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Author: it@arcticportal.org

Cost of Arctic Warming

It can be agreed by most people that the Arctic as one of the last wildernesses in the world is invaluable. For the earth’s bio- and cultural diversity the Arctic as it appears today, covered with ice and snow, is irreplaceable and most environmental organizations agree that reducing climate change is the only way to preserve this fragile nature.

The Pew Environmental Group has, however, estimated the financial value of the Arctic sea ice to the world by estimating the value of the area in terms of the climate services it provides. According to the organizations preliminary calculations the loss of Arctic snow, ice and permafrost is estimated to cost the world in 2010 US$ 61 billion to $371 billion in lost climate cooling services. By 2050, the cumulative global cost is projected to range from US$2.4 trillion to $24.1 trillion; and by 2100, the cumulative cost could total between US$4.8 trillion and $91.3 trillion.

To learn more about the Pew Environmental Group and their melting Arctic sea ice project, please visit the Pew Charitable Trusts homepage

February 11, 2010
6th Annual Arctic Shipping Summit
The 6^th Annual Arctic shipping Summit will take place during between 27. and 29^th April 2010 in Helsinki Finland, with a pre-conference seminar on the 26.

Leading experts from a diverse background will come together and analyze critical development and practical challenges connected to Arctic Shipping, these include
- Strategic concerns, security and sovereignty
- Developments in transport and exploration in Russian Arctic, North
  America and Greenland
- The impact of climate change on potential navigation conditions
- Challenges of ice management operations for offshore vessels
- Technical challenges for design of ice-going ships and icebreakers
- Stakeholder discussion on current status of training for ice-going crew
Chairmen and speakers will include. Keynote wpeaker Sergey Donskoy, Deputy minister, Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation as well as
- Anders Backman, Rederi AB Trasatlantic
- Josep A. Casanovas, DG TREN, European Comission
- Reidun Haahjem, GARD AS
- Jan Fredrik Hammer, Beluga Projects (Norway) AS
- DR Mikhail Grigoriev, GECON
- Professor Frédéric Lasserre, Laval University
- Fre?de?ric Lasserre, Laval University > Malcolm Lowings, Golder Associates
- Wilhelm Magelssen, DNV
- Mikko Niini, Aker Arctic Technology Inc
- Capt David Snider, Martech Polar Consulting
- Dr Kirsi Tikka, ABS
- Professor Peter Wadhams, DAMTP, University of Cambridge
The last year has seen continuing developments in the prospects for Arctic shipping, including the first commercial voyage by a western shipping company through the Northern Sea Route from Asia to Europe. During the conferance participants will be given the oppertunity to hear from Beluga Shipping on the background and results from this transit. It is clear that the Arctic shipping summit will be an exiting event, attended by some of the most prominent actors interested in arctic shipping which no-one interested in Arctic shipping should overlook. Further information can be found at the informa maritime events homepage.
February 10, 2010
Arctic Portal in Arctic Frontiers Conference

Arctic Frontiers Conference 2010 in Tromso, Norway was the 4^th international Arctic meeting platform for stimulating and motivating pan-Arctic integration. This year’s Arctic Frontiers theme was “Living in the High North”, and had special focus on challenges to the development of sustainable communities.

The Conference is traditionally divided in to two sections; Policy section and Science section. This years Policy section had two sessions concentrating on Changes in strategies for the Arctic and Sustainable communities in the Arctic. The Science section was on the other hand divided in to four parts, each part representing different aspects affecting Arctic communities. Part I dealt with changes in ice and snow on land, in the seas, and in the ground (the cryosphere) and the distribution of Earth ?s heat and water. Part II concentrated on sustainable communities in the north focusing on the themes of economy, self-governance, well-being and health, while Part III covered issues on changing Marine Biodiversity in the Arctic.

This years Part IV was of special interest of the Arctic Portal and its partners, the session dealing with E-learning in the High North. The aim of the E-learning part of the conference was to exchange knowledge and research about E-learning in the Arctic communities and regions and specify the learning processes, pedagogy, and appropriate information technologies relevant to distant learners in these communities.

The Arctic Portal together with the University of the Arctic, University Centre of the Westfjords, International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry and Association of Polar Early Career Scientists is developing an online system that supports distance learning in the Arctic. This so called Virtual Classroom will be a virtual learning solution with a two-way communication between the teacher and students with open discussions and capabilities for classroom participation and real-time interaction. The Virtual Classroom will be accessible from any computer, giving that way inhabitants of small rural communities an opportunity to study without having to relocate to larger communities with traditional distance learning equipment / schools.

The Arctic Portal, together with other project partners, participated in the Arctic Frontiers Part IV poster session introducing results from their user requirement survey conducted in fall 2009. The survey examined the needs and requirements of students and educational staff in UArctic member institutions, providing the project group as well the Arctic Frontiers a valuable information on how the users of theses systems experience current technology and pedagogical preferences.

The main outcomes of the survey were that a real time interaction with the teacher and other students is highly appreciated. Many students felt that one of the downsides of distance learning is the lack of real time interaction within the class. In addition, many people thought that an access to a recorded lectures was highly preferable to enhance the learning experience. On the other hand, many students expressed their satisfaction with the contemporary distance learning arrangements, since it gave them an opportunity to organize their time and studies as they preferred independent of the schedule of the school.

To learn more about the Virtual Learning project, please visit the homepage of the project

February 1, 2010
Antarctic Climate Change and Environment

The first comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica’s climate and its relationship to the global climate system was published in the beginning of December 2009 by the Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research (SCAR).

The newly published report examines the highly complex relationship of Antarctic environment with the global ecosystem that is increasingly affected by human activity. Already some signs of the changed Antarctic environment had been detected, i.e. the Antarctic ozone hole, but the fact is that the climate change has and will most likely have an unprecedented affect on the Antarctic and thus to us all. For example, contains Antarctica 90% of the world’s ice and 70% of the world’s fresh water, which is enough to raise sea level by 63 m.

The report draws, however, quite interesting picture of the changing environment in the Antarctic. While the overall surface temperature and ice coverage around the continent have remained the same over the past 30 years, some specific parts of Antarctica are experiencing significant change.

First, the report points out that for the last 30 years the ozone hole has shielded the bulk of the Antarctic from the effects of the global warming. The report maintains that despite the quite extensive changes in the surface temperature and snowfall around the Antarctic the temperature as well as Antarctic overall snowfall have remained at the same level. It is further notable, that while sea ice extent across the Arctic Ocean has decreased markedly over recent decades, around the Antarctic it has increased by 10% since 1980, particularly in the Ross Sea region. This increase is a result of the stronger winds around the continent, changes in atmospheric circulation and the isolating effect of the ozone hole. This is especially interesting, since the Antarctic Circumpolar Current around the continent has warmed more rapidly than the global ocean as a whole resulting in a major change in the Southern Ocean ecosystem. In recent decades the Ocean has become less effective in absorbing CO₂ and ecological key species (such as planktonic snails) are expected to be negatively affected by progressive ocean acidification.

On the other hand, along with higher temperatures, the Antarctic Peninsula on the west coast of the continent, has experienced a marked switch from snowfall to rain during the summer, which has led to rapid expansion of plant communities and the colonization of newly available land by plants and animals. In addition, there has been significant thinning of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, especially around the Amundsen Sea Embayment, as well as a few smaller coastal areas in East Antarctica, which has resulted in diminishing Krill stocks and changed distribution of Adélie penguins.

The report predicts that if greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere doubles over the next century, the Antarctic will warm around 3°. This increase could contribute to a projected total sea level rise of up to 1.4 metres by 2100.

For further information, please go to the Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research or access the SCAR publications

January 25, 2010
The Yearbook of Polar Law

The Yearbook of Polar Law is a new annual Yearbook dealing with Law and the Polar Regions. The demand for this new publication seems apparent for anyone following current affairs.

The perceived scramble for the vast natural resources lying underneath the polar ice and seas has garnered a lot of media attention, even though legal scholars have made the point that the process of States claiming extended continental shelves is governed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Indigenous peoples are gaining more self-governance in the Arctic as a result of domestic and international law developments. The Greenlanders have been recognized as a people or a nation. Tourism is on the increase in both Polar Regions, creating a need to come up with stricter regulations. The Polar Regions will also be seriously affected by global environmental problems like persistent organic pollutants, ozone depletion and climate change, creating a need for the polar regimes to try to influence global treaty processes that manage these problems.

Volume 1 of the Yearbook of Polar Law contains 23 peer- reviewed articles as well as the opening keynote address by H.E. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, President of the Republic of Iceland at an international Polar law symposium held at the University of Akureyri in Iceland in September 2008. The special editor of the first volume is Dr David Leary from the University of New South Wales, Australia. The editors-in-chief are Professor Gudmundur Alfredsson, University of Akureyri, Iceland and University of Strasbourg, France, and Professor Timo Koivurova, Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland.

The articles published in Volume 1 cover four broad themes including challenges for the protection of biodiversity and wilderness in the Polar Regions; sustainable development and human rights; environmental governance in the Polar Regions and emergent and re-emerging jurisdictional issues in the Polar Regions.

For further information on this publication, please see the homepage of the publisher

January 18, 2010
Climate Change and Arctic Sustainable Development Report

UNESCO Publishing has just released Climate Change and Arctic Sustainable Development: Scientific, Social, Cultural and Educational Challenges.

This book brings together the knowledge, concerns and visions of leading Arctic experts in the natural and social sciences, and of prominent indigenous leaders from across the circumpolar North.

For more information: http://publishing.unesco.org/details.aspx?&Code_Livre=4722&change=E

January 15, 2010
The Arctic Tern Migration Project

Recently, a new international study on The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) was released revealing an impressive migratory pattern of the small seabird.

An international research group with researchers from Greenland, Denmark, the US, UK and Iceland successfully mapped the impressive migratory pattern of 71,000 km from Greenland to the Weddell sea on the shores of Antarctica and back. What is interesting is that the Arctic tern flyes two different patters depending whether it is going north or south and spends almost a month on an island in the North-Atlantic before heading south. In addition, the birds separate on the coast of northwest Africa on their way south, half of the birds continuing down the coast of Africa the other half crossing through the Atlantic Ocean flying down south along the east coast of South America.

The migration of the Arctic tern is the longest animal migration known today, which is very impressive considering that the bird is just over 100 grams.

For more information, please visit the Arctic tern Migration Project homepage

(image: Carsten Egevang)

January 12, 2010
Svalbard – At the End of the World
If you would travel to the end of the world, where would you go? For some world ends in south, but if you would head north you would most likely end up in Svalbard, a group of islands between 74° – 81° N in the Arctic Sea.

The islands were first discovered in the 16^th century by a Dutch explorer Willem Barents and visited by many other nationalities during the next 300 years. Russian trappers were first to winter on the islands between 1715-1850. Norwegians on the other hand did not start regular hunting on the islands before the mid 19^th century.

Until the beginning of the 20^th century, Svalbard, as the islands are called today, was “no mans land”. Many negotiations were held to establish a sovereignty over the islands and finally in 1920, a Spitsbergen Treaty was signed establishing a Norwegian sovereignty over the islands. In the Treaty, Svalbard was made a part of the Norwegian Kingdom, giving though all the signatory nations unrestricted right to natural resource exploitation. Due to this right small “foreign” mining communities have been established on the islands over the years, the biggest being the Russian settlement in Barentsburg with today some 500 inhabitants.

Svalbard archipelago is 63 000 sq.km some 60% being covered by glaciers. Largest islands are Spitsbergen (37 673 sq.km), Nordaustlandet, Barentsøya, Edgeøya and Prins Karls Forland. Largest settlements on the other hand are Longyearbyen, Norwegian administrative centre, with 2 080 inhabitants, Barentsburg, Russian mining community, with 500 inhabitants, Ny-Ålesund, Norwegian international research centre, with 40 inhabitants, Sveagruva, Norwegian mining community, with 210 commuters and Hornsund, Polish research station, with 8 inhabitants.

Despite of its harsh climate, Svalbard is a home for some Arctic animals. Svalbard Reindeer, Arctic fox, Polar Bear and southern Vole (a foreigner that has settled on the islands) inhabit the islands in addition to wide range of sea mammals and 36 species of birds that nest on the rocky mountain cliffs. Polar bear used to be hunted, but was protected in 1973 and today only 3-4 polar bears are killed yearly. Though the islands are well above the tree-line and only 6-7% of the land area is covered by vegetation a great variety of flowers can also be found in the islands.

The main industries in Svalbard are mining, tourism and research. For long period the only industry found in the islands was mining, but recently eco-tourism and international research have become increasingly important.

It is estimated that around 70 000 tourists visit the islands every year arriving either by plane or by sea. Great majority of the visitors are Norwegian, but mainland Europeans are increasingly visiting the islands as well. Most of the tourist, apart from the cruise liners visiting Svalbard for a day or two as part of a longer cruise, come to the archipelago for the extraordinary nature and extreme conditions. Different kinds of organized outdoors activities are among the most popular tourist attractions in addition to archaeological and mining museums, which can be found in Longyearbyen, Barentsburg, Ny-Alesund and Bear Island.

Svalbard is one of the main areas for Arctic research. Due to its geographical situation it offers an ideal insight in to the Arctic reality. Norway is by far the largest research nation in Svalbard accounting almost for half of the research days on the islands. Russians, Germans and Polish account together for another 40%, together with Norwegians accounting for 84% for the Svalbard research. Norway operates also a University Center in Svalbard (UNIS) which offers higher education at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level in Arctic Biology, Arctic Geology, Arctic Geophysics and Arctic Technology. Yearly, approximately 350 students come to Svalbard for a shorter or longer period half being Norwegian students and half international students.

Though at the end of the world, Svalbard offers a variety of interesting opportunities for work, education and travel for those interested in the Arctic. To learn more about Svalbard please visit the following homepages:
January 5, 2010
COP15 president Connie Hedegaard resignes

COP15 president Connie Hedegaard resigned this morning. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will replace her as head of the Conference.

Hedegaard has maintained herself that nothing dramatic is behind her resignation and that she will continue her work as a negotiator in the COP15 as a special representative of Mr. Lokke Rasmussen. Over 100 heads of States will arrive to Copenhagen for the last three days of negotiations and it is only natural that the Danish Prime Minister takes over the presidency of the Conference at this point, she said.

As the stakes are getting higher only three days being left of the Conference, the political pressure is increasing. Developing countries are not satisfied with the draft layed down by the inductrialized countries and it seems increasingly difficult to get industrialized countries to agree upon Kyoto-like procedure, where developed countries bear the main responsibility of the emission reduction.

December 16, 2009
Cop 15 Compilation

During the UNFCCC COP15 conference 2009 The Arctic Portal covered the event by gathering interesting material and publishing it on it’s site. A compilation of this material can be found here bellow.

The 15^th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 15) and the 5th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol will be held in December 7-18 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark. The COP15 is of special significance because of the goals set forth in the Bali Road Map, where it was stated that in Copenhagen, a post-Kyoto Protocol action is to be negotiated.

Here you can follow the COP15 Conference, read the latest news and get information on the most current issues concerning climate change. Climate Change has be identified as one of the key issues of the Polar regions and the outcome of COP 15 therefor highly important.

Visit the official COP15 website

Multimedia Content

Highlights Published daily from Cop15

For those interested in the presentation of the Greenland Ice Sheet- and Melting Ice-reports at COP15, there was an entire side event was webcasted by the UNFCCC. It has now been published on the UNFCCC website and can be viewed by following clicking the Icon Below

News by date

16.12.09 Cop 15 President resigns

COP15 president Connie Hedegaard resigned this morning. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will replace her as head of the Conference. Hedegaard has maintained herself that nothing dramatic is behind her resignation and that she will continue her work as a negotiator in the COP15 as a special representative of Mr. Lokke Rasmussen. Over 100 heads of States will arrive to Copenhagen for the last three days of negotiations and it is only natural that the Danish Prime Minister takes over the presidency of the Conference at this point, she said.

As the stakes are getting higher only three days being left of the Conference, the political pressure is increasing. Developing countries are not satisfied with the draft laid down by the industrialized countries and it seems increasingly difficult to get industrialized countries to agree upon Kyoto-like procedure, where developed countries bear the main responsibility of the emission reduction.

14.12.09 Climate Talks in Turbulence

China, India and other developing nations boycotted Climate talks today, as a protest and to demand that rich countries discuss a far more extensive cut in their emissions. This is believed to include 135 nations, which will refuse to participate in any formal working groups until the issue was resolved. This has to bee seen as a setback for the talks, and illustrates the long-term dispute between rich and poor nations over emissions cuts and financing cuts to deal with climate change. This has however not been interpreted as the talks are falling apart al together but rather as a ploy intended to move the agenda to the responsibilities of the industrial countries before the arrival of over 100 world leaders are scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen.

14.12.09 Protest in Copenhagen

More than 200 Protestors were arrested in Copenhagen on Sunday. Approximately 1000 protesters from across Europe were present, the crowd started targeting the Danish shipping giant Moller-Maersk which is when the Police decided to intervene. When some of the activists refused to cooperate an entire group of 200 people were arrested including a times reporter. The protesters were moved to a warehouse in Valby which has been set up with contemporary holding cells. A police spokeswoman confirmed around 200 arrest and pointed out that it was an illegal demonstrations and that some of the activists brought gas masks and things to throw. Yesterday 968 protesters where arrested during a mass march on the summit venue yesterday afternoon, out of these 968 all but 13 have been released.

10.12.09

So far the major issues around the Copenhagen COP15 have concentrated on the participation of world leaders to one of the biggest gathering in the field of environmental law and politics. The aim is to reach an agreement on post-Kyoto CO2 emission reduction. Many leading scientists maintain that the world’s CO2 rate has reached dangerous levels and that if nothing is done to reduce the emissions the world will face unprecedented consequences. Legally binding agreement for the world’s leading polluters is inevitably necessary, but it is debatable whether the political will of states is enough to create any change.

In addition to the politicians, Copenhagen has attracted a vast amount of representatives from different fields of civil society. In recent years, many global movements have been created around the action against climate change and many of them have now gathered to Copenhagen. On Wednesday a small group of activists from 350 movement demonstrated outside the conference hall demanding fair and legally binding climate deal. Further, members from other global movements, such as Tck and many others are gathering to People’s Climate Summit, an NGO Summit, to draft what they call “A People’s Declaration”.

Despite the huge pressure to seal the deal in Copenhagen, some doubts have been expressed on whether the solutions that are on the table are the best ones and whether they actually solve any of the problems. Just last week one of the leading climate change scientists James Hansen from Nasa’s Goddard Institute, expressed his doubts on the existing emission trade system comparing it to selling indulgences. He claimed that under the Kyoto mechanisms rich countries buy cheap emission credits from developing countries contributing that way to the existing economic unbalance in the world and some of the worst poverty scenarios. Further, it has been maintained that the Kyoto mechanisms do not actually address the real problem, the CO2 emission, but are one more scam for large corporations to gain money.

Here below you can watch Annie Leonard’s provocative and eye-opening short film on cap and trade, the main mechanism in use to combat CO2 pollution.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA6FSy6EKrM]

09.12.09 Danish Draft Leaked to Media

Guardian / cop15.dk – There seems to be a great change coming in the climate change negotiations, after the “Danish” draft of an agreement was leaked to media yesterday. The developing countries accuse the draft of being a legalisation of the developing / industrialized division in the world and contributing to the already existing problems in the developing countries. The UNFCCC head Yvo de Boer on the other hand said that only an informal paper is in question and that formal proposals will be only provided by the Chairs of the Conference.

It will be though interesting to see if the text of the “draft” gives any hint of what can be expexted on behalf of the industrialized countries and whether the so much talked about political will is actually only a wishful thinking. What is sure is that the negotiations are of crucial importance for the global community and a just and equal agreement should be reached for the benefit of us all.

04.12.09 Climate Investment funds

Now when almost all the major players have announced their emission reduction targets, the talk has turned to money and the ways the battle against climate change can be financed. The US has proposed that a new climate fund should be established under the World Bank, which would direct funding to climate projects in developing countries. Further, the Asian Development Bank intends to direct 700 million dollars to two new investment funds that will primarily concentrate on financing climate change projects in developing countries. In short term, it has been estimated, that some 10 billion dollars are needed to cover the costs of the most current developments. In long term, some 100 billion dollars a year might be needed to cover the costs of climate change adaptation.

04.12.09

Arctic Council – During the COP15, December 7- December 18, an Arctic Venue will be held at The North Atlantic Quay in Copenhagen. In the Venue, Arctic cooperation and the latest Arctic research will be introduced as well as the Arctic reality as it appears today to the Arctic residents presented in various exhibitions, booths, posters, lectures and debates. The Quay itself will be wrapped up as an iceberg, an installation designed by Greenlandic artist Inuk Silis Høegh.The Venue is open daily during the COP15 between 12.00-18.00.

(image: Arctic Council)

04.12.09 Call for New Climate Change Solutions

The Times – As aspired as a new global climate change agreement in Copenhagen is, it has begun to seem that an agreement with almost any content is enough. One of the world’s leading climate change scientists, James Hansen from Nasa’s Goddard Institute, has expressed his doubts on the existing emission trade system comparing it to selling indulgences. Rich countries buy emission credits from developing countries with relatively small amounts and contribute that way to the existing economic inbalance between industrialized and developing countries. The system in itself is not designed to reduce emissions, but rather to create an image of reduction and equality, though failing in both. Very few open discussions have taken place on what exactly should be the content of the new agreement and little or none public evaluation on the success or failure of the Kyoto protocol has taken place.

Recently, the UN carbon trade management body suspended Chinese wind power farm plans due to the lack of “additionality”, a condition that is required for any project to qualify as a “Clean Development Mechanism”. It is suspected that China has used the CDM system to finance projects that would have in any case been constructed, thus not adding any clean energy mechanisms through the investment into already planed energy scheme.

It is clear that before further steps are taken in global climate change discourse, the mechanisms existing today must be evaluated and new and better solutions developed to enable a real battle against the world wide problem of global warming.

04.12.09 COP15 Participants from Arctic Countries

Already 65 world leaders have confirmed their attendance to the COP15 in Copenhagen in two weeks. What is, however, still unclear is whether the heads of states of the world’s top three carbon polluters – USA, China and India – will attend. The Arctic countries are well represented in the climate change conference, since in addition of being hosted by Denmark, the conference will attract JIm Prentice, the Minister of the Environment and Michael Martin, Chief Negotiator and Ambassador for Climate Change from Canada and Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Prime Minister and Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the Minister of the Environment from Iceland. In addition, Finland will send both the Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and the President Tarja Halonen in association with Paula Lehtomaki, the Minister of the Environment and Jan Vapaavuori, the Minister for Housing and Nordic Cooperation.

Sweden and Norway are yet to announce their delegation, but they are as well expected to send a high-profile delegation.

December 16, 2009