December09
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
Bethel council meets at noon: might protest liquor license application
(Alex Demarban/Arctic Sounder, 29 December 2009) -- In the ongoing struggle to set limits on its newly "wet" town, the Bethel City Council will hold a special meeting at noon today to consider protesting the city's first liquor license application in decades. Council members also might consider an ordinance banning alcohol sales in Bethel or at least limiting where it's sold. A resolution on the agenda would protest an effort by Kilsuh Park of Osaka Restaurant to sell wine and beer. Park applied to the state alcohol control board for a liquor license after voters agreed to remove the city's 32-year-old "damp" status in October. The status prohibited alcohol sales. If passed, the council's resolution will be forwarded to the alcohol control board, which is expected to consider Park's application on Feb. 26. The council has received letters and comments from people who oppose liquor licenses in Bethel, the ordinance says. Three other businesses are also applying for liquor licenses.
Posted 29 December 2009; 1:09:33 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Social Issues
2 Inuit sculptors share Nunavut art award
(CBC News, 29 December 2009) -- Two of the North's most celebrated sculptors — Kiawak Ashoona of Cape Dorset and Paul Malliki of Repulse Bay — will split the Nunavut Commissioner's Art Award. The $10,000 award is given to an artist who has made a significant contribution to the arts in Nunavut. Ashoona is the fourth son of graphic artist Pitseolak Ashoona and Inuit leader Ashoona, who first settled in Cape Dorset. One of the last survivors of the first generation of Inuit artists, he has been carving since the 1950s. His depictions of fantastic creatures have been shown throughout the world. Among his works are Sedna, which was reproduced on a 1980 postage stamp, Hunter Spirit of my Grandfather, which premiered at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 1989 and Bird Creature, part of the National Gallery of Canada's Inuit art collection. He is a member of the Order of Canada and has won the Molson Award as well as other art awards for his work. Malliki is the most established and widely exhibited of the Repulse Bay artists and one of few local sculptors to make his living entirely from his art. He teaches other sculptors through Arctic College and is known for bringing his traditional skills as a hunter to the detail in his animal sculptures. It's the third year for the art prize, handed out by commissioner Ann Hanson.
Posted 29 December 2009; 12:46:41 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, North America, Nunavut, People, Prizes, awards and recognitions
Power distribution resumes in Norway's Arctic region
(AFP, 29 December 2009) -- OSLO -- Power distribution in Norway's Arctic Lofoten archipelago resumed midday Tuesday after an outage deprived 30,000 residents of electricity for several hours, the local provider said.
Posted 29 December 2009; 12:26:27 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Disasters, etc., Nordic Region, Norway, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Power outage hits 25,000 in Norway's Arctic region
(AFP, 29 December 2009) -- Around 25,000 residents of the Arctic Norwegian Lofoten archipelago were deprived of electricity by a power outage Tuesday, electricity provider Lofotkraft said. Temperatures in the region at this time of year vary from minus 10 to minus seven degrees Celsius (19.4 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit) and there are only a few hours of sunlight per day. "The power failure has been located and repairs have started," Lofotkraft said in a statement. "We think that electricity distribution will resume before the end of the day," it added.
Posted 29 December 2009; 12:25:11 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Disasters, etc., Nordic Region, Norway, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Greenland faces crucial decision on its future
(IceNews, 28 December 2009) -- The Premier of Greenland, Kuupik Kleist, has claimed that his country is at a crossroads with decisions to be made in the determining of the future of the state. The Premier made the assertion at an administration-sponsored exhibition as reported in Sermitsiaq. Kleist declared that the challenge Greenland faces is one of creating economic independence to best meet climate change challenges while still endeavouring to protect the sustainable use of its abundance of natural resources. Kleist said the problem meant the country was “facing one of the most important decisions in its modern history,” during an address at the Copenhagen expo ‘In the Eye of Climate Change’. “We are now at a crossroads and it is vital that we preserve our unique culture while we at the same time create a modern, sustainable society,” said Kleist. Greenland has sought to establish a sign-on agreement from the Danish government that would seek its own climate treaty which would thereby allow the nation’s developing economy special consideration. A proposal was recently put forward by the self-ruling Greenland administration to reduce CO2 emissions by five percent over the next decade, although petroleum and mining industries would be excluded from this target. Kleist welcomed the probability of a binding agreement being reached at COP15 in terms of the reduction of Greenhouse gas emissions. “But we also need an agreement which recognises that the countries of the world have a common, but differentiated, responsibility to curb global warming,” he added. In the end, however, the world’s nations failed to reach a binding agreement in Copenhagen.
Posted 29 December 2009; 12:15:41 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, December09, Greenland, North Atlantic
It's official: Bethel petitioners have signatures for "damp" vote
(Alex Demarban/Arctic Sounder, 28 December 2009) -- Bethel residents hoping to tighten that city's alcohol laws have enough valid signatures to put their question on the ballot. Petitioners turned in 544 valid signatures, said city clerk Lori Strickler on Monday. They needed 404 signatures — 35 percent of the voters who submitted ballots in the last election. After 32 years as a damp community — a status prohibiting alcohol sales but allowing alcohol imports — Bethel voters chose in early October to go "wet." But with local restaurants and stores taking steps to acquire liquor licenses, and with police in outlying villages saying no import limits have increased alcohol-related crimes, petitioners want Bethel to go damp again. Strickler said she'll recommend the council set the special election for sometime in April, to give her office time to prepare. But the council could set an earlier date, she said. The question: "Shall the city of Bethel adopt local option to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages?" The city council is also planning its own special election, an advisory vote set for Jan. 19 pending approval from the Department of Justice. The council wants to better understand what Bethel wants, and their election will ask detailed questions. Voters will get the chance to answer whether they support restaurants selling beer and wine, a bar, privately-owned liquor store, a city-owned liquor store or some other establishment that sells alcohol.
Posted 29 December 2009; 11:29:25 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Laws and legal, North America, United States
(Denis Adam/NV Press, No. 51, 25 December 2009) -- Having undergone many adventures, the carcass of the ancient Kolyma wooly rhino has finally arrived in Yakutsk. It coincides with the opening of the exhibition with the intriguing title "He came back ...," which is devoted to fifty years of scientific activity of the eminent Yakutsk paleontologist, director of the Museum of the Mammoth Peter Lazarev. The carcass of the woolly rhinoceros was found in June 2007 near the Malaya Filippova River, about 8 kilometers from the town of Chersky. It was found by a miner working for the "Kolyma" mine, Alexander Stryuk. Then the mystery: the carcass disappeared, allegedly stolen by foreigners. On March 8 it was discovered by the motorway near the village of Green Cape. On March 11 the prehistoric remains were transported to Yakutsk. The rhino remains are 193 cm long and weigh up to 900 kg. Based on these data, experts have calculated that it was a female middle-aged, up to 350 cm in length and a half tons of weight. In Russia, the woolly rhinoceros was and is systematically, but often poorly preserved. Due to permafrost, the Kolyma rhino survived very well; this is one of the greatest finds in recent times. It is of great scientific value because it preserved soft tissues, muscles, cellular structure, and DNA. "This is really a very rare museum exhibit and with a scientific age of about forty thousand years, bearing in a lot of information about a bygone era", said paleontologist Gennady Boeskorov. According to Boeskorov, there is even interest in the stomach contents: "She ate before she died, respectively, hence we know the composition of the vegetation that time. The high degree of preservation may clarify how this animal could live in cold climates. And with preserved DNA it might be possible even to restore the genome of the animal and create a genetic copy of her. Next year a special working group, which includes the leading paleontologists of Yakutia, will take part in the World of the Mammoth conference in France, at which it will report on the results of studies of the Kolyma rhinoceros.
Posted 29 December 2009; 11:15:44 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, December09, Far East Russia, Research
Repairman's vacation keeps Swedish town off the internet
(David Landes/The Local, 29 December 2009) -- An internet technician’s holiday travels have left a remote mountain village in northern Sweden cut off from the internet, causing a dent in the town’s winter tourism bookings. The roughly 160 residents of Ammarnäs in Sweden’s far north have been without internet services since before Christmas Eve. And they won’t likely be able to get back online until January 11th when the town’s only repairman returns from vacation. The disruption in internet service has frustrated many local tourist operators, who, along with reindeer herders, represent the lifeblood of the area economy. “Several hunters from abroad have called and asked why they can’t book spots in Ammarnäs,” tour operator Anne Kathrine Ödegård told the Västerbottens-Kuriren newspaper. She and several other business owners have both their telephone and booking systems connected to the internet and are concerned about not being able to maintain contact with their clients. Municipal officials said on Monday that they have entered into negotiations with Telia in order to connect the town to the telecom operator’s network. Ammarnäs town head Göran Wikström promised on Monday that residents would be connected to the internet “as soon as practically possible”.
Posted 29 December 2009; 2:41:02 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Communications and media, December09, Nordic Region, Sweden, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
(Iceland Review, 28 December 2009) -- If some people in Akureyri prayed for a white Christmas their prayers were answered. The snowfall in the North of Iceland has been continuous and the depth of snow there is now over 80 centimeters. “There is no indication that this snow is thawing anytime soon. We see nothing in the forecast but cold winds from the north,” said Thorsteinn Jónsson, meteorologist with the Icelandic Weather Institute to Morgunbladid. Although the snowfall has been quite heavy recently it is far from setting any records. The biggest snow depth recorded in Iceland was at Skeidsfossvirkjun, March 19 in 1995, when 297 centimeters were measured. People in Reykjavík also woke up to a layer of snow this morning in calm winter weather. Christmas was green this year in Reykjavík even though a small blizzard occurred on Christmas Eve, lightening up the pitch-black night.
Posted 28 December 2009; 12:37:01 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, December09, Iceland, North Atlantic
Much-delayed Arctic pipeline environmental study expected this week, years late
(Bob Weber/The Canadian Press via Yahoo! News, 27 December 2009) -- Even at noon, Inuvik's weak December sun never seems to light the Arctic community brighter than twilight — no longer night, not quite day. It's a little like how businessmen have been feeling about their own prospects in the Mackenzie Delta community after seemingly endless delays in a project they've pinned their hopes on - the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline. "Everyone's hoping for a positive announcement and away we go," says Kurt Wainman, who's got a yard full of heavy equipment sitting idle just waiting for some nice, juicy oilpatch work. Sometime this week, a little of Wainman's limbo will lift. More than three years after its original deadline, the long-awaited Joint Review Panel will finally table its report on the pipeline's environmental and social effects. That report will then be combined with a National Energy Board's report on the project's engineering and economics. The package will go before the federal cabinet, which can accept or reject its recommendations. Doubts are gathering around the increasingly expensive pipeline as new U.S. natural gas sources threaten markets for Mackenzie gas and depress its price. And although some feel the review panel's report will revive momentum behind the $16-billion, 1,200-kilometre project, the final decision is still a ways off. "There's a series of things that make a project go: No. 1 in importance is economics," says Bob Hastings, an energy analyst at Canaccord Capital in Vancouver.
Posted 27 December 2009; 11:18:39 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, North America, NWT, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Russia to start eastward oil, gas shipments via Arctic in 2010
(Ria Novosti, 26 December 2009) -- NOVO-OGARYOVO - Sovcomflot, Russia's largest shipping company, will start delivering Russian oil and gas in the eastern direction of its Arctic shipping lane in the summer, the company head said on Saturday. At a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Sergei Frank said Sovcomflot was planning to launch pilot shipments of Russian hydrocarbon reserves in the eastern direction of the Northern Sea Route, from the Atlantic to the Pacific via Russia's Arctic, later this year. "We will make such pilot deliveries in the summer," he said. Frank said the goal was to expand oil and gas markets for domestic energy producers and enter new ones. The businessman said though shipments via the Arctic had been made before, the scale and cargoes were different. "We are cooperating closely with the transportation and nuclear power ministries, and with the federal office of Rosatomflot [state-run civil nuclear fleet corporation] now to arrange everything properly for [oil and gas] shipments," Frank said. He said the eastward shipment experience would later be used in the development of West Siberia's Yamal fields and also for liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies.
Posted 27 December 2009; 11:16:30 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Labrador police halt alcohol shipment to dry community
(CBC News, 24 December 2009) -- RCMP officers seized a shipment of booze destined for an Innu community on the north coast of Labrador that has banned alcohol. Police in Happy Valley-Goose Bay said they received a tip Wednesday evening that alcohol was about to be flown to Natuashish, about 185 kilometres north. Const. Peter Gosse said officers, under the authority of the Liquor Control Act, searched a commercial chartered airplane and seized 85 bottles of alcohol. "There was a large number of bags consisting of suitcases, and tote bags and various different knapsacks," Gosse told CBC News, "and through the search, bags were opened and the liquor was located." Gosse said the alcohol, which included both small and large bottles of liquor, was found in luggage believed to have belonged to some of the 15 passengers onboard the plane. "Some [bottles] were wrapped in towels, others were wrapped in socks mixed in with clothing," he said. Gosse said it's too early in the investigation to say who'll face charges. He said officers have to interview the passengers and figure out who owned which bags.
Posted 25 December 2009; 6:43:03 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, Crime, December09, North America
Smaller communities can't draw doctors
(CBC News, 23 December 2009) -- Despite lucrative financial incentives, new physicians still appear reluctant to locate in smaller northern communities. While the overall number of doctors practising in Canada has gone up at a faster rate than the population, that is not the case in parts of the north. Smaller centres especially are having a hard time drawing permanent doctors. A recent 176-page study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information looked at the supply, migration and distribution of physicians across Canada in the last five years. Between 2004 and 2008, the number of active physicians in Canada grew from 60,612 to 65,440 — an eight per cent increase. Over the same time, the country's overall population grew by just 4.3 per cent. Yukon was among those regions of Canada that saw a rapid rise the number of doctors — according to the report, there were 76 physicians in the Yukon in 2008 compared to 61 in 2004. But elsewhere in the north, the story is much different. While Yellowknife has more than 20 permanent doctors and there are four permanent physicians in Inuvik — residents in places such as Fort Smith N.W.T. and Hay River N.W.T. must rely on fly-in doctors. "Finding permanent physicians — that's a challenge," said Donna Allen, director of population health the N.W.T. government. "Whatever the complement we would have for Fort Smith and Hay River they don't have any of them filled," she said. Yellowknife, with its many amenities, can be a draw for doctors, even for those who at one time swore they wouldn't move north. ... Dr. Ewan Affleck said part of the problem small centres have luring doctors, lies in the fact that fewer doctors are training in family medicine. They just are not well prepared to work in a remote northern setting, especially a smaller community. "Certainly my training at McGill didn't fully prepare me to be a physician in a remote place ... so there was a bit of an adjustment that had to occur. That, I think in some cases, scares people away."
Posted 25 December 2009; 12:32:11 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Health and wellness, North America, Social Issues
Web resource: BorderZone portal from BarentsObserver
(BarentsObserver, 12 December 2009) -- Are you curious about the Norwegian-Russian borderland? BarentsObserver now launches its BorderZone project, a web portal with comprehensive news, contact data and practical information from the two neighboring municipalities of Sør-Varanger and Pechenga. The new portal offers extensive contact information to shops, offices, business, organizations, media, schools, culture organization, places to eat, hotels and much more. It is also offers a comprehensive introduction to cross-border travelling, visa issues and transport, and keeps you updated with news information from the area. The BorderZone website is located at the address:www.barentsobserver.com/borderzone The two municipalities of Sør-Varanger and Pechenga are neighbors across the 196-km-long Norwegian-Russian border. For decades, Cold War tensions made cross-border contact between people in the area almost impossible. The 1990s saw a major increase in cross-border travelling. Still, contacts between Sør-Varanger and Pechenga even today remains at a modest level. The new portal is made to facilitate cross-border knowledge and contacts between people living in the borderland area. It is however also a useful tool for other people interested in the area, be it business people, officials, researchers or other. The BorderZone website is established with project support from the Norwegian Barents Secretariat.
Posted 25 December 2009; 12:18:48 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, December09, International, Nordic Region, Northwest Russia
Churchill is known as the polar bear capital
(Fred Bruemmer/Montreal Gazette via Ottawa Citizen, 23 December 2009) -- There are three places in the north where, at the right time of year, you are nearly certain to see polar bears: Wrangel Island, north of Siberia, very hard to reach; the ice fields near Svalbard, the archipelago far north of Norway, by chartered yacht, okay if you have lots of dough; and our own Churchill, Man., which rightly calls itself "the polar bear capital of the world." It is the choice of an amazing number of people whose dream is to see a polar bear. During the famous "bear season" - about six weeks in late fall and early winter - hundreds of these magnificent animals congregate in the Churchill area. It is the largest concentration of polar bears in the world. Last year more than 10,000 tourists came to Churchill for that marvellous adrenalin-surge nearly all experience when they see their first "wild" polar bear. The thrill and fascination are understandable. These bears are special. They are huge, white, powerful. They are the iconic animals of the Arctic. A long-term study carried out by the zoologist Desmond Morris showed that the polar bear is one of the world's 10 "most popular" animals. The greatest love of our 2-year-old grandson is his plush polar bear pal called "Po". When he visits us, Po comes along and Owen falls asleep with the bear cuddled in his arms. The sad thing is that when Owen and your children and grandchildren grow up, they probably will no longer be able to see polar bears in the wild. By then, if present climatic trends continue, there may be only a few small pockets of polar bears left in the remotest regions of the far north. In many languages, polar bears are called "ice bears" - "Eisbär" in German, "isbjørn" in Danish. It's an apt name. They are the highly specialized seal hunters of the circumpolar ice. The equation, consequently, is simple and fatal: no ice, no ice bears. Global warming is causing the polar ice to recede rapidly. In 2007, for the first time in memory, the normally ice-choked Northwest Passage was ice free in summer. Very good for shipping. Very bad for ice bears.
Posted 25 December 2009; 12:14:40 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, Communities, Conservation and Wildlife, December09, North America, Provinces, Tourism
Cleanup continues after Prudhoe Bay pipeline spill
(Mary Pemberton/Anchorage Daily News, 24 December 2009) -- Crews on Wednesday were continuing to remove snow contaminated with oil from an area around a well house where a pipe broke in the Prudhoe Bay oil field. Tom DeRuyter, the state's on-scene spill coordinator, said the area around the well house is misted with oil. He said 72 cubic yards of contaminated snow -- most of it from the well house's gravel pad -- have been removed, but there is more to go. The spill was discovered Monday morning by a BP oil field operator doing a routine inspection. The break in the 6-inch line occurred where the production line left the well house. The cause of the break is not yet known, DeRuyter said. "The case is going to be under investigation as to why the line parted," he said. BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said the well line broke at a weld and released an estimated 3 gallons of oil and 131 gallons of water. The estimation was reached by considering how much oil and water the pipe normally carried and how quickly the automatic shut-off valve worked, he said.
Posted 24 December 2009; 11:55:58 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, North America, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, United States
Native hunting rights sometimes trumped, expert says
(CBC News, 23 December 2009) -- Aboriginal hunters who defy the N.W.T. government's ban on caribou
hunting could find themselves facing an uphill legal battle, says an
expert on native rights. Ken Coates, an historian who wrote a book about the Marshall
Decision — which established native fishing rights in Canada — said the
Aboriginal right to hunt is protected by the Constitution. But previous court decisions show those rights can be trumped by a government when conservation is the issue. He says any legal challenge would likely come down to science versus traditional knowledge. "What you have at the root of all of this is a huge debate over who gets to make these calls," Coates told CBC News. "Do the aboriginal people who lived closest to the resource and use it have the claim to control it? Or do the biologists basically working for the government have the right to make the decision about the vulnerability of the herd?" Coates said Aboriginal people have the right to ensure their land claims are being respected. And that there must be adequate consultation - and explanation - if the government is going to exercise its right to take conservation measures. N.W.T. Environment Minister Michael Miltenberger said the Tlicho government was consulted from beginning to end about the risks to the herd because of declining numbers.
Posted 23 December 2009; 4:50:15 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, Indigenous Issues
With Bethel wet, officers from nearby villages say crime is up
(Alex Demarban/The Arctic Sounder, 23 December 2009) -- Village police in communities around Bethel say alcohol-fueled crimes are on the rise following Bethel's recent decision to go wet. They're working overtime to keep up with the increase in alcohol-related assaults, drunken driving and public inebriation cases, said Alvin Jimmie, coordinator for Village Public Safety Officers in the Bethel region. Somebody seems to be ordering large amounts of alcohol and selling it in the dry villages, said Jimmie, who oversees officers in about twenty villages. It started happening when Bethel voters changed the law, he said. Lt. Craig Macdonald, head of the Alaska State Trooper Post in Bethel, said the troopers are looking into the reports. It's too early to know if the new law in Bethel led to increased crime, he said. More crime could also be related to people cashing their $1,300 Permanent Fund Dividend checks in October and November, he said. Alcohol-related crimes traditionally increase when the annual state checks arrive. "There are a lot of variables," he said. Roman Daniel, a village officer in Nunapitchuk, a dry village of 540 an hour's snowmachine ride from Bethel, said alcohol-related assaults in his villages and nearby Kasigluk have increased noticeably the past month. "Everybody that couldn't get alcohol before has it," said Daniel. "I mean, it's everywhere."
Posted 23 December 2009; 4:48:10 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, Crime, December09, Social Issues
(Barents Observer, 23 December 2009) -- The village of Revda in Murmansk Oblast will probably be closed and its inhabitants moved. The reason for this is the collapse of the mining industry in the area. The company Lovozersky Mining and Processing Plant has struggled for several years, and the only department still in operation is the souvenir shop, Vedomosti reports. The Russian Government plans to initiate a program for relocation of the 9500 inhabitants. The Russian Government’s anti-crisis commission has put together a list of 27 one-company towns that need state financial support. 20 of these can count on federal allocations already in 2010. 10 billion RUB will be transferred to the towns as budget subsidies, while another 10 billion RUB will be given as three years credits. Revda is the only town on this list that is planned to be shut down.
Posted 23 December 2009; 2:57:51 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Barents Euro-Arctic Region, Circumpolar News, December09, Economic issues, Northwest Russia, Social Issues
Costly count: Brown bear census worth the trouble?
(Jenny Neyman/The Redoubt Reporter, 23 December 2009) -- At 800 or more pounds, with jaws that can snap a moose leg and claws able to slice skin with a mere graze, brown bears inevitably command attention, especially when there’s one rummaging through neighborhood garbage, busting into a chicken coop or, worst of all, attacking a person. On the Kenai Peninsula, attention to brown bears is growing along with interactions. Brown bear sightings are up, the frequency of bear maulings has risen, and the number of animals shot in defense of life and property has increased in recent years. ... Seeing more brown bears and having more run-ins with them leads to a perception that the bear population is increasing, as well. ... But an increase in bear interactions doesn’t necessarily mean there are more bears. It may just mean there are more bears coming in contact with humans. ... On the other hand, there may well be more bears. Fish and Game biologists have estimated the peninsula population of brown bears at 250 to 300. Jeff Selinger, area wildlife biologist with Fish and Game, has said he’s seen indications that the bear population has increased over the last decade. But it’s a long leap to go from perceptions and indications to a higher, healthy population figure that warrants expanded hunting opportunities, especially with Fish and Game’s conservative approach to game management. When human-brown bear interactions spike on the Kenai, calls for more hunting opportunities rise, and Selinger is left to wade into those debates with the same unsatisfying response — no one knows how many brown bears there are. ... That may be about to change.
Posted 23 December 2009; 12:48:43 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, December09, Flora and Fauna, Research
Traditional hunters vow to ignore caribou ban
(CBC News, 21 December 2009) -- Traditional hunters say they may ignore a ban imposed by the government of the Northwest Territories on caribou hunting north of Great Slave Lake. Declining caribou herds prompted the government to ban caribou hunting in the Bathurst Caribou herd's winter range. According to the government's count, the Bathurst herd declined from 186,000 in 2003 to just 32,000 this year. The new restrictions are to come into effect Jan. 1, 2010. But the ban, announced last Friday, came as a shock to people in BehchoK'o where caribou hunting is at the root of the culture and a major source of food. John B. Zoe negotiated the Tlicho land and self-government claim and questions whether the government can legally impose a ban on caribou hunting. "Probably not," he said. "We have an unprecedented threat that nobody knows how to deal with. So I think it's a knee-jerk reaction." Marcel Zoe researched traditional use of the land, before the claim was settled and cannot believe the government move. "It's unreal why the government is doing this," he said. "To my understanding, there should be no boundary at all. Period." Former BehchoK'o chief Leon Lafferty predicted many will ignore the ban and will hunt to survive.
Posted 23 December 2009; 12:31:04 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, December09, Indigenous Issues, NWT
Tromsø: One of the best places to spend Christmas
(BarentsObserver, 23 December 2009) -- The American travel magazine Travel and Leisure has selected Tromsø, Norway, as one of the world’s best towns to spend Christmas. “The snowy city island of Tromsø offers unparalleled views of the northern lights and a chance to say you’ve been to the North Pole—well, the Arctic Circle, anyway—for Christmas. Plus, there’s dogsledding, great food, and a mountaintop cable car. Here, “day” is just a couple hours of twilight blue”, the magazine writes on its web pages. Tromsø is only beaten by Taos in New Mexico, USA and San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, and ranked before famous places like Key West, Chicago and Vienna.
Posted 23 December 2009; 12:25:44 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Norway, Tourism
Iceland is world’s 16th largest fishing nation
(Iceland Review, 23 December 2009) -- Iceland was the world’s 16th largest fishing nation in 2007 with a catch of 1.4 million tons, according to new statistics from the Food and Agriculture Association (FAO), published by Statistics Iceland. In 2007, the world’s total fish catch was almost 90 million tons. The top five fishing nations are China (14.7 million tons), Peru (7.2 million tons), Indonesia (4.9 million tons), the US (4.8 million tons) and Japan (4.2 million tons), Fiskifréttir, a Vidskiptabladid supplement, reports. Twenty states caught more than 1 million tons of fish in 2007. Their combined catch was 68 million, which is 75 percent of the world catch. Norway was the only European state with a larger catch than Iceland, placing 11th with a catch of 2.4 million tons. The world catch in 2007 increased by 201,000 tons from 2006.
Posted 23 December 2009; 12:23:54 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, December09, Economic issues, Fisheries, Iceland, Research
Bringing circus – and new hope – to a remote Arctic village
(Linda Matchan/Christian Science Monitor, 22 December 2009) -- Four years ago, acrobat Guillaume Saladin had an enviable job as a circus performer. He was a member of the acclaimed Cirque Éloize, an innovative Montreal-based troupe combining circus arts with music, dance, and theater. Specializing in gravity-defying hand-to-hand routines – a cross between handstands and dance – Mr. Saladin toured the world, visiting Europe, China, and the Middle East. But when it was time to renew his circus contract, Saladin found himself wavering. The one place he couldn’t get out of his mind was a remote Inuit community called Igloolik, 200 miles above the Arctic Circle in Canada. ... But now he was at a crossroads. “Do I tour the world with the same show,” he thought, “or [go] to Igloolik?” He chose Igloolik, arriving on Halloween 2005 with his suitcases and juggling pins. He knew immediately he’d made the right choice. “Everyone was costumed and masked and playing around ... craziness everywhere around town,” says Saladin, whose accented English reveals his French Canadian heritage. “Very similar to circus.” Then he turned his attention to Artcirq, the Arctic circus he’d helped launch seven years earlier. Artcirq is a unique artistic hybrid, a collective of young performers who blend techniques of modern circus with elements of Inuit culture, such as throat singing, music, drum dancing, and juggling. In a short time it’s gone from amateurs balancing shakily on homemade teeterboards to proficient jugglers and acrobats who balance atop each other’s shoulders, perform aggressive back flips, and somersault while leaping through hoops. ... The circus is credited with bringing hope and pride to many dispirited young people. “My life got brighter when I joined the circus because I had stuff to do,” says Reena Qulittalik, an Igloolik high school student. “Before that, I didn’t know what to do.”
Posted 23 December 2009; 11:49:48 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, People, Social Issues
Rudolph was a woman, and other odd truths about reindeer
(Jeanna Bryner/LiveScience, FOXNews, 21 December 2009) -- Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen were no doubt keeping an eye on the recent climate conference in Copenhagen. Reindeer numbers have dropped nearly 60 percent in the last three decades due to climate change and habitat disturbance caused by humans, a study earlier this year found. The decline of reindeer is a hot topic to more than just Santa and millions of children around the world. "The caribou is central to the normal function of northern ecosystems," Justina Ray, executive director of Wildlife Conservation Society-Canada, said last year. "With their huge range requirements and need for intact landscapes, these animals are serving as the litmus test for whether we will succeed in taking care of their needs in an area that is under intensifying pressure." Here are some reindeer facts that might surprise you (especially the last one): They're actually caribou. They're fast. They get around. They can handle the cold. They're quiet. Santa's crew is all-female. [See the article for the details of the facts.]
Posted 22 December 2009; 4:47:45 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Flora and Fauna
DNA shifts timeline for mammoths' exit
(Henry Fountain/Observatory, New York Times, 21 December 2009) -- Thousands of years ago in northwestern North America, large animal species, among them the woolly mammoth and the horse, became extinct. Among the proposed explanations for this is one known as the blitzkrieg hypothesis—that humans entering the region rapidly wiped the animals out through overhunting. The validity of that explanation, and others, depends in parts on the timing of the extinctions. How many thousands of years ago did the animals disappear? Until now, the answer to that question has been 13,000 to 15,000 years ago. But those dates come from the youngest reliably dated fossils that have been found, and who is to say there aren’t even younger fossils out there? A new study has come up with a far different answer, using a far different technique. Rather than dating actual fossils, the researchers analyzed DNA found in permanently frozen sediments at a site on the Yukon River in central Alaska. As they report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they found evidence that mammoths and horses were still around at least until 10,500 years ago, long after humans arrived. Earlier studies had shown that DNA from animals’ waste, skin cells and hair could be preserved in permanently frozen sediments. James Haile and Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues analyzed samples taken from the frozen soil at various depths, corresponding to about 8,000 to 11,000 years ago. Since humans were known to arrive in the region at least 14,000 years ago, the finding casts doubt on the blitzkrieg hypothesis. Hunting may have contributed to the decline of these animals, the researchers write, but it “did not deliver the deathblow.”
Posted 21 December 2009; 11:11:05 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, December09, Research
(Indigenous Peoples of the Barents Region, 15 December 2009) -- On November 23rd 2009, Sami Nurash, the Murmansk Regional Saami Youth Organization, was established and registered. "November 23rd is a great day of joy for us, as it is the day all our efforts are rewarded," says Anna Afanasyeva, who is elected chairperson of the Saami youth organization. The Saami youth living on the Kola Peninsula have struggled for ten years to have a Saami youth organization registered, and they succeeded on the third attempt. Throughout the later years, Saami youth in Russia have been cooperating with Saami youth in the Nordic countries, through joint seminars and conferences and the Working Group for establishing an All-Saami youth organization. Saami youth are organized through Noereh (Norway), Sáminuorra (Sweden), Suoma Sámi Nuorat (Finland) and Sami Nurash (Russia).
Posted 21 December 2009; 2:17:54 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Indigenous Issues, Northwest Russia, Russia, Social Issues, Youth
Underground diamond mine at Aikhal commissioned
(Jewellery News, 21 December 2009) -- The Aikhal underground diamond mine, located in the Russian republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has been commissioned in the presence of Vyacheslav Shtyrov, president of Yakutia, Fyodor Andreyev, President of Russian diamond miner Alrosa, as well as employees of the diamond giant. The new mine forms part of the Aikhal Integrated Mining and Processing Complex (Aikhal GOK), which was established in 1986 originally with the purpose to operate the Sytykan open-pit mine and with a plan to increase the ore production in the future by commissioning the Jubilee open-pit mine. Until now, the Aikhal GOK has operated three open-pit mines: Sytykan, Aikhal and Jubilee, No. 8 Ore Treatment Plant, transportation department and auxiliary facilities to support the mining operations, as well as a number of social facilities. The new Aikhal underground mine has a life expectancy of 25 years, an is expected to produce 500,000 tons of diamond ore annually. The total investment since the beginning of development of the deposit by underground mining has been nearly 9 billion Russian rubles. The number of employees at the mine now stands at 380 people, which will increase to 600. The Aikhal diamond deposit was discovered on January 22, 1960. The Aikhal pipe is located in the northwestern part of Yakutia, about 450km to the north of the city of Mirny, within a permafrost zone. The deposit is located within the left-hand valley slope of the Sokhsolookh-Markhinsky Creek and is an explosion-type pipe extending in the northeastern direction.The Aikhal open-pit mine is located at a steep left-hand slope of the Sakhsolookh River and constitutes a typical mountain-slope pit. For more information on Alrosa visit: http://www.diamondne.ws/directory/alrosa-co-ltd/
Posted 21 December 2009; 2:04:17 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Celebrations, Circumpolar News, December09, Far East Russia, Resource Issues, Russia
PCB levels down in Saglek northern Labrador
(CBC News, 17 December 2009) -- Nunatsiavut government officials said Wednesday that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) levels have been reduced significantly in the Saglek area of northern Labrador. The Canadian Air Force operated a radar base near Saglek Bay, Labrador, from the 1950s to the 1970s. It was part of the Pine Tree Line early warning radar system staffed by Canadian and U.S. military personnel. A PCB cleanup was done there in the late 1990s, but dangerously high concentrations of the chemicals remained in the area. PCBs were used in transformers and other equipment. It seeped into the ground and water in the Saglek Area. Research has shown that exposure to PCBs can affect a person's immune, hormone, nervous, and enzyme systems. It has been linked to many types of cancer, immune system problems and heart disease. Recent tests of fish and birds in the Saglek area found PCBs have dropped between six and 19 times to approach levels that no longer pose a threat to their health, the officials said. A shoreline area near the radar station was contaminated with PCBs. One of the recent study's authors, Tom Sheldon, said the concentration of PCBs in the contaminated area once averaged 1,120 parts per billion (PPB). He said concentrations in the same area are now down to an average of 100 PPB. Sheldon said sediment concentrations higher than 77 PPB are believed to have physiological and reproductive effects on black guillemots, the birds that were studied for the research.
Posted 21 December 2009; 1:57:26 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Environment and Landscape, Health and wellness, Nunatsiavut, Research
Cargo ship adrift south of Adak in heavy seas
(Rosemary Shinohara/Anchorage Daily News, 20 December 2009) -- A 740-foot cargo ship was disabled and floating adrift in high winds about 540 miles southwest of Adak on Sunday. The ship, the APJ Suryavir, registered in India, was battling 30-foot seas and winds close to 60 mph during part of the day, the U.S. Coast Guard reported. There were 28 people on board. The crew planned to abandon ship and move to a rescue ship that was due to arrive at the scene late Sunday night, said Petty Officer Walter Shinn. The ship was drifting to the east, away from the Aleutian Islands. Another cargo ship, the Maersk Altair, was in the vicinity and answered a Coast Guard call for help. But it had to slow down due to the weather and wasn't expected to reach the APJ Suryavir until the middle of the night. The APJ Suryavir was heading empty from China to the Columbia River in Oregon when the main engine failed and would not restart. The ship had sea water ballast in its tanks to add weight and stability but was still not stable enough for the harsh conditions, said Shinn. The Coast Guard sent a C-130 aircraft from Kodiak to check out the scene. That plane dropped a buoy to collect information on the currents and wind conditions. A second C-130 was to fly out to check on the APJ Suryavir early today, said Shinn. A Coast Guard cutter docked at Dutch Harbor also set out to help but won't get to the site for four days. The ship was not taking on water and has life rafts, survival suits and an emergency locator beacon, Coast Guard officials said. The ship is reported to have a 30-day supply of provisions.
Posted 21 December 2009; 1:53:54 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, December09, Disasters, etc., North Pacific, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Petition to make Bethel damp has enough signatures, sponsors say
(Alex Demarban/The Arctic Sounder, 18 December 2009) -- Petition gatherers who want to make Bethel a damp community again say they have enough signatures to put the question on the ballot. "We feel pretty good, we're all pretty happy," said Allen Joseph, one of 28 petition sponsors. Voters in the community of 5,600 chose in October to end Bethel's damp status after three decades. A separate group of Bethel residents led that effort. They said they opposed the state-set alcohol-import limits placed on damp communities. But they also said they didn't want liquor stores or bars in Bethel. However, the decision opened a Pandora's Box, as several restaurants and grocery stores raced to get their liquor license applications before the state alcohol board. Three such applications, submitted by Osaka's Restaurant, Corina's Restaurant and 123 BBQ, are pending before the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, said director Shirley Gifford. The next board meeting where those can be considered is Feb. 26, Gifford said. Other businesses have run newspaper ads in The Delta Discovery expressing their intent to apply, including to open a liquor store. While gathering signatures, petitioners ran across people who voted to end the damp status but now want to go back, said Joseph. They said too many businesses were trying to get liquor licenses, he said. About 20 sponsors gathered voter signatures starting Dec. 7. They quickly had enough to get the item on the ballot, Joseph said. They gathered 673 signatures, more than the number of Bethel voters who chose to remove the damp status in October, he said. Just 404 valid signatures are needed to get the item on the ballot. That's 35 percent of the number of people who voted in the October election, Joseph said. Joseph turned 24 booklets into the city clerk Friday afternoon so she could begin verifying signatures. "To me, it's a tremendous accomplishment," he said. "A lot of people are pushing for it and supporting it and I'm hoping for the best."
Posted 21 December 2009; 1:50:37 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Social Issues, United States
(Mia Bennett/The Arctic, Foreign Policy Blogs, 17 December 2009) -- At the beginning of
the year, the Arctic Five were rolling out strategies to enhance their
regional military power. Concerns over sovereignty weighed on the minds
of policymakers, with Russia and Canada coming to diplomatic blows over
the flights of Russian fighter jets a few hundred miles outside
Canadian airspace. Yet aggression gave way to diplomacy, in part due to
the economic benefits of cooperation rather than expensive armed
conflict. Energy developments also dominated much of the news, with all
five Arctic states hoping to profit from oil and gas drilling in the
Arctic Circle. The U.S. Department of the Interior recently gave Shell
the go-ahead to drill exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea, while the
Russian government sought foreign investors for natural gas projects in
Yamal. Indigenous peoples made the news as well. The Inuit protested
choices made by the state governments in Canada and the United States,
whether over the naming of a passage or over drilling. Greenland voted
for even greater autonomy from Denmark. The Nenets people in Russia
found less success in making their voices heard, yet still drew
headlines for their protests of gas development. Thus, events in 2009
once again proved that the Arctic, though inhospitable to most, is
still home to thousands of people and pristine wildlife whose interests
must be considered in deliberations over problems in the Arctic. ... While at the beginning of 2009, military tensions were heating up between the Arctic states (particularly Canada and Russia), next year, we can expect to see the Arctic states attempt to resolve issues diplomatically. There may be some continued militarization efforts: Russia, for instance, is planning to begin construction of the first of its new icebreakers next year. Senate Bill 2840 regarding the construction of a deep water port in Alaska will also be debated early next year. But in keeping with the 2008 Illulissat Declaration, the Arctic 5 will probably try to work together amicably and bilaterally rather than through new multilateral institutions. If any states are to remain aggressive, however, the most likely candidate is Canada. And lest we forget, expect to see more reports that the ice in the Arctic is melting. It wasn’t so long ago that scientists were predicting that the Arctic would be completely ice-free in the summer of 2010. While such a scenario is a long-shot, the ice cap will surely diminish ever further - opening up the possibility of new shipping routes, and consequently new tensions. Above all, melting ice reinforces the primacy of natural resources and economics in the Arctic: whether drilling for oil, mining Arctic gold, or levying taxes on cargo ships, the economic promises of the Arctic will drive countries away from militarized conflict and towards diplomacy in 2010.
Posted 21 December 2009; 1:43:43 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, International
Web resource: Environmental Atlas of Europe
(GISUser, 15 December 2009) -- Microsoft is working with the European Environmental Agency (EEA) to
use its Bing Maps, Silverlight multimedia technology and Azure cloud
platform to show how climate change is affecting certain regions in
Europe. The Web site, called the Environmental Atlas of Europe,
will inform people about climate-change stories and interesting
projects, such as wine farmers in the Tuscany region of Italy who run a
carbon-negative farm to a city in Denmark that uses 100 percent
renewable energy, said Bert Jansen, technology lead for the EEA. [Of interest to Circumpolar Musings readers, one of the places to explore is Lapland.]
Posted 20 December 2009; 7:12:50 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Environment and Landscape, Europe, Internet Resources
Arctic haze decline may be tied to less Russian smelting
(Ned Rozell/Alaska Science, Anchorage Daily News, 19 December 2009) -- Arctic haze, a blob of dirty air that fuzzes up Alaska views in springtime, seems to be losing its punch. By comparing air measurements in Barrow from the 1970s to 2008, scientists have found that pollution particles from factories in Russia and Eurasia have become fewer and fewer in the last 30 years. "The Arctic haze is disappearing," said Glenn Shaw, who did pioneering research on the phenomenon and is the co-author on a recent paper about its decrease. "We don't know why." Shaw, a professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute, has in years past stopped passersby to point out how Arctic haze—pollution particles in the air that scatter light—has "obliterated" views of the Alaska Range in springtime. In recent years, he has noticed that the vistas have been much clearer from Fairbanks, and instrumentation in Barrow seems to back that up. "There's less of the industrial signal, of what's typically been known as Arctic haze," said Patricia Quinn, a research chemist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle and the lead author of the study, which appeared in the Nov. 23 issue of the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. First named by an Air Force pilot in the 1950s, Arctic haze appears in the north from about January until early May, when a more active atmosphere flushes and dilutes what Shaw once called an Africa-size amoeba of dirty air that sloshes over the top of the globe. The decrease in that sort of pollution may be due to less smelting of heavy metals in Russia and improved emission technology. "I personally think they're pumping less junk into the atmosphere," Shaw said. "Things have changed."
Posted 20 December 2009; 6:59:17 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Russia
Something's rotten under the Arctic cap
(Catherine Farley/Toronto Star, 19 December 2009) -- Homegrown science supports Al Gore's warning at the Copenhagen climate conference this week that polar ice is melting faster than previously believed. Dr. David Barber, director of Winnipeg's Centre for Earth Observation Science, now predicts the Arctic could be free of summer ice and navigable within the decade, saying the ice cap is shrinking and deteriorating. On an expedition in September to check out an apparent recovery of the polar cap in the Beaufort Sea, Barber's team found instead a heavily decayed honeycomb structure of ice, weakened by years of melting and refreezing. Barber calls it "rotten" ice. He says his ship easily plowed through what satellite images suggested was good, solid ice. He has no idea how much of the cap is rotten. Fifty years ago, only 10 per cent of the Arctic cap would melt in summer and reform during the long, dark winter. Now, more than two-thirds melts and refreezes each year. Barber blames the wild temperature fluctuations at the poles. "Temperature change at the poles has been three times greater than the rest of the Earth," he says. While the Earth's average temperature has gone up 0.7°C in the last 30 years, the Arctic has increased 2 degrees. NASA scientists reported earlier this year that Arctic ice has thinned more than 60 centimetres in four years, while the volume of old ice has dropped 40 per cent. The smaller the mass, the faster it melts.
Posted 20 December 2009; 12:22:56 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arctic Ocean, Canada, Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, December09, Research
U.S. offers $5 million to help cut Arctic soot pollution
(ENS, 18 December 2009) -- COPENHAGEN, Denmark - The Obama administration will commit $5 million towards international cooperation to reduce black carbon emissions in and around the Arctic. Nancy Sutley, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality, announced the new commitment Thursday at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. Black carbon, or soot, is composed of fine particles that are produced from the incomplete combustion of diesel fuel, wood, crop waste and other biomass, oil, refuse, and, in some cases, coal. Black carbon pollution has well known and significant adverse impacts on human health. Science shows that these emissions play a significant role in warming the Arctic and accelerating ice melt. Sutley said the United States anticipates these funds will be matched by other nations to develop and implement mitigation efforts, which will help reduce Arctic warming while yielding direct public health and ecosystem benefits. In launching the new initiative, Sutley cited the 2009 Tromsø Declaration of the Arctic Council, in which the eight member nations recognized that “protecting the Arctic against potentially irreversible impacts of anthropogenic climate change depends mainly on substantially reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.” The Arctic Council highlighted the role of “short-lived climate forcers” such as black carbon, methane, and tropospheric ozone on Arctic climate change. It stated that reducing emissions of these forcers has “the potential to slow the rate of Arctic snow, sea ice and sheet ice melting in the near term.” The Arctic Council further decided “to establish a task force on short-lived climate forcers to identify existing and new measures to reduce emissions of these forcers and recommend further immediate actions that can be taken.” ... Sutley said that she is encouraged that Norway and Sweden have already expressed interest in participating in the context of Arctic Council cooperation.
Posted 19 December 2009; 11:42:25 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, December09, International
No relief for Arctic in minimalist climate deal
(Jane George/Nunatsiaq Online, 19 December 2009) -- COPENHAGEN - A last-minute agreement on climate change worked out Dec. 18 between the U.S., China, Brazil, India and South Africa at the COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen offers little hope for improving dire scientific forecasts for a warming Arctic. ... This is the first time that the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters, the U.S. and China, have worked face-to-face on a climate change agreement. But the deal contains no legally-binding emissions targets. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and U.S. President Barack Obama each described the deal, reached after talks moved into overtime late in the evening of Dec. 18, as “modest.” ... And there’s little in the document that offers any hope of preventing big temperature increases in the Arctic that exceed global averages. The 2 C global increase set out in the Copenhagen Accord would still see Arctic temperatures rise by at least 3 to 6 C higher by 2100. The accord is not likely to please Arctic leaders. “To be effective, the process emerging from this conference must recognize the impact of climate change on Inuit by pursuing targets that will eliminate further climate change impacts on the Arctic,” Mary Simon, the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami said in an email. None of the $100 billion committed by the rich nations of the world by 2020 would go to Inuit and other indigenous peoples of the Arctic — because they already live within some of the richest nations of the world: Canada, the United States, Greenland, the Nordic nations and Russia. There’s no specific acknowledgment of the vulnerability of Arctic peoples in the accord which mentions “least developed countries, small island developing states,” and “the need of countries in Africa.” Arctic and indigenous negotiators also wanted to see acknowledgment of human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples in the text and Inuit wanted an acknowledgment of Arctic peoples affected by the loss of snow and ice. Speaking to press shortly before midnight, Lumumba Stanislaus-Kaw Di-Aping, a Sudanese diplomat who was chief negotiator for the G77 group of developing nations, slammed the accord, saying it won’t keep small island nations from drowning and that the money offered for mitigation and adaptation isn’t enough.
Posted 19 December 2009; 11:34:18 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, December09, International
Russia launches icebreaker to boost Arctic oilfield
(Gleb Bryanski/Reuters, 18 December 2009) -- MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched an oil tanker on Friday capable of slicing through over a metre of ice, bringing Russia a step toward its decade-long ambition to launch its first offshore oilfield in the Arctic. State-run Gazprom has delayed the launch of its Prirazlomnoye oilfield for nearly ten years as it persists with domestic firms to equip the project, helping Russia develop the technical know-how to conquer other Arctic mineral riches. The 260-metre-long Kirill Lavrov was launched at the Admiralty Shipyards in St Petersburg, Putin's home city. "A year ago I saw anxious eyes of shipbuilders as they started work. It was a professional challenge," Putin was quoted as saying on the government's website, www.government.ru. Foreign reporters are not allowed to visit the shipyards. "It is amazing that such a giant was built in such a short period of time," Putin told shipbuilders. Russia, along with other countries bordering the Arctic, wants to assert its claims to the region's potentially huge mineral riches and is seeking to develop the relevant technology and fleet to develop lucrative deposits. The Kirill Lavrov, named after a popular Soviet actor renowned for playing the role of Vladimir Lenin, can break ice 1.2 metres thick when moving astern at a speed of three knots. It can reach a speed of 16 knots moving forward in open waters.
Posted 19 December 2009; 11:11:39 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
On getting the Internet: Having the internet for Christmas
(Rick Steele/Tech@Work, Yukon News, 11 December 2009) -- Earlier this week, I spent an hour or so tipping some cold ones with two computer techies, and sharing reminiscences about the early days of internet in the Yukon. It was 15 years ago this month that the first internet connection in the territory sparked to life—a 56 Kbps link to BCNet in Vancouver, with a bank of 20 14.4 Kbps dial up modems on line for testing purposes. In those days, my two drinking companions were still fresh, sparkly eyed little Unix munchkins, in their late teens and early 20s. Now in their mid-30s, they are well-heeled, professionally comfortable, and more or less domesticated. They have inherited and fulfilled the future opened to them by that feeble, unstable little connection made in December, 1994. The difference between them and me is that they saw that future coming; and I, though I was an active player in making it come, did not. I thought I was doing a short-term volunteer job, so that the schools and Yukon College and some government departments could get some of this internet stuff. Then I would go back to my day job as a writer and desk top publisher—an occupation I thoroughly enjoyed, even as it slowly starved me to death.
Posted 19 December 2009; 10:35:38 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, December09, Internet Resources, People, Yukon
N.W.T. town looks for cause of store blaze
(CBC News, 18 December 2009) -- People in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T. are waiting to hear what caused a massive blaze that ripped through the Northern Store. The Northern Store, which serves as the local grocery store, bank, pharmacy and post office, burned down last Monday. It was the third major fire in the town in a week. The first two buildings burned down just days earlier on Dec. 10, and the fire marshal has concluded that both fires were caused by arson. Firefighters in the hamlet of 557 spent more than seven hours Monday dealing with fire at the store. Since then, extreme heat and smoke has prevented investigators from examining the site, but investigators said they hoped it would be cool enough to enter the site on Friday. RCMP are assisting the fire marshal in investigating the blaze, said Const. Bob Wolfenberger. "The first two have been deemed as arson by the fire marshal's office. They are currently being investigated," Wolfenberger said. "And the third one, we're assisting. It's still being investigated by the fire marshal's office."
Posted 18 December 2009; 5:37:16 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Disasters, etc., NWT
Fairbanks man pedaling to DC to highlight climate change
(Dan Bross/KUAC – Fairbanks via APRN, 17 December 2009) -- A Fairbanks man has taken his concerns about climate change on the road. Don Ross is riding his bike from Fairbanks to Washington, D.C. stopping along the way to get the word out about the warming planet. Ross, who has pedaled about 2,300 miles to southern British Columbia since leaving Fairbanks October 3rd, says he’s doing the trip during the winter to get attention. [mp3]
Posted 17 December 2009; 3:36:20 PM. ann-20091216-08.mp3 Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, December09, Education and Civil Society, Expeditions, field trips, tours, United States
Web resource: DiscoveringTheArctic.org.uk
The site is operated by the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) in partnership with the British Antarctic Survey, Scottish Association for Marine Science and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. You can contact us by email at education@rgs.org. The site was developed by the Royal Geographical Society with IBG in partnership with the British Antarctic Survey, Scottish Association for Marine Science and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. All content available from this site is subjected to copyright and may be downloaded and used for educational purposes only. Images may be downloaded from the Resources/Image Library section only. The use of any other imagery throughout this site is not permitted.
Posted 15 December 2009; 9:54:29 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Education and Civil Society, Internet Resources
Aboriginal leader joins Copenhagen protests
(Frank Peebles/Prince George Citizen, 14 December 2009) -- Canadian indigenous cultures are feeling profound and direct effects of climate change already. It is not just a concept for future consideration, said Terry Teegee, an aboriginal leader who is in Copenhagen for the international conference exploring humanity's effects on the environment. Teegee is representing the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, eight First Nations from north-central B.C. "I have a set meeting and panel discussion this week to discuss the effects of climate change on indigenous people," Teegee told The Citizen. "I have also attended an indigenous caucus meeting with indigenous people from around the world. What I have got out of the trip already is to build relationships with other indigenous people, researchers and NGOs (non-government organizations)." There is much Canadian content at the event. Canada has been singled out by many advocates as a delinquent nation. The blame mostly focuses on recent federal government decisions to flout the Kyoto agreement our nation signed, which committed to cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions. "Further action I will take is to attend a demonstration against the tar-sands and pipeline proposal at the Canadian embassy in Copenhagen," Teegee said. The massive protest march resulted in about 400 arrests, said Teegee afterwards, but he was not among those taken into custody. Canada is blamed for promoting the tar-sands initiatives which is said to be an environmentally damaging oil extraction process, and the net fossil fuels it produces. It is considered by environmental concerns to be one of the most environmentally unfriendly industrial projects on the planet.
Posted 15 December 2009; 9:41:53 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, December09, Indigenous Issues, International
Soup can yields details on doomed 19th-century Arctic expedition
(Randy Boswell/Canwest News Service, 15 December 2009)** -- Scientists studying a 160-year-old can of soup found in the Canadian Arctic have detected lead levels in its broth and sealant that are "off the scale"—further evidence, they say, of the lead poisoning believed to have doomed the 19th-century Franklin Expedition during its quest to transit the Northwest Passage. Researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton and Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum—which had the historic tin of ox-cheek soup in its collection—performed tests on the can and its contents to try to confirm a controversial theory about the ill-fated polar voyage of the British ships Terror and Erebus in the late 1840s. Franklin and 129 of his crew died during the journey across Canada's forbidding northern sea route after the ships became irretrievably locked in ice near King William Island in 1847. A Canadian government-sponsored search for the famously elusive shipwrecks—widely considered the Holy Grail of marine archeology—was conducted in 2008 and is scheduled to resume next summer. Previous research—including tests at McMaster in the 1990s on bones of Franklin crewmen recovered from Arctic gravesites—has shown dangerously high levels of lead suspected of having leached from solder used to weld lids on the expedition's supplies of tinned food. Lead poisoning from the food—or possibly from pipes used in the ships' freshwater systems, according to a more recent theory—has been blamed for damaging the health of Franklin and his men and impairing the judgment they required to survive being stranded for years in the harsh Arctic environment. The can of soup tested at McMaster was left on Dealey Island in 1852 by crewmen from a rescue mission sent to search for the Terror and Erebus. Scientists believe the provisions from the two rescue ships—HMS Resolute commanded by Henry Kellett, and HMS Intrepid captained by Francis M'Clintock—were identical to those supplied for Franklin's expedition, and therefore shed fresh light on a prime suspect from that ill-fated voyage. High lead levels in both the soup and its container were detected by McMaster experts in experiments using X-ray fluorescence, a non-destructive method of analyzing objects that's available at only two laboratories in Canada.
Posted 15 December 2009; 9:02:05 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, December09, Expeditions, field trips, tours, Research
Canadian species among most threatened by climate change
(Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service via The Vancouver Sun, 14 December 2009) -- Canada is home to five of the 10 new "hit list" species identified Monday as the likeliest victims of climate change by the IUCN, a leading global nature organization. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world's largest and oldest network of environmental scientists, has listed the Arctic fox, leatherback turtle, beluga whale, salmon and ringed seal among 10 species "destined to be hardest hit by climate change." The study, released in Copenhagen to coincide with global climate negotiations, notes that another Canadian icon—the polar bear—has emerged as the poster species for the climate crisis, but that other plants and animals around the planet are equally vulnerable. "The polar bear has come to symbolize the impacts of climate change on the natural world," the IUCN report states. "But it is only one of a multitude of species affected, and many of these are also well-known, much-loved and important to people." The new "flagship species" placed in the spotlight were "chosen to represent the impact that climate change is likely to have on land and in our oceans and rivers." The Canadian animals listed in the report—titled "Species and Climate Change: More Than Just the Polar Bear"—cover all three coastal regions of the country. Leatherback turtles are the focus of a conservation campaign in Atlantic Canada; salmon are an important commercial fish on both the east and west coasts; the beluga ranges widely in the country's Arctic and sub-Arctic marine habitats—as well as the Gulf of St. Lawrence—and the Arctic fox and ringed seal occupy important niches in the northern food web. In detailing the risks faced by the Arctic fox, the IUCN highlighted the transition of tundra habitat to less suitable boreal forest, competition from northward-moving red foxes and declines in traditional prey.
Posted 15 December 2009; 8:50:52 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Conservation and Wildlife, December09, Research
Her quest for justice started early
(Paul Watson/The Toronto Star, 30 November 2009)** -- IQALUIT - A child resisted. The white people running things on the journey to exile expected quiet submission from the Inuit and usually got it. There were no translators, so there was no use complaining. That wasn't how Inuit preferred to do things, anyway. When they were herded into a damp, dimly lit hold and told to sleep on the steel floor, they made the best of the accommodations. When medical staff told exile families to strip down in groups for their health exams, they suffered the humiliation in silence. They did as they were told. But calling out "Martha E9-1900," the number on a 5-year-old girl's government-issued ID tag, was like cocking a loaded pistol. "If they had to give needles to us children, I was always the last one," Martha Flaherty remembers. "Five men had to hold me by each arm. And I've been fighting ever since."
Posted 14 December 2009; 8:52:56 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, December09, Indigenous Issues, Nunavut, People, Women, Children and Families
Radio Documentary: Inuit Voices, Victorian Spectacle, and the Diary of Abraham Ulrikab (circa 1880)
(BatteryRadio via Arctos Canadensis, 11 December 2009) -- Battery Radio - web site of Chris Brookes, radio producer of Abraham’s Diary (in two parts). The late 19th century saw the rise of scientific racism in Europe, and those who flocked to the zoo exhibit expected to gape at “exotics” from some “primitive race”. What they found instead were Labradorimiut who spoke three languages, played German hymn tunes on violin, and who were keeping their own ethnographic notes on the “uncivilised” Europeans. Tragically, both families died of smallpox, but not before Abraham Ulrikab wrote his impressions of the trip in a remarkable diary. Based on the book: “The Diary of Abraham Ulrikab: Text and Context,” edited and translated by Hartmut Lutz (University of Ottawa Press). Parts 1 and 2 of the documentary first aired on the CBC radio program “Ideas” on Nov. 30 and Dec. 01, 2009. You can listen to Parts 1 and 2 on-line (at Abraham’s Diary), or click on the tab below on Arctos Canadensis for Part 1.Link to source
Posted 13 December 2009; 1:29:42 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, December09, Tourism
(Inge S. Rasmussen/Sermitsiaq News, 11 December 2009) -- The biggest challenge facing Greenland as it seeks to carve out its economic independence is to meet the challenge of climate change while at the same time making sustainable use of its natural resources, Premier Kuupik Kleist underscored on Friday. In his opening address to the “In the Eye of Climate Change” expo in Copenhagen on Friday, Kleist said Greenland was “facing one of the most important decisions in its modern history”. “We are now at a crossroads and it is vital that we preserve our unique culture while we at the same time create a modern, sustainable society.” Greenland has lobbied the Danish government to be permitted to sign on to a post-Kyoto climate treaty under its own name so that special consideration could be taken for the developing nature of its economy. Recently, the Self-Rule administration put forth a proposal to cut its carbon dioxide emissions 5 percent by 2020, but those reductions would exclude emissions from the mining and petroleum industries. Kleist added that he hoped the on-going UN climate summit in Copenhagen would end with a binding agreement to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions. “But we also need an agreement which recognises that the countries of the world have a common, but differentiated, responsibility to curb global warming.” Kleist’s speech is available in English.
Posted 13 December 2009; 1:03:27 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, December09, Greenland, North Atlantic
Space tourism to take off in Kiruna
(The Local, 12 December 2009) -- If all goes to plan, billionaire Richard Branson’s spaceships will take off with tourists on board in 2012 – from Kiruna in the far north of Sweden. “Space tourism sounds like science fiction, but we are talking about only a number of years into the future,” Johanna Bergström-Roos, from the Esrange space centre in Kiruna, told the newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Earlier last week, billionaire Richard Branson paraded his company Virgin Galactic’s specially designed tourist ship ‘SpaceShipTwo’, which will take tourists out into space. Virgin Galactic, has selected two 'spaceports', from where tourists will be able to launch into space. One of the spaceports is in New Mexico, while the other is the Sweden Spaceport, in Kiruna. If all goes according to plan, space tourists may be flocking to Kiruna within several years. “Virgin Galactic has its spaceport in America and will commence their first flights there in 2011. When they have been operating for half a year, it will then be time for the European market, and they’ll then come to us,” Bergström-Roos told Dagens Nyheter. In an earlier interview with TV4, Branson said that space journeys from Kiruna could be a reality by 2012. “We would love to send up people in a rocket so that they get to experience the northern lights from space. Sweden has been very welcoming and very enthusiastic about this project, so I am hopeful that fairly soon after we start our space programme from New Mexico we can start up in the north of Sweden.”
Posted 12 December 2009; 5:08:27 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Nordic Region, Sweden, Tourism
Web resource: WWF's The Circle
The Circle is a magazine produced by the WWF International
Arctic Programme since January 2009, replacing the Arctic Bulletin. The Circle is
published four times a year, and each issue focusses on one specific
Arctic-related topic. The Circle is distributed free to around 3,000 arctic stakeholders
worldwide, including government officials and elected
representatives, indigenous organisations, conservationists,
scientists, NGOs, libraries, and business executives. The goal is to
inform decision-makers, scientists and the interested public about
arctic environmental and development issues. The new name is an obvious reference to the Arctic Circle, but it also suggests all the systemic linkages and circular
self-perpetuating processes that keep the Arctic in balance. Many of
these systems are now being destabilized by threats such as climate
change. This publication aims to bring forward ideas on how
to address the threats, and keep the Arctic in balance. For further information about The Circle, or to contribute an article, please contact Lena Eskeland, leskeland at wwf.no or
Posted 12 December 2009; 4:39:45 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Books, Blogs and Publications, Circumpolar News, December09, Internet Resources
The whiskey’s in the barrels; the waiting begins
(Stephanie Waddell/The Whitehorse Star, 11 December 2009) -- “Does it smell like moonshine?” Bob Baxter asks the question with a grin as he walks through the door into the Yukon Brewing Company’s brewery. The smell seems to be more of beer than the start of whiskey – until Baxter passes a small glass of clear liquid taken from a huge square plastic tub sitting next to brewing equipment fitted with new gadgets for the first part of at least a three-year process to produce whiskey. “It’s basically green moonshine,” he says as he passes the glass. His excitement for the latest alcohol to be made by the brewing company is obvious as he walks through the production area. Changes to the territory’s Liquor Act have made the commercial production of spirits possible, but Yukon Brewing has been preparing for the changes for years. In 2007, an addition was built onto the company’s Quartz Road building. There, 36 barrels are now sitting: 10 are full of the first batch of whiskey made in the facility and another 11 will be filled next week. In Canada, the spirit must sit in a barrel for at least three years before it can be marketed as whiskey, Baxter explains. “We’re not in Scotland; we can’t call it scotch,” he says, adding the final product will be a single malt whiskey. This is all new for the company that until now has been known for its wide variety of local beers that range from its Chilkoot Lager to more seasonal brands like its Winter Ale. While beer has a short shelf life, whiskey is much different. Depending on the outcome, Baxter says, it may even be five or 10 years before this whiskey has aged enough to be sold. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Baxter quickly quips when it’s noted the risk in producing a spirit that’s at least three years in the making. When the company looked at producing spirits, it used the same model that’s been successful with its beer. The beer giants, he says, are great at producing lighter beers. Where Yukon Brewing is successful is in creating thicker, more flavourful unique brands. Similarly, whiskey is a more flavourful type of alcohol than, say, the virtually flavourless vodka. “The thing about whiskey is it’s all about flavour,” Baxter says.
Posted 12 December 2009; 11:33:21 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, Economic issues, North America, Yukon
Arctic ships could face greenhouse gas restrictions
(CBC News, 11 December 2009) -- Shipping companies that operate in the Arctic may be required to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions they produce, depending on how climate-change talks go in Copenhagen, Denmark. The International Marine Organization, the United Nations agency responsible for improving maritime safety and environmental impacts, is seeking a mandate at the Copenhagen summit to regulate greenhouse gases generated by ships. The issue of curbing pollution from marine vessels is becoming increasingly important in Arctic waterways, which in recent years have been seeing more traffic from commercial freight vessels, cruise ships, icebreakers and other boats. The organization estimates that there are about 60,000 ships operating worldwide, generating 2.7 per cent of all human-made carbon dioxide emissions, said Karin Sjolin-Frudd, an IMO senior adviser.
Posted 12 December 2009; 11:08:05 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate change response, Conferences, December09, International
Napping with the walruses on Arctic ice
(Bill Blakemore/ABC News, 11 December 2009) -- "You can think you're buddies with a walrus one minute and the next minute it's trying to kill you," Arctic photographer Paul Nicklen said. "I would rather get in the water with a great white shark, than a walrus." Then he went on to tell us how to do it—or, at least, how he does it. "I will sometimes spend 24, 48, 72 hours sitting on an ice pan with a group of walruses," he told ABC News. "I will get to know these walruses to the point they get so relaxed with me that I can rest my head against a walrus and fall asleep with them on the ice. Then one of them slips into the water, and it won't feel threatened by me. I can slip into the water with it and get a couple of shots." Now 41, Nicklen has lived in the high Arctic since he was 4 when his parents moved to Baffin Island. His playmates were Inuit kids. He went on hunting parties with the elders whenever he could. "The snow and ice were my sandbox," he said. His images are a stunning and unique combination of abstract beauty and the raw wild, other-worldly, in need of nothing human. Beauty, science and a dangerously warming world have all become one in the life and work of Nicklen, a biologist-turned photographer. "Where I grew up, we had no telephone, no radio, no television. We had no distractions." Other than the limitless Arctic nature. Nicklen is now one of National Geographic's premier photographers.
Posted 11 December 2009; 11:27:51 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, People, Photography
Arctic version of I'm A Celebrity with stars trekking through frozen wilderness
(Mark Jefferies/The Mirror, 11 December 2009) -- Celebs will be pushed to their limit as they trek to the edge of the Arctic in a frozen version of I'm A Celebrity. In what is promised to be a "truly challenging" TV adventure, stars will trek over 2,000 miles of wilderness from south Norway to North Cape, 400 miles inside the Arctic Circle. One will be sent home each episode. Challenges will include parachuting in mountains, kayaking in the midnight sun, climbing ancient glaciers and swimming frozen fjords. David Mortimer of Fever Media, making 71 Degrees North for ITV1, said he hadn't been so excited by an international format since watching the Japanese show that became Dragons' Den. The show has aired for 11 seasons in Norway and Karoline Spodsberg of Nordisk Film TV added: "We've seen a lot of manipulative reality shows, but this will be tough and truly challenging." The UK series will air late next year.
Posted 11 December 2009; 11:25:37 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Europe, Expeditions, field trips, tours, Movies, video and TV
Oslo is older than previously thought
(Norway Post via Stone Pages ArchaeoNews, 8 December 2009) -- Archeologists say Oslo's history will have to be re-written. They have made new escavations east of the capital and largest city in Norway which show that people have lived on the Ekeberg heights for 10,000 years. The artifacts found include flint chips and other evidence of tool production, which show that people have lived here more than 2000 years longer than experts previously believed. The new find includes a settlement, which in those days was located at the waters edge, but now is found high up in the hillside. The land has risen after the ice cap which covered much of the area melted. Around 8-12 have lived in the newly discovered settlement, says archeologist Kristine Reiersen at the Central Office of Historic Monuments.
Posted 11 December 2009; 11:20:37 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, December09, Norway
Inuits need freezers in warming Arctic
(Reuters via TVNZ, 12 December 2009) -- Inuit communities need funds to adapt to climate change in the Arctic, including measures to build communal deep freezers to store game because warming is reducing their hunting season, an Inuit leader said on Friday. The Inuit, the indigenous people of Greenland, Canada, Alaska and Russia, have traditionally hunted for Arctic species from seal to polar bear, whale to caribou. "In Canada we see climate changes on a day to day basis," said Violet Ford, a Canadian official of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). Ford, who was born and raised in the Inuit community of Makkovik, Labrador, said more funds are needed for adaptation and response to climate change in the Arctic and in developing countries. "That should also be going to the Inuit communities as a response to climate change," Ford told a news conference in the Danish capital where 190 governments are gathered for UN talks on a new global climate deal. "We need infrastructure," Ford said. "We want community deep freezers if the hunting patterns change so much that we can only go hunting a few times a year."
Posted 11 December 2009; 10:58:24 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, December09, Indigenous Issues
Mansbridge wins award for Arctic journalism
(CBC News, 11 December 2009) -- CBC News chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge has been announced as the winner of the first ITK Award for Excellence in Arctic Journalism. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, an organization that works for the cultural and political advancement of the Inuit, named him winner Friday for his series of CBC Road Stories about the Arctic, broadcast in 2006 and 2007. Mansbridge and his production team were recognized for three reports that documented scientific work being done in the Arctic to address climate change, said national Inuit leader Mary Simon. Mansbridge "demonstrated understanding of the complex issues in the Canadian Arctic, and how the Inuit of Canada are central to the story of the Arctic, both in a historic and contemporary sense," she said. In 2006, Our Changing Arctic was broadcast from the Canadian Coast Guard ship Louis St. Laurent. And in 2007, Arctic Nights was broadcast from the Canadian Coast Guard ship Amundsen. Another report, The Big Melt, chronicled the climate change story from the perspective of Inuit living on Baffin Island. The award will be presented Jan. 14 at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Posted 11 December 2009; 10:26:49 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, December09, North America, Prizes, awards and recognitions
Russian shipyard says recent radioactive leak poses no threat
(RIA Novosti, 12 December 2009) -- SEVERODVINSK - The Zvezdochka shipyard in northern Russia said on Friday that a recent minor radioactive leak at its storage facility posed no threat to people or environment. According to a Zvezdochka statement, the "radiation incident" took place on Thursday when about two cubic meters liquid radioactive waste leaked through a seam in a pipe connecting a storage tank and a waste treatment facility. "The pipe itself is located in a leak-proof tunnel and the waste did not spill outside," the statement said, adding that the tunnel has been drained of the waste in two hours following the leak. "The radiation levels around the tunnel are normal. The causes of the leak are being investigated," the shipyard said. Severodvinsk-based Zvezdochka is Russia's biggest shipyard for repairing and dismantling nuclear-powered submarines. It has the capacity to scrap up to four nuclear submarines per year.
Posted 11 December 2009; 9:52:59 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Northwest Russia, Nuclear issues, Russia
Icelandic goat’s milk ice cream hits the market
(IcelandReview, 11 December 2009) -- A unique Icelandic dairy product, goat’s milk ice cream, made its debut on the domestic market yesterday on the 20th anniversary of the international Slow Food Movement. The ice cream will be available at Búrid specialty store in Reykjavík while supplies last. The ice cream is a cooperative between goat farmer Jóhanna Thorvaldsdóttir from Háafell in Borgarfjördur and pioneer farmhouse ice cream makers Gudmundur Jón Gudmundsson and Gudrún Egilsdóttir from Holtssel in Eyjafjördur, a Búrid press release reveals. Seventy liters of goat’s milk ice cream was produced in the first run: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, blueberry yoghurt and forest berry. Búrid also carries goat’s milk brie and goat’s meat pate from Háafell. The Icelandic settlement goat stock was on the brink of extinction when Thorvaldsdóttir and other farmers stepped in. Thorvaldsdóttir and Gudmundsson began producing ice cream on their farm in 2006. Earlier this year they received the Iceland Agriculture Award for their ice cream production. Holtssel, in cooperation with ice cream manufacturer Kjörís, will open a store in Sudurver shopping complex in Reykjavík in January. Click here to read more about Holtssel, here to read more about the Icelandic goats and here to read more about Búrid specialty store.
Posted 11 December 2009; 9:46:20 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Economic issues, Iceland, North Atlantic
Oil pipe exploded in Yamal tundra
(BarentsObserver.com, 9 December 2009) -- Oil spill covered 100 square meters of land after an explosion in an oil-gathering line in the Yamalo-Nenets Okrug last week. According to the local Emergency Management Service, the accident was probably caused by metal fatigue, Uralinform.ru writes. A fire broke out, but was reported to have been put out quickly. No people were harmed in the accident and there was no danger of fire spreading. The pipe belongs to the company Rosneft-Purneftegaz.
Posted 11 December 2009; 4:17:49 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Disasters, etc., Oil, gas, non-renewable resources, Russia, Siberia
50,000 seed samples sent to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault
(Nordic Council News, 11 December 2009) -- Sunday, December 13, a large shipment of seed samples reaches the airport of Longyearbyen, Svalbard. More than 50,000 seed samples have finally arrived at their destination—the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The shipment contains seeds from crops adapted to dry climates. Among them is sorghum, a high energy crop, known for its wide adaptability and resistance to drought. This "camel among crops" could be a key to agricultural development in areas affected by aridity and saline soils. Among the depositors are two major agricultural research centers, both working with adaptation of plants to dryer areas: ICARDA (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas) and ICRISAT (International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics).
Posted 11 December 2009; 4:13:50 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate change response, Conservation and Wildlife, December09, Nordic Region, Norway
Rosetta Stone looking for local talent
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Posted 11 December 2009; 4:08:07 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Cultural Matters, December09, North America, Photography, United States
CBC Editor's Choice: Three items from the Northwest Territories [mp3]
(CBC/Editor's Choice, 11 December 2009) -- Today, we have three items from the Northwest Territories. We'll start with an interview with John Kearney. He's the President of Canadian Zinc as well as the new president of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut's Chamber of Mines. Then, we'll meet 25-year-old grad student and aspiring filmmaker Chris White. He'll tell us about his Yellowknife-based web series entitled Teenage Wasteland. Finally, biathlete Brendan Green gives us an update on his performance in Europe's World Cup series.
Posted 11 December 2009; 3:33:33 PM. editorschoice_20091211_24318.mp3 Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, NWT, Social Issues
Northern Institute of Social Justice is poised to open at Yukon College
(Government of Yukon press release, 11 December 2009) -- WHITEHORSE – Yukoners will soon have a new resource that will provide training and education to Yukoners in a wide variety of social justice fields and will also undertake related research. The Northern Institute of Social Justice is preparing to deliver training programs in 2010. The institute will be based at Yukon College, Justice Minister Marian C. Horne, Education Minister Patrick Rouble, Health and Social Services Minister Glenn Hart and Yukon College President Terry Weninger announced today. “Through the institute, employees in public and First Nation governments, organizations and businesses will deliver programs and services that will help Yukoners address a variety of challenges and possibilities,” Horne said. About eight per cent of all jobs in Yukon—1,390 in total—have been identified as having a social justice-related component. Some examples of these jobs include social service providers, educators, mediators, investigators, law enforcement officers, safety and security officers and administrative tribunals. “The Department of Education is pleased to support the institute as part of our goal to build our workforce with targeted training for Yukoners for Yukon opportunities,” Rouble said. “The institute helps fill an identified need to enhance the capacity of Yukoners whose work touches on social justice.” The Department of Education will contribute $1,146,000 between 2010 and 2013 from the federally funded Community Development Trust to support the institute.
Posted 11 December 2009; 3:27:11 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, Education and Civil Society, Youth
Queen Charlotte Islands renamed Haida Gwaii in historic deal
(CBC News, 11 December 2009) -- B.C.'s Queen Charlotte Islands have officially been renamed Haida Gwaii as part of a historic reconciliation agreement between the province and the Haida Nation, Premier Gordon Campbell announced Friday in Vancouver. The modern native name for the group of more than 150 rugged islands off the province's north coast will appear on revised provincial maps and all other official provincial documents and presentations, the premier said. The archipelago was first named after one of the ships of British Captain George Dixon in 1778, who called his vessel Queen Charlotte after the wife of King George III. Haida Gwaii was created as an alternative name for the islands to acknowledge the history of the Haida Nation as part of its land claim efforts in the 1980s. According to the Haida Gwaii Tourism Association, the name translates as "islands of the people" in the Haida language. The B.C. government later adopted the confusing name Queen Charlotte Islands/Haida Gwaii. Carol Kulesha, the mayor of the Village of Queen Charlotte, a community at the south end of Graham Island, says she is pleased with the name change and hopes it will clear up any past confusion.
Posted 11 December 2009; 3:18:21 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, Indigenous Issues, North America, Provinces
Indigenous delegates: climate pact should include human rights
(Jane George/Nunatsiaq New, 10 December 2009) -- Copenhagen - Indigenous leaders from the Arctic, Africa and small island nations are using International Human Rights Day to call for human rights to be made part of a new global climate pact. A panel of the indigenous leaders gathered Dec. 10 at a conference side event in Copenhagen’s Bella Centre to make that case. The panelists also called for a climate change agreement that includes a stronger acknowledgment of human rights and more protections for basic human rights, such as the right to freedom, equality, and adequate living conditions. The new climate deal, to be hammered out between now and Dec. 18, should focus on people, because climate change is more than the environment and protecting “furry animals,” said activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier of Iqaluit. “Not everyone relates to science, but you can relate to the human rights,” Watt-Cloutier said.
Posted 11 December 2009; 3:15:58 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Climate change response, Conferences, December09, Indigenous Issues, International
Mystery of giant light spiral in Arctic solved
Getty
The unusual light phenomenon above the Norwegian city of Skjeroy worried residents and baffled astronomers
(Tom Peck/The Independent, 11 December 2009) -- When the people of Tromso in Norway's northern reaches awoke to the sight of a giant blue and white spiral of light hanging in the still dark sky above them, they were understandably shocked. It didn't look like the northern lights. Was it a meteor? A UFO? Calls flooded in to radio stations and air-traffic control towers. Astronomers were baffled. Extra-terrestrial enthusiasts got on their blogs. "It looked like a rocket that spun around and around and then went diagonally across the heavens," said Totto Eriksen, who saw the display while driving his daughter to school. And when an explanation finally came, he wasn't far wrong. It turned out to be a failed Russian nuclear-capable missile test launch. The new Bulava missile was fired from the submarine Dmitry Danskoi, the Russian defence ministry confirmed. The White Sea, close to Norway's Arctic region, is Russia's standard missile-testing site. This one failed at the third stage. Eyewitnesses described a blue light that seemed to soar up from behind a mountain in the north of the country. Others said it in stopped mid-air, then began to move in circles. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky. Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre, lasting for 10 to 12 minutes before disappearing. The missile is a key part of Russia's plan to rebuild its ageing weapons arsenal. But it has been beset by problems which have caused increasing embarrassment. Yesterday was the seventh time in at least 12 test launches that the missile has failed.
Posted 11 December 2009; 1:11:52 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Environment and Landscape, Nordic Region, Norway, Research
Gender impact of climate change: Survival harder for Inuit hunters in Greenland
(Nordic Council News, 7 December 2009) -- In the run-up to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Region in Focus co-hosted a panel discussion on how climate change affects women and men in different ways, and forces them to make changes in their ways of life. Norwegian journalist and author Åsne Seierstad chaired the event. The Council of Ministers in Copenhagen also inaugurated an exhibition about how men in the north and women in the south are affected by climate change. Malin Jennings is the founder of the Arctic ICCE (Indigenous Climate Change Ethnographies). For years, she has followed the lives of the small Inuit communities in Greenland. In these societies, the men were hunters while the women took care of the animals, made food from the meat and sewed garments from the hides. But the warmer climate has made hunting more difficult. "The ice freezes later and is thinner than before," Jennings explains. "The men can't hunt on ice thinner than six centimetres.
Posted 11 December 2009; 1:10:17 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Climate change response, December09, Economic issues, Greenland, Nordic Region, Women, Children and Families
Exempt northerners from emission cuts: Inuit leader
(CBC News, 10 December 2009) -- People living in the circumpolar North should be exempt from mandatory greenhouse-gas cutbacks, according to the head of an international Inuit organization. Jimmy Stotts, the Alaska-based chairman of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, made the remark during the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, this week. Stotts told CBC News that Inuit people, who are based in developed countries, still have needs similar to developing nations when it comes to making their economies grow via such activities as mining and oil and gas exploration. Inuit are worried about the impact strong greenhouse-gas emission targets would have on those economic drivers, he said. "It just doesn't seem right for Inuit, who have gotten themselves to this point where they can develop and make better communities, without having access to the money that they make from these industries," Stotts said. "So there must be some sort of way to figure out to allow that to happen."
Posted 10 December 2009; 8:10:34 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Climate change response, December09, Indigenous Issues, International
Iceland could rent doctors and nurses to Greenland
(IceNews, 8 December 2009) -- Thorvaldur Ingvarsson, Medical Manager at Iceland’s Akureyri Hospital, said at a meeting with Greenlandic counterparts and the country’s Minister for Health that Iceland should send doctors to Greenland. One in every four medical positions in Greenland is currently unmanned, RUV reports. This situation means that Iceland should look very carefully at sending medical staff to work for set temporary periods in Greenland, Ingvarsson said. The Greenlandic health minister and an entourage have been in Iceland for the last few days being introduced to the Icelandic healthcare system; both in Reykjavik and Akureyri. Thorvaldur Ingvarsson says that Iceland’s health service could be very useful to Greenland. The assistance could come in the form of staff exchanges between the two countries or the “rental” of Icelandic staff to Greenland. It is also thought that serious medical procedures on Greenlanders could halve in cost if performed in Iceland instead of in Denmark.
Posted 9 December 2009; 10:12:44 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Greenland, Health and wellness, Iceland, International
(Barents Indigenous People, 8 December 2009) -- Yasavey is the Public Association of Nenets people in Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and the indigenous NGO celebrates its 20th anniversary on December 12th 2009. Events are planned in Naryan-Mar for the entire weekend.
Posted 9 December 2009; 4:50:20 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Celebrations, Circumpolar News, December09, Education and Civil Society, Indigenous Issues, Northwest Russia, Russia
Learning report dispels native stereotypes
(CBC News, 9 December 2009) -- First Nations, Inuit and Métis people display higher rates of volunteerism and informal learning—participation in clubs, sports, arts and music—as well as more community involvement than non-aboriginal Canadians, according to a new study. The report by the Ottawa-based Canadian Council on Learning recognizes that aboriginal learning is lifelong, goes beyond the classroom and is about much more than just school dropout rates, said Paul Cappon, the council's president. Community leaders praised the report for reflecting the array of experiences and opportunities that Canada's native people value in their lifelong learning, challenging decades of negative stereotypes and bad-news stories. "By moving beyond the all-too-familiar storyline of poor academic performance, it has given us a fresh, more balanced take on who we are as learners," said Clément Chartier, president of the Métis National Council. Added Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations: "There are many tremendous successes in our communities, and this report ... offers an inspiring starting point for effective change." ... The report, The State of Aboriginal Learning in Canada: A Holistic Approach to Measuring Success, used more than 30 statistical indicators, introducing a "ground-breaking" way of measuring native student success.
Posted 9 December 2009; 10:51:47 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Indigenous Issues, Research
Spill is among worst ever on North Slope
(Lisa Demer/Anchorage Daily News, 8 December 2009) -- Officials have found a 24-inch jagged rupture in a pipeline that began pouring oil and water Nov. 29, creating one of the biggest North Slope crude oil spills ever. The on-scene coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Tom DeRuyter, said Tuesday that the breach on the bottom of the pipe was the biggest he had ever seen and indicative of the incredible pressure the pipeline was under when it split. Workers located the source of the leak Monday after cleanup crews hauled away spilled crude and contaminated snow and ice that had been obscuring the area. Officials say massive ice plugs had formed inside the pipe, which caused BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. to stop operating it a few weeks ago. Pressure then built up until the pipeline ruptured, according to BP. "It looks like it was caused by overpressure in the pipe, which we think was linked to ice forming—the plugs that have formed on either side of the release site," BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said. Most likely, rapidly forming ice plugs began to grow toward one other, creating a high-pressure area in between, DeRuyter said. "When a line does that, it rips out with a pretty impressive force and with a very large hole."
Posted 9 December 2009; 10:47:41 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Environment and Landscape, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources
Feds to fund Northwest Passage marine park study
(CBC News, 8 December 2009) -- The federal government says it will spend $5 million to study a proposed marine conservation area in Lancaster Sound at the eastern gate of the Northwest Passage. "As global climate change continues and traffic through the Northwest Passage is expected to increase, our government is committed to safeguarding Canada's Arctic," Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Tuesday. Lancaster Sound, off the northern shores of Baffin Island, is marked by a dramatic coastline dominated by 300-metre cliffs, bays, inlets and deep fiords. It's also rich in wildlife: Most of the world's narwhal, as well as large numbers of beluga and bowhead whales, swim among the icebergs that bob in its waters. Polynyas — large sections of year-round ice-free water — make rich habitat for seals and walrus, which in turn attract numerous polar bears. Seabirds flock there in the hundreds of thousands. The region has been on Parks Canada's conservation list for decades, and it was once considered for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Like other Arctic waterways, Lancaster Sound is experiencing melting sea ice that makes it increasingly accessible. Commercial shipping and private voyages are slowly increasing, as is international pressure to exploit Arctic energy and fishery resources.
Posted 8 December 2009; 4:55:39 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, December09, Environment and Landscape, Research
Oceans North Canada applauds agreement for Arctic national marine conservation area
(Oceans North Canada press release, 8 December 2009) -- An Inuit organization today signed an agreement with the governments of Nunavut and Canada to work towards establishing a National Marine Conservation Area in Lancaster Sound at the eastern edge of the Northwest Passage."We commend the Inuit in Nunavut for taking the lead to protect biologically rich Lancaster Sound for future generations," said Chris Debicki, Nunavut Projects Director for Oceans North Canada. "This process will help Inuit achieve an important conservation goal in their traditional territories at a time when rapidly melting ice is opening the Arctic to new industrial expansion."The memorandum of understanding between Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the Government of Nunavut and Parks Canada paves the way for a joint feasibility study that will recommend boundaries and management of the marine conservation area. A model will be developed for full participation by local Inuit communities in operating and managing the project as required in the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.If established at the end of the process, Lancaster Sound would be Canada's fourth national marine conservation area and its first in the Arctic. Such regions are protected from ocean dumping, undersea mining and energy exploration and overfishing.
Posted 8 December 2009; 12:17:09 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, December09, Environment and Landscape, Nunavut
Salazar approves Shell's Chukchi exploration plan
(Dan Joling/AP via Washington Post, 7 December 2009) -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the decision in Washington, D.C., and said a key component of reducing America's dependence on foreign oil is the environmentally responsible exploration and development of renewable and conventional resources. "By approving this exploration plan, we are taking a cautious but deliberate step toward developing additional information on the Chukchi Sea," he said in a release. Environmental groups bitterly oppose drilling. They say there has not been enough work to assess environmental risks in a sensitive marine ecosystem already stressed by climate change. "There hasn't been enough science," said Marilyn Heiman, director of the Pew Environment Group's U.S. Arctic program. "We don't know enough about the Arctic Ocean, particularly the Chukchi Sea, in the face of climate change." Pew and other groups also say petroleum companies have not demonstrated an ability to clean up a spill in broken ice conditions, especially in the waters off northern Alaska, where a cleanup much of the year would be hampered by low light, dangerous seas and little available infrastructure such as ports, response vessels and airports. "You can have a spill from an exploration well just as easily as a production well," Heiman said.
Posted 8 December 2009; 12:01:58 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, December09, Economic issues, North America, Oil, gas, non-renewable resources
Tuberculosis outbreak probed in N.W.T. community
(CBC News, 7 December 2009) -- Health officials in the Northwest Territories are trying to determine the cause of a tuberculosis outbreak in the remote community of Déline. To date, there have been five confirmed cases of the contagious airborne disease in the community of about 700, located on the southwestern shore of Great Bear Lake. Health officials say there are 11 cases of people carrying Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the germ that causes tuberculosis. Carriers do not display symptoms and cannot transmit TB unless it develops into the full-blown disease. The N.W.T. Health Department has dispatched a team to investigate how the disease flared up in Déline, as well as to figure out how to stop its spread. People in Déline and the N.W.T.'s Sahtu region should watch closely for the symptoms of tuberculosis, communicable disease specialist Cheryl Case told CBC News. "They will be coughing, usually for three weeks or more. They'll start to feel fatigued and weak," Case said Monday. "As the disease progresses ... when they go to bed at night they'll find that they wake up with their bed clothing wet, so we refer to that as night sweats. They can also experience some pain in their chest. And they may even, if they get really sick, start to cough up blood." Once the tuberculosis infection or germ is identified, Case said, it is treatable. But left untreated, tuberculosis can be fatal. The World Health Organization estimates that tuberculosis kills about 1.5 million people around the world each year. Most cases are reported in Africa and Asia.
Posted 8 December 2009; 12:04:42 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, December09, Health and wellness, NWT, Social Issues
New website to help First Nations work together
(Chris Oke/Yukon News, 7 December 2009) -- Setting up a modern government doesn’t come cheap. Since the Umbrella Final Agreement was signed in 1992, 11 of the territory’s 14 First Nations have signed a self-government agreement and had to create agreements, policies and legislation from scratch. And they were often doing it alone. A new resource aims to put an end to that isolation. Last week, the Yukon First Nation Self-Government Secretariat launched a new website and resource centre. Working in tandem, they will help Yukon First Nations share information, strengthen partnerships and build on past successes. “We were finding that the cost of establishing a government is just astronomical,” said secretariat director Pauline Frost. “And then you’ve got someone down the highway having to draft and write the same piece of legislation and policies.” A couple years ago, the self-government secretariat received requests from First Nation leaders that it look into some sort of central agency to house the resources necessary for land claims implementation, said Frost. “To be thriving, successful governments, we need to share this information,” she said. “There’s a lot of really good information and best practices out there, and we have a number of First Nations in the Yukon that have the years of experience in terms of setting up a government. “They’ve got a lot to teach, but there is also a lot to be learned.” The resource centre will contain a wide range of land-claims and related self-government documents, legislative templates, human resources documents, policies, and so on. All of this will be available for public use. There will also be two workstations with computers, printers and scanners. The companion website will provide electronic versions of much of the information to be found in the resource centre, as well as links to related organizations and research areas.
Posted 7 December 2009; 2:46:09 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, Indigenous Issues, Internet Resources, North America
First Nations school system urged for Saskatchewan
(CBC News, 5 December 2009) -- The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations says the time has come to create a separate school system for aboriginal youth. "It is time for us to have the opportunity for us to advance our educational destiny," Delbert Wapass, a vice-chief with the FSIN told a news conference Friday. Designing and implementing an urban First Nations system will provide an educational opportunity for success, Wapass said, adding that "it's time to break the circle of blame." Wapass, an elected member of the FSIN executive with responsibilities for education issues, noted that a similar recommendation was made for the school system in Winnipeg. He said the First Nations system would be rooted in First Nations values, beliefs and traditions and he suggested it would be similar to other separate school divisions such as the Catholic system. "If you are taught by your people and you are implementing your culture, your identity, your language and a sense of place to belong it's going to breed success at the end of the day," Wapass said. He said the current school system is not working and that many First Nations students drop out. "The province has had decade after decade to close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people," Wapass noted. "But has not been able to succeed in doing so." The FSIN has not yet taken the proposal to the provincial government. However, Wapass suggested that an urban First Nations school could open in the fall of 2010. He added that any education system would have to be publicly funded. The FSIN represents almost all First Nations bands in Saskatchewan.
Posted 6 December 2009; 12:41:31 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, Education and Civil Society, North America, Provinces
Greenlandic patients to be treated in Iceland
(IcelandReview News, 4 December 2009) -- Greenlandic authorities are hoping that around 80 patients can be sent from Greenland to hospitals in Iceland for treatment every year. Greenland’s Minister of Health Agathe Fintain is currently in Iceland with a Greenlandic delegation to discuss this proposal. One or two patients from Greenland are already being treated at hospitals in Iceland and Fintain is keen on expanding this cooperation. Currently, Greenlandic patients are being treated in Denmark, ruv.is reports. Patients in need of intensive care would be the first to arrive, mostly premature babies and heart and kidney patients. Next, people requiring specialized operations would come; the waiting list for knee and hip surgeries, for example, is long in Greenland. According to the Greenlandic state radio, it costs around ISK 10 million (USD 82,000, EUR 54,000) per year to transport patients to Denmark. That cost could be reduced by half if they were treated in Iceland instead. Fintain met with her Icelandic counterpart Álfheidur Ingadóttir yesterday morning and will also meet representatives of the Landspítali national hospital in Reykjavík and FSA, the hospital in
Posted 6 December 2009; 12:18:41 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, December09, Economic issues, Greenland, Health and wellness, Iceland, Social Issues
High winds topple tall crane at Dutch Harbor
(Anchorage Daily News, 5 December 2009) -- DUTCH HARBOR - Winds as high as 125 mph toppled a 110-foot gantry crane at a shipping facility in Dutch Harbor. A spokesman for American President Lines Ltd. says no people or other structures were damaged when the crane fell at 8:45 p.m. Friday evening. Mike Zampa says the company is still assessing damage to the crane, which fell onto gravel at the shipping terminal. APL is the world's fifth-largest container shipping company. Unalaska city roads chief Jim Dickson described the storm in an e-mail Saturday. "A few roofs were blown away, a mud slide across a road; but generally most of town made it through with only minor damage," he wrote.
Posted 5 December 2009; 6:26:18 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, December09, Disasters, etc., Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction, United States
Bellona hosts wide-ranging discussion on nuclear dangers in Russia’s Northwest
(Charless Digges/Bellona, 3 December 2009) -- As Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation beings to apply a stranglehold on information about the country’s nuclear energy programmes, the public is less and less likely to find out about how the Kola Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is operating at 104 percent capacity on reactors that have outlived their prospective life-spans. They are also less likely to know that it was advised by nuclear inspectors that these reactors never surpass 70 percent capacity, and that the current capacity they are running at could lead to Chernobyl—take two. Further kept in the dark is the fact that the Kola Peninsula, home to Murmansk, has an energy surplus making it entirely unnecessary to run the Kola NPP’s second generation reactors—which have received 10 year engineering life span expansions—at such a volume, making the risks of a radiological catastrophe entirely avoidable. The public of Northwest Russia is also lacking in the knowledge that there have been 53 radiologically hazardous incidents aboard nuclear powered surface ships since 2002—though probably more as the government stopped access this kind of information. And more generally, the public of Russia as a whole is most likely in the dark about the 15,000 plus tons of spent nuclear fuel that has filled Russia storage capacity to a seam-bursting 90-97 percent. Such were just a fraction of some of the facts that were revealed at a seminar Bellona held yesterday in Oslo on radioactive and nuclear problems in Russia’s northwest. This discouraging information was brought to light by a Bellona panel of Alexander Nikitin, chairman of Russia’s St. Petersburg offices, energy author and Bellona contributor Vladislav Larin, and Professor Vladimir Kuznetsov, a senior researcher at the Vavilov Institute of the History of Natural Sciences and Technology. He is also a former Russian nuclear regulatory inspector and member of Rosatom’s Public Council. They were joined by Johnny Almsted of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and Ingar Amundsen of the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority who participated in the debate portion of the seminar.
Posted 5 December 2009; 5:47:31 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Conferences, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Northwest Russia, Nuclear issues, Russia
Future of Nunavik begins with a three-letter acronym
(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News Online, 3 December 2009) -- KUUJJUAQ - The future government of Nunavik now has its own acronym: NRG. The Nunavik regional government, which may come into effect in April 2013, just needs money, a new building and the support of government and Nunavimmiut to become reality. Negotiations with officials in Ottawa and Quebec City on the region’s final self-government agreement are in their “final stretch,” says Minnie Grey, Nunavik’s chief negotiator for self-government, who spoke at last week’s meeting of the Kativik Regional Government in Kuujjuaq. Grey promised to deliver a “very simple” and “very clear” self-government deal to Nunavimmiut by next March. Under the NRG, Nunavik’s regional organizations, the Nunavik regional health board, Kativik School Board and KRG, will amalgamate into one new, large Nunavik government organization, but no one would lose jobs or benefits in the changeover, Grey said. Asked whether the NRG would be able to make progress in tackling Nunavik’s drug and alcohol-caused social problems, Grey was less sure, telling councillors that the government would not be able to solve every problem
Posted 5 December 2009; 5:40:13 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, Indigenous Issues, North America, Nunavik / Canada
Webzine: Online cultural magazine will unite the North
(Chris Oke/Yukon News, 4 December 2009) -- There’s a new circumpolar arts and culture magazine in town. Other northern literary magazines have popped up in the past, but they haven’t had much staying power. Out of Service, for instance, only published three issues before given in to the irony of its name. Lily Gontard was the fiction editor for Out of Service. She’s also worked at a number of literary magazines Outside, including the Malahat Review and Geist magazine. Gontard continues to be a regular contributor to the endnotes section of Geist. Now she is the senior editor of Arctica. “I’ve worked in magazines from the bottom, doing the schlepping around, to doing the editing and managing,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to start a magazine up here. “Magazines are a lot of work, but it’s fun—it’s fun to create something and the people that are working on Arctica are all really enthusiastic.” You won’t find the magazine in the book store’s periodical section though. There won’t be a print edition. Instead, issues will be published online with new additions added monthly. “The way publishing is going, everything is going online—even books are now being published online,” said Gontard. “I think we’re seeing the end of paper publications.” ... Arctica already has an editorial board member from Iceland and another in Alaska. For Canadians, the North is very much about rural existence, but in Scandinavia it’s not rural at all - its where most people live, said Gontard. “To see what people are doing in Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway will be very interesting for us and our readers.” Arctica isn’t just about writing. The editors hope to post exciting work in visual art, photography, video and audio. But everything will have to be about the North. “It’s the niche of this magazine,” Gontard explained. “Each magazine has to have a focus and the more narrow that focus is the easier it is to attract readers.” Readers will know that they can come to Arctica for that cultural and artistic taste of the North. Arctica already has the content selected for the first issue, which will be launched sometime in mid-December. ... For more information contact arctica@arcticamag.ca
Posted 5 December 2009; 5:03:58 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Books, Blogs and Publications, Canada, Circumpolar News, Communications and media, December09, Internet Resources, Yukon / Canada
Government to announce Arctic marine park
(Canwest News Service, 4 December 2009) -- OTTAWA - The Canadian government is expected to announce a deal next week to create a protected marine area at the eastern gates of the Northwest Passage. Environment Minister Jim Prentice will make an announcement relating to the long-term protection of Lancaster Sound on Tuesday, a statement released Friday said. Money for the protection of Lancaster Sound, which extends between Baffin Island and Devon Island, was outlined in the Conservative government's 2007 budget. A total of $19 million over two years was slated for improving the health of Canada's oceans, including creation of six marine protected areas and increased enforcement and surveillance to prevent pollution from ships. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made Arctic sovereignty a key point of the Tory government's agenda, visiting the region every summer since becoming prime minister in 2006 as part of a "use it or lose it" strategy. Lancaster Sound is home to a wealth of wildlife, including polar bears, beluga whales, narwhals and walrus.
Posted 5 December 2009; 4:48:30 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, December09
Popular Native leader dies (mp3)
(Dan Bross/KUAC Fairbanks via APRN, 2 December 2009) -- The Alaska native community has lost a leader in the interior. Mitch
Demientieff Nenana died suddenly Tuesday of a heart attack. He was 57.
Demientieff was a long-time Athabascan leader from a prominent Nenana
family. His sister Cathy Morgan says Mitch’s leadership role began
early when he served the first of 2 terms as president of the Tanana
Chiefs Conference. [mp3]
Posted 5 December 2009; 12:48:56 PM. ann-20091202-04.mp3 Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, December09, North America, People
Polar bear sculpture shapes climate change concern
(CBC News, 5 December 2009) -- A British sculptor carving a polar bear out of ice, with a bronze skeleton inside, hopes to make a powerful environmental message when the Arctic animal art piece melts. Mark Coreth started creating the ice polar bear on Friday in Kongens Nytorv Square in Copenhagen, Denmark, close to where nearly 20,000 people are expected to attend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from Dec. 7 to 18. Coreth got the idea after visiting Churchill, Man., in November, and observing the bears and the sea ice. He said he was struck by the plight of the animals due to climate change, and became convinced "that we have got to do something about this and do it quick." At 1.8 metres, the bear sculpture will be the same height as the average thickness of the floating sea ice in the Arctic Ocean as measured during the Catlin Arctic Survey earlier this year, he said. Observers will be encouraged to be interactive with the sculpture, he added, saying that anyone who touches it will help change the shape and "represent the human aspect of warming the planet. We hope that this creative act will bring home to each person how humanity has the power to affect the delicate balance of nature," he said.
Posted 5 December 2009; 12:38:16 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Conferences, December09, Europe
Opinion: Mary Simon, an ideal choice for the next GG
(John Baglow/The National Post, 4 December 2009) -- A little bird tells me that a worthy replacement may have been found for Michaëlle Jean, Governor-General of Canada, now in her last year of office. According to an influential Conservative insider, Mary Simon, currently the President of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, would be an "ideal choice." Simon was ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 1994-2003, and also served as Canadian ambassador to Denmark, 1999-2001. She sat on the Joint Public Advisory Committee of NAFTA's Commission on Environmental Cooperation (1997-2000), and chaired the Commission from 1997-98. She was the Chancellor of Trent University from 1995 to 1999. Simon has played many other roles in her career, including serving on the Nunavut Implementation Commission. She has been showered with honours—everything from the Order of Canada to the Gold Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. And throughout her many years of public service, she has been a powerful voice for Aboriginal rights in Canada and elsewhere. And she blogs! An ideal choice indeed.
Posted 5 December 2009; 12:16:15 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, December09, North America, People, Tourism / Perspectives
50 years of nuclear-powered icebreakers
(BarentsObserver, 3 December 2009)** -- On December 3rd 1959, the world’s first nuclear-powered civilian vessel was officially taken into operation. Lenin was the first of nine nuclear icebreakers designed for navigation in the Arctic out of Murmansk. Today Lenin is a museum of Russia’s nuclear fleet. Equipped with originally three nuclear reactors, the icebreaker Lenin was launched from the shipyard in Leningrad in 1957. After two years of testing, Lenin was put into ordinary icebreaker operations by the end of 1959. She was then looked upon as a truly piece of master engineering. Lenin was transferred to Murmansk and got its own pier and onshore wooden house in the northern part of the city, then known as Base 92. Still, all maintenance and repair work was done at the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk near Arkhangelsk. Later, the base in Murmansk was extended and renamed RTP Atomflot and all repair work and maintenance of Lenin and the follow-up fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers were carried out there.
Posted 5 December 2009; 11:39:29 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, December09, Nuclear issues, Russia, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
Winnipeg photo show exhibits rarely seen images of 1950s Arctic famine
(CP, 3 December 2009) -- WINNIPEG - Sometime in late February 1950, a Canadian photographer pulled a camera out of his parka and into the stabbing Arctic cold, focused as best he could in the flickering lamplight inside an igloo, and pressed the shutter. The resulting image - an Inuit mother, haggard from hunger and dressed in shabby caribou skins, fiercely pressing her nose and lips to those of her youngest child—has since become iconic. But the story behind Richard Harrington's memorable print, and the many others he made around the same time, is less well known. And that's what a show now on at the Winnipeg Art Gallery hopes to remedy. "It's certainly long overdue," said Darlene Wight, one of two curators behind the exhibit, which runs until March. Harrington made six trips to the Arctic between 1948 and 1953. He travelled by dogsled and often lived with the Inuit, who still largely depended on the land. It was a life that informed their traditional culture but depended on the availability of caribou. Harrington's 1950 trip came in a year the caribou didn't. The result was famine. As southern Canadians were welcoming a prosperous decade of suburbs and big-finned cars, many of their northern fellow citizens were starving to death. On Feb. 8, a few days before he snapped his most famous picture, Harrington wrote in his journal: "Came upon the tiniest igloo yet. Outside lay a single, mangy dog, motionless, starving ... Inside, a small woman in clumsy clothes, large hood, with baby. "She sat in darkness, without heat. She speaks to me. I believe she said they were starving. "We left some tea, matches, kerosene, biscuits. And went on." More than once, Harrington photographed someone who would be dead the next day. And when he returned south, it was those images that finally alerted the rest of Canada to what was going on in its Arctic backyard.
Posted 4 December 2009; 5:20:41 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Arts and Artists, Canada, Circumpolar History, Circumpolar News, Conferences, December09, People, Photography
U.S. lawsuit targets pesticide impact on polar bears
(Yereth Rosen/Reuters, 3 December 2009) -- ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The U.S. government violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to curb use of pesticides that have been accumulating in the Arctic food chain and in the fat of polar bears, a species listed as threatened, environmentalists charged in a lawsuit on Thursday. While the biggest threat to polar bears comes from the rapidly warming Arctic climate and the disappearance of sea ice, the pesticide onslaught creates more woes for an already stressed population, said Rebecca Noblin, a Center for Biological Diversity staff attorney in Anchorage. "The health impacts of pesticides tend to make polar bears more susceptible to disease, to lower cub survival," Noblin said. "Since polar bears are already struggling, the combined impacts of the two could lead to more problems." The Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The lawsuit is probably the first to target the impact of pollutants emitted far away on an Endangered Species Act-listed population, Noblin said. Persistent organic pollutants commonly contained in pesticides are known to be carried by atmospheric and ocean currents thousands of miles (km) northward to the Arctic. Tony Brown, a spokesman for the EPA's regional office in Seattle, said the agency had no immediate comment on the lawsuit. The lawsuit targets 14 types of pesticides it says scientists have found in alarming quantities in lakes, snowpack and fish and animals' bodies in the far north.
Posted 4 December 2009; 10:18:33 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, Contaminants and Pollution, December09, Flora and Fauna, Laws and legal, North America
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