The population of Iqaluit is 7,500, the average temperature in winter is 32 below, and the sun only shines for a few hours a day. This meeting will be a far cry from locales like London and even Copenhagen. Yet Canadian Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq (who happens to be the first ever Inuk appointed to a Canadian Cabinet position) noted the connections between the challenges of Nunavut and the difficulties facing the G-7 ministers, saying,

“At such an important and challenging time, I could think of no better location for an international meeting focused on collaboration to resolve shared challenges. Throughout its long history, the people of Nunavut and all of Canada’s North have demonstrated a community spirit and steadfast determination to overcome adversity. The strength and resilience found in this region are an essential part of what defines Canada, which is why I am so pleased that G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will soon experience it first-hand.”

Of course, Arctic issues won’t be on the agenda at this meeting. Instead, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has invited the ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, Canada and the U.S. to discuss finance issues in a “back to basics” approach. In any case, it will be interesting to see pictures of world leaders bundled up in sub-zero parkas and boots.

Here’s what they might be in for - a video clip of a blizzard in February 2007 in Iqaluit posted on YouTube.

News links

“G7 Meeting to be held in Iqaluit,” Globe and Mail

“Canada’s North the Spotlight of February Meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors,” Department of Finance, Canada

“Finance bigwigs plan frosty confab in Iqaluit,” Nunatsiaq Online

© COMSUBPAC Public Affairs

Last week, it was reported that an American submarine, the USS Texas (SSN 775), surfaced near the North Pole in mid-October. The submarine, part of the Virginia class, was the first ship in its kind to do so. It was taking part in an ICEX, or ice exercise. After surfacing, the submarine stayed moored to the ice for 24 hours. Ens. James Robinson, Supply Officer of USS Texas, said in the Navy press release:

“Activities on the ice included a very special re-enlistment ceremony for 12 crew members and a pinning ceremony in which one crew member received his submarine warfare qualification dolphins, as well as some down time to play touch football in the five degree weather.”

The submarine then sailed on to warmer climes in Honolulu, Hawaii, where it will be stationed at Pearl Harbor.

So nothing too aggressive, but enough to worry the Canadians, as a flurry of editorials appeared in the pages of their newspapers.

Rob Huebert, an Arctic specialist at the University of Calgary who has criticized the current administration for its weakness in defending Canadian Arctic sovereignty, was quoted in the Ottawa Citizen as saying:

“It takes a lot of effort to get up there. The message being sent with the Texas is that the U.S. takes the Arctic seriously, as do other countries. I don’t get the impression that Canada is taking all this in.”

He also had his own editorial in the Globe & Mail, where he wrote:

“Today, it is difficult to think of a conflict in the Arctic. But then why are all of our neighbours rearming?

If the future indeed does become darker than we expect, we should ensure that the ships we build today can be adjusted accordingly. At a minimum, it seems prudent to ensure that these vessels can be retrofitted with the best surveillance systems, including those for underwater purposes, as well as more meaningful defensive systems than are currently planned. These vessels will be one of our main defensive systems in the Arctic from the middle 2010s to the middle 2050s.”

The Harper government has planned to build six to eight Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships, icebreakers based on the Norwegian Svalbard class, which are essentially militarized coast guard ships. However, the AOPS will not be as fast nor as well-equipped as originally planned due to cost constraints.  They are also currently being designed for primarily constabulory (police and security) matters, while Huebert emphasizes that they should have added defense capabilities. If not, Canadian ships might look like this:

Political cartoon by Anthony Jenkins, Globe & Mail.

Sarah James

The Alaska Wilderness League organized a trip to the nation’s capital this week to lobby the Obama administration against oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in offshore areas. Sarah James, an elder of the Gwich’in nation, was one of the leaders of the delegation. She traveled all the way from Arctic Village, Alaska, the northermost indigenous village in the U.S., to Washington, D.C. this week as member of the group. James has a considerable amount of clout in the indigenous community, as she is a member of the International Indian Treaty Council and a member of the Arctic Village Traditional Council. She also won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2002 for her work to protect caribou in ANWR.

She and other members of the Gwich’in tribe are primarily concerned about how the oil industry will affect porcupine caribou. The tribe has a strong connection to the caribou, as their diet traditionally relies on caribou as a protein source. The Gwich’in people also consider ANWR to be sacred calving ground for the caribou.

Oil pipelines could affect the delicate ecosystem in ANWR, thus disrupting the caribous’ habitat. Pipelines have been known to break migrating caribous’ legs. The northern region of Alaska, specifically ANWR, serves as the prime mating grounds for the caribou, so any decrease in the number of calves produced could have a severely deleterious effect on the entire caribou population. On the contrary, it is worth noting that the caribou have lived with oil development for the past thirty years around Prudhoe Bay, and the size of the herd there has actually increased.

In Washington, the Alaska Wilderness League delegation met with high-level members of the Obama administration, including Assistant Interior Secretary Tom Strickland and Larry Echohawk, head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In the past, James has remarked,

“We are caribou people. It’s our clothing, our story, our song, our dance and our food. That’s who we are. If you drill for oil here, you are drilling right into the heart of our existence.”

The future for ANWR? Porcupine caribou in Prudhoe Bay, AK

Other Links

“Alaska natives seek restrictions on drilling,” Anchorage Daily News

Sarah James, Goldman Prize Recipient

Canadian Forces in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada. © MCpl Kevin Paul, Canadian Forces Combat Camera

Erin Anderssen of the Globe and Mail has a strong piece on the future of the Canadian military in today’s online edition. Soldiers donning the Maple Leaf on their uniform now have a much more visible role in the world today, whether combating piracy off the coast of Somalia or fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Yet the transition hasn’t come easy, as Anderssen illustrates. A country once dedicated to peacekeeping now sees itself at a turning point, on the brink of creating a more robust, and possibly offensive, military force. The article mentions the Arctic at one point, saying,

Canadians largely support a military presence in Canada’s north, but that’s a matter of “standing on guard” for sovereignty, not advancing into war. As Dr. Stein says, “Nobody is going to die in combat in the Arctic.”

The transformation from a state to a federal university must take place within the next three months. The new university will continue to be a member of the University of the Arctic, a joint international network of universities and colleges in the Arctic that promotes the study of the circumpolar region, with an emphasis on local and indigenous perspectives. Members of UArctic come from throughout the High North, including universities in Alaska, Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and even south of the 49th parallel in the northern United States. You can view a map of the University of the Arctic network here (also available for Google Earth).

The Northern Federal University in Arkhangelsk will promote Russian geopolitical interests in the region. I wouldn’t be surprised if the institution ends up playing a large role in producing research to support Russian attempts to secure territorial claims around the North Pole, particularly as Russia embarks on a new quest to document its seabed claims during the next two years. Scientists and researchers at the university will also aid efforts to look for oil and gas in the region.

News links
“Arkhangelsk to become center for higher education in the Arctic,” Barents Observer

© Los Angeles Times

In the wake of an announcement by British polar explorer Pen Hadow, leader of the Catlin Arctic Survey, that the Arctic will be ice-free within ten years, Russia announced that it will charge ships a “fair” fee to cross the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Northern Sea Route, the majority of which is Russian waters. Alexasandr Davydenko, head of the Federal Sea and River Transport Agency, actually said, “We are hoping the ice will melt soon.” However, the country still lacks the infrastructure necessary to handle the predicted increase in shipping that will arrive in the coming years, particularly in the port of Murmansk, which would likely serve as a hub.

Russia Today has a news clip on the story.

Furthermore, the shipping company Sovcomflot will begin shipping oil through the Northern Sea Route next year. It is rumored that Gazprom will also follow suit.

The following is an image taken from the Russian government’s official website on the Northern Sea Route, known as “Sevmorput” in Russian. The labels are for the various seas and straits that the NSR crosses.

The purpose of Section 311 is made clear at the beginning:

The purpose of this section is to ensure safe, secure, and reliable maritime shipping in the Arctic including the availability of aids to navigation, vessel escorts, spill response capability, and maritime search and rescue in the Arctic. It also supports international cooperation in shipping, safety, and search and rescue in the Arctic.

The bill requires that the Coast Guard begin a study within the next 90 days of whether the U.S. will need to repair or replace its icebreakers. Specifically, the analysis must determine

the ability of the United States to maintain a presence in the Arctic regions through the year 2020 if recapitalization of the icebreaker fleet, either by constructing new icebreakers or rebuilding, renovating, or improving the existing fleet of icebreakers, is not fully funded.

The Arctic-specific part of this bill can be viewed here.

Representative Young, who has been Alaska’s sole representative in the House of Congress since 1973, remarked,

Climate change means new opportunities for Alaska’s arctic region and the Coast Guard will play a vital part in our economic future as they are tasked with overseeing these routes.

“House passes Coast Guard bill, including Arctic funding,” Professional Mariner

© AP Photo/Al Grillo

The International Arctic Fisheries Symposium convened in Anchorage, Alaska last week to discuss management of fish stocks in the world’s northern waters. 150 people from the fields of science, politics, and industry shared ideas about migratory, transboundary, and straddling fish stocks.  Geopolitics, then, are even affecting cod and char.  The symposium focused on how scientific and fisheries data could be used to improve future management decisions. The agenda also included the effects of climate change on both industry and subsistence users of the fisheries.

The representative of the U.S. Department of State, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Fisheries David Balton, was in attendance at the symposium. He remarked, “The Arctic is certainly the least well understood ocean on the planet, and in particular the area of the western Arctic nearest the United States, the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.”

Back in March at an interview with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome, Balton was asked whether he would close the High Arctic to commercial fishing. He responded,

“The Arctic is not a single region for fisheries. There is an area of the Arctic close to the North Atlantic Ocean, and there, there [sic] are already major commercial fisheries and international mechanisms for managing those, and we think those are working fine, though they too will need to adapt as the fish stocks there move further north. On the part of the Arctic closer to the Bering Sea, there are no commercial fisheries yet, and within US waters in the Arctic, we have just adopted a rule that there should be no commercial fishing there until we learn more about the ecology and can set up some management rules for fisheries there.

There is also a high seas area in the central part of the Arctic. There is no fishing going on there, and probably not for many years. But we do think it is worthwhile exploring a concept that there ought to be no fishing allowed in the high seas area until some international rules are agreed.”

You can listen to his remarks in an interview at the FAO here.

During the interview, Balton also discussed the future of indigenous people in the Arctic who depend on the fisheries for their subsistence. He referenced some existing mechanisms for resource management, but added that ideally, a new type of system would be developed which would synchronize existing laws and mechanisms with a new type of organization. Currently, the Arctic Council and the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission are the two main intergovernmental bodies that deal with cross-border issues in the Arctic.

In light of Balton’s remarks at the FAO and his push last week for more international research in the Arctic, he is definitely a multilateralist when it comes to Arctic issues - a position that is representative of the Obama administration as a whole.

An attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, Brendan Cummings, was quoted in the Anchorage Daily News as saying, “Obama could have installed Sarah Palin as Secretary of Interior and the polar bear and Arctic ecosystem would be no worse off than it is under Ken Salazar.”

In the actual approval (PDF), the MMS concluded that:

“Shell has demonstrated that its oil and gas exploration drilling activities will be scheduled and will be located to prevent unreasonable conflicts with subsistence activities in compliance with Lease Sale 195 and 202 Stipulation 5.

Shell, for instance, will cease all oil and gas activities on August 25, 2010 in order to let the annualbowhead whale migration to pass through the area. In addition, the oil company will have “manned aerial monitoring…marine mammal observers, real time acoustical recorders, and site specific sound source verification to confirm acoustic safety zones prior to commencement of drilling activities.” The indigenous Nuiqsut and Kaktovik communities, however, are still worried that the new drilling activities will have a negative impact on their whaling activities.

Map of Bowhead Whale Subsistence Sensitivity

News Links

“Shell gets conditional OK for Beaufort drilling,” Anchorage Daily News

“Arctic offshore drilling plan cleared for Beaufort Sea,” Los Angeles Times

“Shell Wins Offshore Drilling Rights in Alaska,” The New York Times

Russia

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the difficulties which the Nenets are facing due to the gas development projects throughout the Yamal Peninsula in northern Russia. Now, the Guardian reports that the Nenets people are facing new hardships brought about by melting permafrost. Some of the anecdotal evidence offered by the Nenets interviewed for the article are that temperatures are now only 30 degrees below zero, rather than 50, the reindeer have trouble walking through muddy, sludgy ground in spring, and their opening of their annual migration is now postponed until December, rather than November. Even polar bears are spotted more frequently, particularly near human developments. This sadly means that the animals are likely starving and looking for food.

The director of Greenpeace Russia’s energy unit, Vladimir Tchouprov, is quoted as saying, “It’s an indication of the global warming process, like the opening of the Arctic waters for shipping this summer.” But many other Russians, as the article points out, are skeptical of global warming. Even if they do believe in it, many only see the bright side: easier access to natural resources, which will no longer be frozen under hard permafrost.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the need for militarization of the Arctic, stating, “Any problem of the Arctic could be solved by peaceful dialogue and cooperation.”

In addition, Aleksei Miller, chair of Gazprom, noted that extensive efforts would be made to support social development in this remote corner of Russia. This comment comes in light of recent outcry over the treatment of indigenous populations in Murmansk, whose traditional reindeer herding is threatened by the gas projects.

The forum may not only have economic effects, but also geopolitical ones. The CEO of Rosneft, Sergei Bogdanchikov, said that he wants the so-called gray zone between Norway and Russia to be opened for development. Although some progress has been made in determining the borders of this disputed area in the Barents Sea, but until the two countries reach an agreement, no drilling can occur in the region. An estimated 400 million tons of oil lie in the seabed of the gray zone.

News links

“Murmansk declared gas capital,” Barents Observer

“Future of the Arctic in focus at Barents Sea nations forum,” Russia Today

“Norwegian-Russian Swap Deal in the Barents Sea?” Who Owns the Arctic blog by Dr. Michael Byers