The Arctic This Week June 29 - July 5, 2015 Welcome and thanks for joining us this week! We hope that you find TATW interesting and entertaining to read. If you’re not a subscriber yet, you can sign up here. As always, all editorial choices, opinions and any mistakes are the authors’ own. Anything that we missed? Please feel free to share material with us if you think it deserves inclusion in TATW. THE POLITICAL SCENE Harvard Political Review examines the role of indigenous groups – Permanent Participants – in the Arctic Council, and the interaction between the two. While the various Participants come from across the globe and represent an array of cultures and interests, at the Arctic Council they tend to find common cause with each other and agree on issues brought before the forum, as “they [all] share a concern for the environmental and cultural preservation of the Arctic.” They also share common problems – in particular the financial difficulties presented by trying to attend as many of the working groups and task force meetings as possible. U.S. Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman hailed the strength of the U.S.-Canada relationship, despite some well-publicized disagreements. Heyman also acknowledged the different approaches the two countries have taken vis-à-vis dealing with Russia, as while “Canada has cut off nearly all official contact with the Kremlin…the U.S….[has] continued to engage.” Nonetheless, Heyman cautioned against allowing the current crisis in the Ukraine to affect U.S.-Russia relations in the Arctic, arguing that the two are “entirely separate” and disagreements over the former should not hamper the latter (Ottawa Citizen). ENERGY Shell has announced that it may be able to begin its long-planned Chukchi Sea drilling operations in the third week of July. The company’s ships began making their way to the region from Dutch Harbor on July 2 (BBC). An icebreaker working with the fleet sustained damage and was forced to return to Dutch Harbor shortly after its departure, though the company says that this is not expected to be a major obstacle to operations (FuelFix). Although the company has passed most of the regulatory hurdles required to begin drilling by this point, Shell is still waiting on final approval from the U.S. government before it can commence operations. The company has already been forced by regulators to drill only one well this season after plans for a second well were shown to be in violation of a 2013 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulation regarding the disturbing of animal populations (Time). SCIENCE, ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE After a record low in May (NSIDC), the June Arctic sea ice extent was the third lowest on record since 1979, when continuous satellite measurements began (Reporting Climate Science). A study published inNature Climate Changeon June 29 links the decline of Arctic summer sea ice of the past decades to a changing Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which could result in a cooler climate in western Europe (AJ). MILITARY / SEARCH & RESCUE Experts are growing increasingly alarmed at the prospects for an all-out conflict between Russia and the United States as the Ukraine crisis continues unabated amidst deteriorating relations between the two countries. Speaking at a panel in Washington, D.C., “Graham Allison, director of Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Dimitri K. Simes, president of the Center for the National Interest and publisher of…[The National Interest} suggested that while leaders in both countries may not intend to escalate their disagreements on matters like the Ukraine crisis, poorly structured decision processes, opposing goals and divergent narratives can still produce conflict” (The National Interest). Allison’s remarks expanded upon his recent article in The National Interest, “Stumbling to War,” in which he warned that in the Ukraine crisis, “one can hear eerie echoes of the events a century ago that produced the catastrophe known as World War I.” Speaking in Washington, Allison cautioned that “Russia may believe that the use of threats and military force will produce the best outcomes in a serious confrontation with the West,” while Simes noted that in such a scenario, “the national-security bureaucracy in Russia would be unlikely to offer…Putin a ‘vigorous debate’ on policy approaches…and that there would be little space for dissenting voices.” Meanwhile, speaking at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., Irvin Studin of the University of Toronto and Russia’s Academy of National Economy and Public Administration argued that while such “conflicts are unlikely to erupt any time soon…competing claims for Arctic resources are inevitable,” and in the Ukraine crisis there exists “a much closer path to conflict in the Arctic” (APM). FISHERIES, SHIPPING AND OTHER BUSINESS NEWS Recently, three of Alaska’s strongest Native corporations - Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, NANA Regional Corporation and Bering Straits Native Corporation – announced the establishment of a business partnership called Inuit Arctic Business Alliance (IABA). Its aim is to better represent the interests of the entire region in the face of a potential increase in oil and gas development and shipping traffic (AS). HEALTH, YOUTH, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE The New York Times published a beautiful feature on a youth soccer tournament hosted in Iqaluit, Nunavut. The article, which includes a large photo spread, uses the under-16 indoor soccer tournament to highlight the sport’s growing importance and popularity in Canadian Arctic communities, particularly in Nunavut. According to the author, one cause of the sport’s growing popularity is that it offers a cheap method of community building for formerly nomadic Inuits (NYT). TIME Magazine published a spread of great photos documenting the harder aspects of life in the Russian Arctic. In particular, the pictures focus on the daily lives of workers in the oil and natural gas industry in the Russian Arctic. Check them out. Abbreviation Key Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) Aftenbladet (AB) Alaska Business Monthly (ABM) Alaska Dispatch News (AD) Alaska Journal of Commerce (AJOC) Alaska Native News (ANN) Alaska Public Media (APM) Arctic Info (Russian) (AIR) Arctic Institute (TAI) Barents Nova (BN) Barents Observer (BO) Bristol Bay Times (BBT) BusinessWeek (BW) Canadian Mining Journal (CMJ) Christian Science Monitor (CSM) Eye on the Arctic (EOTA) Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (NM) Financial Times (FT) Globe and Mail (G&M) Government of Canada (GOC) Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) Huffington Post (HP) Indian Country Today Media Network (ICTMN) Johnson’s Russia List (JRL) Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (KNR) Lapin Kansa (LK) Maritime Executive (MarEx) Moscow Times (MT) National Geographic (NG) Natural Gas Europe (NGE) Naval Today (NT) New York Times (NYT) Northern Journal (NORJ) Northern News Service Online (NNSO) Northern Public Affairs (NPA) Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) Nunatsiaq News (NN) Oil & Gas Journal (OGJ) Ottawa Citizen (OC) Petroleum News (PN) RIA Novosti (RIAN) Russia Beyond the Headlines (RBTH) Russia Today (RT) Voice of Russia (VOR) Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Washington Post (WP) Whitehorse Star (WS) Winnipeg Free Press (WFP) Yukon News (YN) |
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The Arctic This Week July 8
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