Arctic

On Thursday, Canada’s National Energy Board will make a decision on whether to green-light the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. Plans for the pipeline have been up in the air since the 1970s, alternately buoyed and sunk for many reasons, one of them being changes in natural gas prices. It is estimated that natural gas futures should […]

As the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is celebrating its 50 anniversary, it is coming under renewed threat. Newly-elected Alaskan governor Sean Parnell is a staunch supporter of the oil and gas industry, which could spell bad news for conservationists. On December 3, he wrote a letter to President Obama telling him to not turn ANWR […]

Bashneft has bought the Trebs and Titov onshore oil deposits in Russia’s Timan-Pechora province for a reported 18.5 billion rubles ($587 million). The Russian government had earlier sought to keep the deposits under the government’s ownership, since the two constitute strategic oil deposits with 78.1 million tons and 132.8 million tons of oil, respectively. However, […]

Larry Smith, a professor of geography at UCLA, recently came out with a book entitled “The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization’s Northern Future.” On a Guggenheim Fellowship, Professor Smith traveled to the world’s northernmost reaches, visiting places ranging from a monastery in Russia to aboriginal villages in Northern Canada. He used technical computer […]

Greenland is requiring companies that drill in its waters to pay for a $2 billion bond upfront – before drilling even begins – in order to cover the cost of cleaning up any oil spills that might occur. Already, Greenland had some of the “strictest [requirements] made to date to any oil company,” according to […]

Yesterday, the three-day Arctic Gateway Summit kicked off at the University of Winnipeg. Hosted by the Manitoba Government and the university, the summit has brought together 200 Canadian and international transportation experts to discuss turning Manitoba and Nunavut into an Arctic trade hub. The conference “will include a focus on sustainable communities, increasing international trade […]

Proving that scientists are a resourceful bunch, researchers from the University of Washington and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources tagged 14 narwhals in Baffin Bay with satellite-linked time-depth-temperature recorders to monitor ocean temperature in a previously little-studied region. The thermometers recorded data over the course of three winters from 2005-2007, and the results of […]

“How I Ended This Summer,” a Russian film depicting the isolation of two men who work at a remote meteorological station in the Arctic, has won the award for Best Film at this year’s 54th annual London Film Festival. Jury chair Patricia Clarkson remarked of the director, “Alexei Popogrebsky has combined stunning cinematography with painterly […]

A new study published in the journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics has found that a large increase in Arctic shipping could exacerbate global warming by 17% to 78%. The range is so wide because of the uncertain future of shipping in the High North, which depends on changes in vessel traffic, growth, and shipping […]

Aboard a Lockheed C-130 Hercules on a flight to the Arctic, the Associated Press interviewed Coast Guard Rear Admiral Christopher C. Colvin, Commander of Coast Guard District Seventeen based in Juneau. He is charged with covering all of Alaska’s coastline, which is longer than the coastline of the rest of the 49 states combined. As […]

This week, the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Institute is hosting a NATO Advanced Research Workshop entitled “Environmental Security in the Arctic Ocean.” During the workshop, delegates from the NATO countries and Russia, among a number of other participants, will meet to discuss challenges in the Arctic. Policymakers, academics, and non-profit representatives will be in […]

On September 17, the Canadian Ice Service began tracking the 280-square kilometer ice island which fractured off of Petermann Glacier in western Greenland in early August, the Montreal Gazette reports. The ice floe, or more technically, the large tabular (meaning flat-topped) iceberg, split into two after ramming into Joe Island, where the Petermann Fjord meets […]