International Film Festival. The Hollywood reporter calls Hipsters “a visually stunning and energetic musical satirizing repression in the Soviet Union”. The movie won the 2009 Nika Award (Russia’s answer to the Oscar) for best film, best cinematography, costume design and sound editing. Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) has had an incredible growth since it first commenced in 1991 and is now the largest film festival in Norway. The total of admissions in 1991 was 5,200 — in 2009 it was 48 258. TIFF 2010 includes more than 100 movies on 12 screens. A popular sidebar at the festival is Films from the North – a special program for shorts and documentaries from the Barents region and other circumpolar areas. Tromsø International Film Festival is set in the dark polar nights, which give's TIFF the unique possibility to screen films outdoor. The outdoor cinema is located at the main square in the heart of Tromsø. TIFF 2010 takes place January 18-24. [Read the program for TIFF 2010. See trailer for “Hipsters” on YouTube.]
Posted 10 January 2010; 11:50:56 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Circumpolar News, Conferences, January10, Norway, Social Issues
(David Holthouse/Alaska Dispatch, 8 January 2010) -- Vester Eyland, a small island off the west coast of Greenland, near the mouth of Disko Bay, has long been known for producing some of the best sea kayakers in the world. "The island draws big waves, so it's not easy to paddle and hunt, compared to other places off the coast of the main country, where the water is calm and flat," says famed sea kayaker Maligiaq Johnsen Padilla (pronounced muh-LIG-ee-ahk YOON-sen pa-DEE-uh), 27, whose mother's ancestors are from Vester Eyland. Padilla grew up in Sisimiut, a town on the edge of the Arctic Circle, just south of Disko Bay. He learned to subsistence hunt and sea kayak from his Vester Eyland relatives, for whom knowing how to right, or "roll" a capsized kayak is more survival skill than sport. They hunt in seas where the wind and waves batter kayaks like unruly children slapping at bathtub toys. Padilla's great-grandfather was killed near Vester Eyland in 1929 when a harpooned seal yanked his kayak with enough force in rough water to snap his spine. Though he still hunts for seals, fish and Auks (diving birds related to sea puffins), Padilla is better known outside the Sisimiut area for his prowess in world-class sea kayaking competitions. He's the only person in history to win the Greenland National Kayaking Championships four times, beginning in 1998 at the age of 16, when he became the youngest Greenland kayak champion ever. Last month, Padilla traveled to Alaska to participate in Generation I, a touring series of workshops, demonstrations and community discussions in Northwest Alaska that took place Dec. 28 through Jan. 8 in Kotzebue, Kiana and Selawik. (Here's a slideshow from the event.) Generation I — a play on "I" representing both personal identity and Inuit culture — was inspired by a recent "Hope and Resilience in Suicide Prevention" seminar, in Nuuk, Greenland, that was organized and funded by the Inuit Circumpolar Conference [now Council] in conjunction with the government of Greenland. Suicides among Inuit, and especially Inuit youth, in both Alaska and Greenland are tragically high. But in Greenland, they're decreasing. The "Hope and Resilience" seminar attributed the positive shift in large part to three factors: affirming the self-worth of Inuit teenagers, promoting a deeper sense of Inupiat cultural identity, and putting youths in contact with positive role models. [See the YouTube video]
Posted 10 January 2010; 11:19:40 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Greenland, Health and wellness, International, January10, People, Social Issues, United States, Youth
Education part of explanation for falling population
(Sermitsiaq, 5 January 2010) -- The country’s population is declining, but statisticians expect most of those who leave Greenland will return someday – not just older, but also wiser. Greenland’s high emigration rate is due mostly to the large number of young people attending post-secondary schools in Denmark, according to Statistics Greenland. “What we can see is that a third of emigrants name education as the reason,” said Lars Petersen of Statistics Greenland. He pointed out that concern about a brain drain were over exaggerated. “Normally they come back within five years.” The statistics show that Greenland waves good-bye to far more people each year than it welcomes as new residents. The trend has accelerated during the past decade, and has seen the largest numbers emigrants in the 15-25 year-old bracket. “If we look at the group emigrants who were born in Greenland, we can see that much of the net population loss is due to people leaving to study,” Petersen said. In 2008, the net emigration amongst native Greenlanders was 653, the highest level in ten years. In addition to being young, most were women. Statistics Greenland figures also show that the population as a whole fell for the fourth year in a row last year. On 1 January 2005, there were 56,969 people living in Greenland. On 1 January 2010, there were 56,194.
Posted 9 January 2010; 10:36:07 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Education and Civil Society, Greenland, January10, North Atlantic, Social Issues
Arctic oil ambitions: Exxon eyes $1 bln transocean rig
(Kirsten Korosec/BNET, 8 January 2010) -- ExxonMobil could be ramping up its Arctic exploration intentions with reported plans to commission a rig able to withstand the brutal and ice-covered regions such as offshore Greenland and Alaska. The biggest U.S. oil company is looking to sign a contract for a Transocean rig capable of drilling in Arctic waters and which is estimated to cost up to $1 billion to build, Reuters reported. Transocean CEO Bob Long said in September his company could announce a new arctic-class rig with a contract by the end of 2009. The announcement has yet to occur, but some have speculated Exxon was tied up with its acquisition of independent unconventional natural gas producer XTO Energy. Exxon has long been interested in the Arctic and has an increased its acreage in the Beaufort Sea and is in different stages of planning and assessment in areas offshore West Greenland, eastern Canada and Newfoundland. And why not? Offshore drilling in the Arctic has become more attractive and accessible as the annual summer ice thaw increases, leaving more open water. In 2008, the United States Geological Survey determined the estimated undiscovered technically recoverable conventional oil and natural gas resources was about 412 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Posted 9 January 2010; 10:34:01 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, Economic issues, January10, North America, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Education part of explanation for falling population
(Sermitsiaq, 5 January 2010) -- The country’s population is declining, but statisticians expect most of those who leave Greenland will return someday – not just older, but also wise. Greenland’s high emigration rate is due mostly to the large number of young people attending post-secondary schools in Denmark, according to Statistics Greenland. “What we can see is that a third of emigrants name education as the reason,” said Lars Petersen of Statistics Greenland. He pointed out that concern about a brain drain were over exaggerated. “Normally they come back within five years.” The statistics show that Greenland waves good-bye to far more people each year than it welcomes as new residents. The trend has accelerated during the past decade, and has seen the largest numbers emigrants in the 15-25 year-old bracket. “If we look at the group emigrants who were born in Greenland, we can see that much of the net population loss is due to people leaving to study,” Petersen said. In 2008, the net emigration amongst native Greenlanders was 653, the highest level in ten years. In addition to being young, most were women. Statistics Greenland figures also show that the population as a whole fell for the fourth year in a row last year. On 1 January 2005, there were 56,969 people living in Greenland. On 1 January 2010, there were 56,194.
Posted 8 January 2010; 8:02:28 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Education and Civil Society, Greenland, January10, North Atlantic, Social Issues
Methane release 'looks stronger'
(Michael Fitzpatrick/BBC Science, 6 January 2010) -- Scientists have uncovered what appears to be a further dramatic increase in the leakage of methane gas that is seeping from the Arctic seabed. Methane is about 20 times more potent than CO2 in trapping solar heat. The findings come from measurements of carbon fluxes around the north of Russia, led by Igor Semiletov from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "Methane release from the East Siberian Shelf is underway and it looks stronger than it was supposed [to be]," he said. Professor Semiletov has been studying methane seepage in the region for the last few decades, and leads the International Siberian Shelf Study (ISSS), which has launched multiple expeditions to the Arctic Ocean. The preliminary findings of ISSS 2009 are now being prepared for publication, he told BBC News. Methane seepage recorded last summer was already the highest ever measured in the Arctic Ocean. Acting as a giant frozen depository of carbon such as CO2 and methane (often stored as compacted solid gas hydrates), Siberia's shallow shelf areas are increasingly subjected to warming and are now giving up greater amounts of methane to the sea and to the atmosphere than recorded in the past. This undersea permafrost was until recently considered to be stable. But now scientists think the release of such a powerful greenhouse gas may accelerate global warming. Higher concentrations of atmospheric methane are contributing to global temperature rise; this in turn is projected to cause further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane in a feedback loop.
Posted 8 January 2010; 7:58:56 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate change response, Environment and Landscape, January10, Research, Russia
Mackenzie pipeline hearings set for April
(CBC News, 7 January 2010) -- The National Energy Board (NEB) will hold a final round of hearings in mid-April on the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline in the Northwest Territories. The energy board, an independent federal agency that regulates parts of Canada's energy industry, announced Wednesday that it's ready to hear final arguments on the pipeline proposal. The NEB will then have to decide whether to approve the project, currently estimated to cost $16.2 billion to build. That decision is expected to be made this fall. Hearings will take place from April 12 to 17 in Yellowknife, then continue in Inuvik, N.W.T., from April 20 to 24, the board stated in a release. The National Energy Board began hearing evidence in January 2006 on the proposal by a consortium of companies — led by Calgary-based Imperial Oil — to build a 1,200-kilometre pipeline from the N.W.T.'s Mackenzie Delta, through Inuvik and down the Mackenzie Valley to northern Alberta. The consortium also includes ExxonMobil Corp., ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.
Posted 7 January 2010; 10:03:40 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Economic issues, January10, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Visa-free zone in northern Norway and Russia?
(Mia Bennett/Foreign Policy Blogs Arctic Blog, 7 January 2010) -- The small border between Norway and Russia all the way up in the high north has been Russia’s most stable border for the past 1,000 years. Now, that border may disappear, in a sense, as Norway and Russia consider doing away with visas for residents. Right before the annual meeting of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO), which begins today, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, noted that he hopes an agreement will be forthcoming later this year. The agreement would affect people living within 30 kilometers of the border: that is, 55,000 Russians and 9,000 Norwegians. The county of Finnmark in northern Norway is suffering from a lack of labor, and it is hoped that visa-free travel could help to shore up the labor deficit by allowing Russians to work.
Posted 7 January 2010; 10:01:59 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic issues, International, January10, Northwest Russia, Norway
Polar bears in southern Beaufort Sea spending more time on land and open water
(Arctic Institute of North America press release via Science Blog, 7 January 2010) -- ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - A long-term study showing the changes in habitat associations of polar bears in response to sea ice conditions in the southern Beaufort Sea has implications for polar bear management in Alaska. Karyn Rode, a polar bear biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska and one of the study's authors, says data collected between 1979 and 2005 show that polar bears in the region are occurring more frequently on land and in open water and less frequently on ice during the fall. This means there are increased chances for human/bear interaction. The paper was published in the December issue of Arctic -- the journal of the Arctic Institute of North America. Polar bears were observed over the 27-year period by U.S. government Minerals Management Services staff as part of the fall bowhead whale aerial survey conducted annually in the southern Beaufort Sea. Ice conditions were also recorded. Data showed that as ice conditions changed, bears were being found on different habitats. Between 1979 and 1987, 12% of bear sightings were associated with no ice. Between 1997 and 2005 however, 90% of bear sightings were associated with no ice. "When bears were seen, they were more often seen in open water and on land than on sea ice. At the same time, changes were observed in ice, suggesting that these observations are connected," says Rode. In addition, the number of bears sighted steadily increased from 138 bears in the years 1979-1987, to 271 bears between 1988 and 1996, and finally to 468 bears between 1997 and 2005. Rode warns that this study was not designed to estimate the number of bears using the nearshore area. Data were drawn from studies created to track bowhead whale migration routes, not polar bear populations. Therefore, it should not be concluded that more bears are occurring in the nearshore waters off the Southern Beaufort Sea coast. However, Rode states that "Our results do suggest that bears that use the nearshore area are more likely to occur on land in recent years because their preferred habitat, sea ice, is unavailable. "This is one of the few data sets available over such a long time frame. It shows there has been a shift in habitat use," she says.
Posted 7 January 2010; 9:35:43 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, Conservation and Wildlife, Flora and Fauna, January10, North America, Research
Web resource: New website a showcase for Nunavik
(Sarah Rogers/Nunatsiaq News, 6 January 2010) -- KANGIQSUJUAQ - Nunavik’s heritage is at your fingertips, with an eye-catching website, called “Nunavik: A Land, Its People,” the latest reference for newbies and residents alike. The newly launched site, produced by Montreal researcher and photographer Luc Bouvrette, is now one of over 500 virtual exhibits funded through the Virtual Museum of Canada. Bouvrette first came to Nunavik on business five years ago — then a place about which he knew little. Taken by its rich past and present, Bouvrette said he wanted to give the region the credit it deserves. “My first impressions were twofold; there were the people that I met,” he said. “Even having the smallest contacts by talking with people at the co-op, I felt very at home. And then there was the natural beauty.” That beauty is captured in Bouvrette’s many photographs, creating a rich visual display on the website at bit.ly/8piUAT. Limited by time and money, Bouvrette has spent his time in four villages, Tasiujaq, Kangiqsujuaq, Puvirnituq and Kuujjuaq. Based on these visits, Bouvrette offers a colourful introduction to Inuit culture that takes the visitor beyond the well-worn icons of igloos and dog sled teams. The website’s culture section provides a sensory experience, including audio of a trio of women from Kangiqsujuaq performing different styles of throat-singing. Viewers can also scroll through a gallery of drawings by students at Arsaniq school. In another section, readers can enjoy accounts from Nunavimmiut elders and youth.
Posted 6 January 2010; 11:48:02 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Internet Resources, January10, North America, Nunavik
Researchers to map High Arctic island
(CBC News, 6 January 2010) -- An upcoming research expedition to an Arctic island could help kickstart a new wave of oil and gas exploration in Canada's Far North. The research team, led by Keith Dewing of the Geological Survey of Canada, will travel to Ellef Ringnes Island next summer to collect data from areas where petroleum resources were first discovered nearly half a century ago. "There was exploration done up there by a group of companies called PanArctic Oils back in the 1960s, 1970s, and that exploration ended in the 1980s," Dewing, a research scientist based in Calgary, told CBC News. "It was very successful; they found all sorts of resources up there back in the old days. But of course, none of it was really economic. They couldn't make money producing what they found because of the location." Dewing said technologies have changed since then, and his team hopes to produce a detailed geological map that could give industry more information about Ellef Ringnes Island. "It's amazing what you can do now, compared to 20 years ago, so what we want to do is go in and bring the science up to date," he said. The expedition to Ellef Ringnes Island is part of a federal government program aimed at learning more about petroleum resources in Canada's Far North. "It's quite generously funded. There's quite a bit of money," Dewing said.
Posted 6 January 2010; 11:45:07 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, January10, North America, Nunavut, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Research, Resource Issues
Record heat measured in Iceland in December
(IcelandReview, 6 January 2010) -- The weather was unusually warm in Iceland last December. On December 12, the temperature rose to 15.1°C (59.2°F) at the automatic weather station at Skjaldthingsstadir, east Iceland, which is a record high for that day since temperatures were first registered in Iceland. The previous heat record in Iceland on that day was 14.5°C (58.1°F), Morgunbladid reports. Daily records were also broken in Reykjavík on December 11 and 12, when the temperature rose to 11 and 11.5°C (51.8°F and 52.7°F), respectively. North Iceland saw significant precipitation in December but south and west Iceland little precipitation. The first day of the month was relatively cold but then a period of heat began, which ended on December 18. Last December was characterized by cold and still weather. However, on Christmas Eve stormy weather and avalanche risk was reported in northwest Iceland. Wind damages were reported in east Iceland and in the Westman Islands on December 19 and 20. The highest temperature in December 2009 was 15.5°C (59.9°F) in Siglufjördur, north Iceland, on December 11. The month’s lowest temperature in inhabited areas measured -24°C (-11.2°F) at Mývatn in northeast Iceland on December 28. Click here to read more about the weather in December and here to read a summary of the weather in 2009.
Posted 6 January 2010; 10:49:17 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Environment and Landscape, Iceland, January10, North Atlantic
(Charles Digges/Bellona, 5 January 2010) -- NEW YORK – A new joint venture between Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom and En+, another Russian energy giant and the majority shareholder of RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium and alumina producer, is aiming to commercialise small lead-cooled reactors, an industry publication reported. The 50/50 deal that was inked on December 25th will be named AKME Engineering. En+ is a part of the Basic Element Group. The SVBR-100 favoured by the joint venture – and like so many other types of Russian fast reactors that have yet to pass from the drawing board to experimental stages – has been on slow percolation for many years, meaning, according to some analysts, that the design is already fatally out of step with contemporary reactor requirements. The project also bears the kind of desperation that has characterised so many Russian nuclear efforts in the recent past – like floating nuclear power stations and the extremely unpopular Baltic Nuclear Power Plant – as the industry struggles against environmental norms to draw funding and maintain relevance as its stable of reactors grows older and its ability to store spent nuclear fuel decreases to nil. The joint release, however, said the SVBR-100 is based on a reactor already in use on seven nuclear submarines, but did not specify which. Further calls for this information to Rosatom by Bellona Web were passed from spokesman to spokesman, none of whom could answer the question. One spokesman did, however, confirm reports that a prototype of the reactor will be required to prove design improvements over its seafaring cousins, and that this reactor should be ready by 2019. According to the joint release by the companies, they will, “design and produce a prototype 100 MWe lead-bismuth fast reactor with a view to commercialize the technology," World Nuclear News reported.
Posted 5 January 2010; 5:26:59 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Nuclear issues, Russia
The electronification of Russian regions
(BarentsObserver, 4 January 2010) -- All state services in the Russian regions are to be made available electronically by 2015, President Dmitry Medvedev underlined in a recent State Council session. The meeting, which was devoted to the development of information technologies, was attended by the governors and a number of cabinet ministers and high-ranking officials. It took place on 23 December. The governors who do not cope with the mission will be dismissed, the president threatened in his speech, newspaper Kommersant reports. According to Minister of Communication Igor Shchegolev, Russian small businesses today spend ten percent of their turnover on overcoming red tape and the Russian population altogether spend up to 25 million days per year on getting public services. There are a total of about 1,500 public services which will be made electronic by 2015, newspaper Kommersant writes.
Posted 3 January 2010; 10:13:00 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communications and media, Internet Resources, January10, Russia, Social Issues
Arctic temperatures far above average
(NRK via Barents Observer, 4 January 2010) -- Air temperatures in the Arctic were in November and December between 5 and 9 degrees above the average, Norwegian meteorologist Vidar Eng confirms. The measurements, which have been made at Norwegian meteorologist stations in the Arctic in the last two months of 2009, showed a major increase compared with average figures from the period. Mr. Eng from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Tromsø believes the high temperatures could come from combined number of reasons, and first of all from the less amounts of ice in the area and the higher temperatures in the sea water. For all of 2009, the average temperature was three degrees higher than normal, NRK reports.
Posted 3 January 2010; 9:48:40 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Environment and Landscape, January10, Nordic Region, Norway
Federal help urged to save pipeline
(Markus Ermisch/QMI Agency, 2 January 2010) -- Canada's government may be well advised to help fund a proposed pipeline to ship natural gas from the Arctic into Alberta, says a financial analyst. In fact, argues RBC Capital Markets analyst Robert Kwan, only federal financial assistance may ensure the survival of the ambitious project. A long-awaited report on the Mackenzie natural gas pipeline says the multibillion-dollar project could benefit Canada's North economically, especially during the construction phase of the 1,200-km pipeline. And that, Kwan says, could persuade Ottawa to help fund the project that by 2015 could ship 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas from the Mackenzie River delta to northern Alberta. "The report's findings on the benefits to the North could drive the government to provide greater financial support," he said in a research note the day after the government-appointed joint review panel released its report. "The government may need to take a step back and evaluate its financial support for the project in its entirety, including the benefit for northern communities and Canada as a whole, which could drive increased government support for the project with respect to related infrastructure, social programs and training." The project's corporate backers, including Imperial Oil, Shell Canada and Exxon Mobil, are still negotiating with Ottawa over a financial assistance package for the $16-billion pipeline. Environment Minister Jim Prentice had said one year ago that the federal offer would include cash for infrastructure, such as road and airstrips, as well as pre-construction expenses. Prentice could not be reached to comment on the status of the negotiations. The Mackenzie project will continue its way through the federal regulatory process at least until September this year, at which time the National Energy Board expects to deliver its recommendation to the federal government.
Posted 3 January 2010; 11:02:02 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Economic issues, North America, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
A look at fishing through the past year
(Laine Welch/Anchorage Daily News, 2 January 2010) -- KODIAK - As we look back at Alaska's seafood industry over the past year, consider this: 62 percent of our nation's seafood landings comes from Alaska, as does 96 percent of all U.S. wild salmon. Alaska ranks ninth in the world in terms of seafood production. The seafood industry is second only to oil in revenue it generates to state coffers, and it provides more Alaska jobs than oil/gas, mining, tourism and timber combined. Alaska's abundant and sustainable fishery resources are the envy of all other seafood producers, and its fishery management is regarded as a model around the world. Here are more fishing notables from 2009, in no particular order: ... Fishing-net recycling programs were a huge success at Naknek, Dillingham, Petersburg, Kenai and Cordova. They kept thousands of pounds of old nets out of local landfills. ... Scariest fish story: ocean acidification. Best back to the future for fishing boats: sails. ... Best fish story of 2009: Alaska managers calling off limits to commercial fishing in Arctic waters until more research is done.
Posted 3 January 2010; 10:59:35 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Fisheries, January10, North Pacific
Will waves of tired walruses erode industry's future in the Arctic?
(Jill Burke/Alaska Dispatch, 1 January 2009) -- Almost seven years ago, the polar bear leaped into the national climate change debate, a poster child of an increasingly melting Arctic, perhaps fueled by humans. Environmentalists championed the bear's plight, successfully encouraging federal wildlife managers to list polar bears as a threatened species. Now another iconic Arctic animal is poised to take center stage. Losses to Arctic sea ice are causing Pacific walruses to change how they spend their time, making their journeys more perilous. Just as the polar bear's listing sounded alarms in Alaska's oil industry, which has been pushing for offshore exploration in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, companies are closely watching how federal wildlife managers deal with the concerns for the Pacific walrus. Policymakers face tough questions about how to balance the walrus' habitat against oil development, shipping and even subsistence hunting. As the ice retreats new shipping routes are opening up, and buried in the depths below, untapped oil and gas deposits await exploration. Earlier this week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued findings showing Alaska's polar bears are in decline, and that the Pacific Walrus may threatened, too. But what to do about those observations has Alaska's governor and others at odds with the federal agency. Several animals in Alaska's arctic already qualify for some level of federal protection, or are under consideration for protection. ... Yet, balancing protection for the Arctic's animals and the quest for the energy riches it holds may be hard to strike in such a swiftly changing region. ... Shell has spent more than $3 billion dollars on leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, and the lease zones fall within the proposed critical habitat for polar bears. ... As it wrestles with the implications of polar bear protection, another large marine mammal may complicate Shell's plans. For Pacific walruses, sea ice offers a place to birth, nurse and rest between feedings. As ice retreats from the continental shelf and into waters too deep for walruses to feed, herds are forced to haul out on shore, say U.S. Geologic Survey scientists who are studying the animal's response to its changing world.
Posted 2 January 2010; 10:31:22 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, Conservation and Wildlife, Flora and Fauna, January10, North America
Nation Builder: Environment: Sheila Watt-Cloutier
(John Geiger/Globe and Mail, 1 January 2010) -- Sheila Watt-Cloutier was involved in educational reform before entering active politics about 15 years ago. In 2002, she was voted international chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, an international organization representing the interests of Inuit in Canada, Alaska, Russia and Greenland. She has now left active politics, but continues her crusade. Sheila Watt-Cloutier's case that the fight against climate change is fundamentally a human-rights issue for the Inuit has changed the debate irreversibly. It is no longer solely about the prognostications of paleoclimatologists, mathematical modelling and abstract, impersonal scientific consensus. Nor is it about the antics and exhortations of politicians and environmental activists. Ms. Watt-Cloutier has succeeded in putting a human face on climate change. If there is a ground zero for climate change, it is surely the Arctic. Multi-year ice is disappearing, glaciers that once calved at the sea have receded, replaced in summer by cascading melt-water streams. The permafrost is thawing. The change is happening at an astonishing pace. It is less the perilous region of yore than a region in peril. Little wonder, then, that of all the species on earth it is the polar bear, the great floe-edge hunter, that has become the poster animal for climate change. In fact, all life in the Arctic will be affected in some way, not least the people who live there, the Inuit. Ms. Watt-Cloutier's fight is a fight, then, for a way of life that has for centuries survived against the odds on the margins of the habitable world.
Posted 1 January 2010; 11:37:14 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, January10, North America, Nunavut, People
Mackenzie panel report draws praise, criticism
(CBC News, 1 January 2010) -- People in the Northwest Territories are still sifting through the Joint Review Panel's recommendations for the Mackenzie Valley gas project. But a pattern is emerging: there's a tremendous amount of work to do before the project goes ahead if all the panel's 176 conditions are followed. The proposed $16.2-billion natural gas pipeline moved closer to reality Wednesday after winning approval from the panel. Imperial Oil and its partners are now assessing what the panel's conditions mean. "All of those have implications for the potential cost of the project," said company spokesman Pius Rolheiser. He said the proponents plan to offer comments to the National Energy Board within the next three weeks. "The proponents are pleased that the Joint Review Panel has concluded that with appropriate measures to mitigate potential impacts, that the Mackenzie Project is in the public interest, and should be allowed to move forward," he said.
Posted 1 January 2010; 11:38:22 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, January10, North America, NWT, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Bethel council lays groundwork to define alcohol limits
(Alex Demarban/Arctic Sounder, 29 December 2009) -- At a special meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 29, the Bethel City Council introduced a proposed municipal ordinance that defines which types of businesses, if any, can sell alcohol in the community. The council did not vote on the ordinance but introduced it so the public would have a chance to comment on it at the next regularly scheduled council meeting on Jan. 12, said Mayor Joe Klejka. The council is struggling to deal with the aftermath of voters' decision in November to remove Bethel's 32-year-old status as a "damp" community. Restaurants are applying for liquor licenses and other businesses, such as stores, are taking steps to apply to open liquor stores. The council set an advisory vote for Jan. 19 so people can provide feedback on just how "wet" Bethel should be. Do residents want bars, liquor stores, restaurants or any other establishments selling alcohol? The council won't vote on the municipal ordinance banning sales until after that date, said Klejka. That way, if voters say they want some businesses to sell alcohol, such as restaurants, then the council can remove restaurants from the prohibited list. The council is also expected to decide at the next meeting whether it will protest Osaka Restaurant's liquor license application, said Klejka. Kilsuh Park, Osaka's owner, submitted the first application to the state alcohol control board since Bethel went wet.
Posted 31 December 2009; 11:15:56 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, December09, Laws and legal, North America, Social Issues, United States
Bags lost, thousands of tourists freezing in Lapland
(YLE, 30/31 December 2009) -- Over the past couple of weeks, around 20,000 visitors arrived in Lapland without their bags. Often the luggage has shown up just as they were leaving. "We've had to take care of customers' lost luggage issues the whole time. It's natural that they would turn to us for help," says receptionist Arja Haapakorva from Rovaniemi's City Hotel. "Thankfully Rovaniemi's tour operators came to the rescue, and provided warm overalls to our freezing customers." Temperatures in Lapland have dropped below -20 degrees Celsius while the luggage fiasco has been going on at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Sports outfitters in Lapland have made a killing selling shivering visitors complete kit, from long underwear to parkas and everything in between. "When you have nothing, it's understandable that you buy everything," says Hanna Uusitalo, a salesperson at City Sport in Rovaniemi. For other visitors, the lost luggage is even more serious that being literally caught out in the cold. ... At the beginning of the week, around 4,000 bags were orphaned at the airport. There are still 100-200 bags stranded at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport, but these should be delivered by the end of the week. Finnair blames the baggage pileup on the snowy conditions. However, luggage-handling union representatives point the finger at staff shortages due to layoffs. At the beginning of the week, around 4,000 bags were orphaned at the airport. There are still 100-200 bags stranded at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport, but these should be delivered by the end of the week. Finnair blames the baggage pileup on the snowy conditions. However, luggage-handling union representatives point the finger at staff shortages due to layoffs.
Posted 31 December 2009; 11:04:41 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Finland, Nordic Region, Tourism
Looking for a few good lawyers
(Jørgen Chemnitz/Sermitsiaq, 30 December 2009) -- When Thomas Trier assumes his new position as judge and head of the Court of Greenland tomorrow, he will be the first to head the legal body established as part of the increasing autonomy granted the country this summer as part of the Self-Rule Act. The court will have 40 employees, including another judge and four legal aides. But Trier has expressed his disappointment over the lack of qualified Greenlandic candidates for the aide positions. “It’s due to the fact that there aren’t a lot of Greenlandic lawyers,” he said. “This is an important social institution, and lawyers themselves, as well as the administration, need to encourage people to study law.” He suggested expanding the legal studies programme at the University of Greenland. Currently law students must take at least some of their courses in Denmark. “Something needs to happen,” Trier said. “The need is enormous, and we need to remember that the judiciary is the third pillar of the separation of powers.” Taking over responsibility for the judiciary is hoped to lead to an increased professionalism amongst the country’s legal professionals. All judges and public defenders are to be hired full-time, and will receive additional training. ... In addition to personnel issues, one of the basic issues facing the new court is office space, especially for circuit courts. “The courthouse in Qaqortoq is too small to house two judges, so it’s a real logistical challenge, and I don’t think a new structure will be in place until 2012. We need to build, we need to procure funds, and there are personnel that need to relocate – as well as those who can’t relocate. We need to cover all our bases.” As the new court finds its feet in the coming weeks, circuit court judges will also be preparing for qualifying exams. “The exams are in March, and hopefully they will nominated by June. Then they need to be approved, so I hope we can have them in place by July. At that point the circuit courts should be operating full-time."
Posted 31 December 2009; 10:52:35 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Governance, Greenland, Laws and legal, Social Issues
Arctic melt top weather story of decade, if not century: Enviro Cda's Phillips
(Pat Hewitt/CP, 30 December 2009) -- TORONTO - The big Arctic melt of 2007 which shocked scientists and served as an environmental wake-up call for the planet is the top weather story of the decade, if not the past 100 years, says one of Canada's leading climatologists. The Canadian Press asked Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips to comb through his 100 top weather news stories since 2000 and rank the country's top 10. While Western Canada dominated the list with floods, fires, drought, record temperatures and a deadly tornado it was the dramatic melting of the polar ice cap that captured the top spot. "Certainly for me it may be the story of the century, as opposed to just the story of the decade, because the implications of that particular kind of event are unknown," Phillips said. Satellite images revealed Arctic sea ice had shrunk to 4.28 million square km in 2007. That was 39 per cent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000 — a minimum not seen for possibly more than a century, he said. "When you look at that event, in many ways, it was absolutely shocking to scientists," said Phillips. "It was almost like an environmental surprise, the fact that the ice just disappeared. It seemed overnight." While the ice had been thinning for decades, the big loss "raised a consciousness around the world that this dramatic event was happening," he added.
Posted 31 December 2009; 9:40:45 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, December09, Environment and Landscape, Opinion
Canada panel backs Arctic pipeline conditionally
(Jeffrey Jones/Reuters, 30 December 2009) -- CALGARY, Alberta - The C$16.2 billion ($15.4 billion) Mackenzie pipeline in Canada's Arctic should be allowed to proceed, provided 176 recommendations aimed at securing socioeconomic benefits and minimizing environmental damage are followed, regulators ruled on Wednesday. In a much-anticipated report, the Joint Review Panel said it believed the huge gas project would bring overall benefits to Canada's Northwest Territories and avoid major ecological impact if the oil companies proposing the line and governments follow its list of measures. The list is as diverse as analyzing the impact of climate change on facilities buried in permafrost, monitoring grizzly bear dens, and assessing if alcohol and drug abuse programs in the sparsely populated region are adequate. "The Mackenzie Gas Project and associated Northwest Alberta Facilities would provide the foundation for a sustainable northern future," the seven-member panel said. "The challenge to all will be to build on that foundation." The pipeline would carry at least 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas a day to the Alberta border from fields in the Mackenzie Delta near the Beaufort Sea. In Alberta, the gas could be routed to numerous markets in Canada and the United States. The JRP report, which concentrated on the project's environmental, social and economic impact, comes more than two years after public hearings into the development ended. The project is led by Imperial Oil Ltd. Imperial and its partners welcomed what appears to be a vote of confidence for the long-delayed project, but could not say yet if any of the recommended measures appear onerous, spokesman Pius Rolheiser said. The company has three weeks to respond to the report.
Posted 30 December 2009; 11:25:20 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, NWT, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources
(Stephen Nowers/Alaska Dispatch, 29 December 2009) --Just about 20,000 pounds of fish came off a Coast Guard C-130 during an Arctic sunrise on Monday afternoon, destined for more than 800 needy families in Kotzebue and the surrounding villages. Inside the terminal at Kotzebue Airport, members of the community greeted the Kodiak-based flight crew with a prayer of thanks and a brief performance from the Northern Lights Dancers. Brenda Erlich, a personal banker with Wells Fargo, began planning for this day last February. She was inspired by last winter's relief effort for communities in the Yukon-Kustokwim Delta and wanted to be ahead of any potential shortages. "We didn't want to wait until it got to that point where people were having to choose between buying fuel or buying food," she said. Along with the fish, which was caught in Sitka and dontated by the Seattle-based hunger relief organization SeaShare, the community is expecting 30,000 pounds of dry food as part of the Wells Fargo-NANA Regional Corp. Inc. relief effort. Erlich said getting the fish to Kotzebue as the hardest part. "We were lucky enough for the Coast Guard to volunteer to bring it," she said It's more about economics than a subsistance shortfall, said Northwest Arctic Borough major Siikauraq Whiting. She said the price of milk has reached $18 a gallon in some places in the area. "We have the highest cost of living in our region and anything helps," Whiting said.
Posted 30 December 2009; 10:26:47 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Education and Civil Society, Social Issues
World Premiere of NIGHT: A collective creation by Human Cargo in the NAC Studio January 4 - 12, 2010
(Ottawa Start, 30 December 2009) -- The lives of a Toronto anthropologist and 16-year old Inuk girl intersect powerfully during 24 hours of darkness in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. Daniella is a scientist from the big city; Piuyuq is an Inuit girl with big dreams. The two cross paths, and when Piuyuq’s best friend commits suicide both find their lives are changed forever. Created over three Arctic winters in Iceland and Nunavut, this work by Toronto’s Human Cargo is presented in Inuktitut and English. The world premiere production will be presented in Yellowknife, Inuvik and Whitehorse after its NAC engagement. Night was developed over the course of three four-week creation workshops held over a period of three years starting in 2007. Rehearsals during these creation workshops took place in the Arctic darkness of Pond Inlet, Nunavut and Akureyri, Iceland. The play has been created by five theatre artists (two Inuit, two Icelandic and one Southern Canadian) and its rehearsal process has been heavily influenced by each artist’s life experience and reactions to the Arctic winter. Night incorporates multiple story-telling styles, languages and world-views. The play uses text, movement, video and live music to showcase a powerful, multi-cultural and socially important piece of theatre. By offering a comprehensive, engaging insight into the North’s experience of the Arctic darkness and the South’s complex relationship to it, Night will inspire its participants and audiences to re-evaluate their personal and global perspectives of the human experience in the Circumpolar World.
Posted 30 December 2009; 9:52:32 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, North America
Offshore drilling looms on the Arctic horizon
(Reid Magdanz/The Yale Globalist, 30 December 2009) -- Spring in Barrow, Alaska heralds the return of the sun, the slow thawing of the ice-covered sea, and, most importantly for the native Inuit, the arrival of the bowhead whales. As they have done for thousands of years, the whaling crews of Barrow haul their sealskin-covered boats, or umiaqs, to the ice's edge: It is time for the whale hunt. When a whale appears, the crews race after it, armed with guns and harpoons. If the pursuit is successful, the entire town helps butcher the whale and distribute the meat. Harry Brower, a whaling captain in Barrow, has been involved in the hunts since the early 1970s. Whaling has been in his family for generations. His grandfather, a Yankee whaler, arrived in Barrow in the late 1800s and established a trading company, and his Inuit ancestors have been whaling in Barrow since time immemorial. "It's culturally and spiritually significant," Brower said of the hunt. "The bowhead whale provides food, sustenance, for our communities." But Brower and others are deeply worried about the future of the whale hunt. Recently, interest in offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean has intensified and for good reason: As much as 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its undiscovered gas lie north of the Arctic Circle, much of it offshore. The oil industry has poured billions of dollars into exploration in the Canadian Arctic in the past three years and NunaOil, Greenland's national oil company, expects the number of active offshore licenses in Greenland to double in the next 12 to 18 months. The U.S. government expected about $60 million in revenue from a lease sale held last year in the Chukchi Sea, off the northwest coast of Alaska. Industry bid $2.7 billion.
Posted 30 December 2009; 9:31:56 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, December09, North America, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources
Port of Akureyri shows off beauty of North Country
(Icelandic Tourist Board/Dateline Iceland – January 2010, 28 December 2009) -- They say you can’t take a bad photograph in Iceland. Sure, we suppose it might be a bit dark if you leave the lens cap on, but otherwise, between the incredible scenery and a sun that usually sits low in the sky (this extended “magic hour” avoids harsh, washed out images), you can’t go wrong. New to IcelandTouristBoard.com is a stunning slide show of cruising images from Akureyri and the North Country.The Port of Akureyri is Iceland's second largest port after Reykjavík. In recent years the port has become a popular cruise destination, bringing thousands of visitors to the area each summer. In fact, this year, Akureyri was voted Europe’s third best destination by customers of Princess Cruises, one of the largest cruise ship companies in the world. Akureyri, with a university, several museums, fine dining and a lively nightlife, is the capital of the north and gateway to untold outdoor activities. As you can see from the slide show, you’ve got your golf, your puffins, tolting horses, your cruise ships with their midnight buffets (in the summer daylight, of course), even tourists in shorts (thankfully in white, not black socks). Be forewarned: one look at this slide show and you might have an irresistible urge to book a cruise yourself. To see the show, log on here: http://icelandtouristboard.com/photo_gallery_akureyri/
Posted 30 December 2009; 5:14:27 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Environment and Landscape, Iceland, North Atlantic, Photography, Tourism
email to: agra...@yukoncollege.yk.ca
Add to del.icio.us
