“The world turns its gaze toward the Arctic. Nowhere are the signs of climate change more visible; here global warming already affects the day-to-day lives of the local people. Still the circumpolar Arctic is one of the most disputed territories on Earth, with many nations laying claim to the mining and oil rights of the area as the sea ice retreats. For thousands of years the Inuit have built their communities based upon a sensitive understanding of the land and the frozen ocean, but rapid social and environmental change threatens their traditional way of life. The hunters of the North are a dying breed. This is the twilight of their society.” (rax.is)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3yxDnaben4]
Ragnar Axelsson is an Icelandic photographer and photojournalist, born in 1958. He has worked for the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið since 1976 and as a freelance shooting projects in various parts of the world for numerous magazines and agencies. The North has for a long time fascinated him and different aspects of north appeared in his photography regularly. In 2004, he published “Faces of the north“, a collection of his black and white photographs of traditional ways of life in Iceland, the Faroes and Greenland taken over a period of fifteen years, preserving that way a glimpse of a lifestyle that is gradually vanishing.
His newest publication “Last days of the Arctic” is a breathtaking introduction to a life of Greenlandic hunters in the most remote communities in the world. Professor Mark Nuttall, one of the leading Arctic scholars, wrote the foreword for the book, which in sincere and simple way represents the part of world that we now watch changing.
To learn more about Ragnar Axelsson, please visit his homepage.
Here below you can see a documentary of him made by his son Jón Snær Ragnarsson. The film is in Icelandic only.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPdnjLSvG1Q]
Since the end of the cold war the Arctic has been changing in ever increasing speed. Not only does the international community face immense environmental challenges that will influence every part of the world, but also will the Arctic states face territorial claims, issues concerning maritime transportation and infrastructure, natural resource exploitation and a whole new political setting. The Arctic is becoming a lively international region rich of natural resources and high economic potential. The fact is, however, that there is lacking a common political agenda for the future in the Arctic and a legal framework for the emerging maritime activities. Infrastructure on the Arctic coastline is not ready to welcome the incipient economical activities and the participation procedure of the indigenous peoples in developing the area has not yet been fully established. Most of these activities must be undertaken jointly by all the Arctic nations for them to have real impact. The shortage of the Arctic Council mandate to deal with issues other than environment has led to a situation where decisions are made in isolation creating thus incomplete and fragmented framework for the Arctic region.
The Akureyri Golf Club in northern Iceland was founded in 1935 and is the home to the Arctic Open Golf Tournament, which is played under the midnight sun at Midsummer Day. The Arctic Open Tournament was first held in 1986 and Players do not have to worry about darkness cramping their style because the sun barely dips below the horizon.
Many important linkages between Polar Law issues and questions are addressed in other realms of the humanities and social sciences. Many of the Arctic or Antarctic developments are a result of, or the subject of ongoing political or international relations discourses. For example, various current and emerging security issues in both areas; the adaptation or mitigation capacity-building of communities in facing their attempt to face the consequences of climate change or bi- or multi-lateral diplomacy and political controversies in the negation of outstanding legal disagreements in the Arctic; the impact of the cold war on the outcome of the Antarctic Treaty provisions (e.g., the principle of demilitarization), to name but a few. In other words, as a discipline, “Polar Law” is developing in a multi-disciplinary direction suggesting that it is of the utmost significance for the discipline to utilize information gained from, and maintain linkages with, the various cognate humanities and social sciences (e.g., Human Geography, Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, and International Relations).
The content of the textbook is developed in line with the expertise garnered from different areas of law. Thus, chapters by Koivurova, Van-derZwaag and Potts provide us with an analysis of various aspects of international environmental law and the law of sea in relation to the Arctic and the Antarctic (including matters of environmental protection, shipping and marine living resources). The chapter by Bankes provides us with a useful overview of energy resources law highlighting the relevant developments in the Arctic. The chapters by Alfredsson, Kleist, Loukacheva, and Sambo Dorough form the bedrock of the theoretical analysis undertaken here while also highlighting a number of practical examples in the areas of international and domestic human rights law and the constitutional law in the Arctic. They also touch upon the questions of self-governance, sustainable governance and indigenous peoples’ rights. The textbook also contains valuable information on regional and local economies in the Arctic (see the chapter by Larsen), political matters and international relations (see chapters by Kleist, Diatchkova and Loukacheva). Despite its comprehensive content, the textbook nevertheless leaves room for further research in the area of Polar Law and its connection to other cognate disciplines. The textbook is the first educational material of its kind in the field and can be seen as a milestone in the promotion of legal values in both the Nordic community and indeed globally.
The day ended with a barbecue out on one of the archipelagos stretching into the Oslo fjord. The event was held by the Frammuseum which is dedicated to the ship Fram and the history of Norwegian polar explorations. The trip started by Akerbryggja and included a 15 minute trip with the local ferries. The barbecue and museum exhibition were quite a success and the guest generally like the moose hotdogs that were on the menu.
After the grand opening ceremony the sessions started under the six themes. You almost feel that it is a shame that all of this is happening at once since there are always more than one interesting sessions occurring at any given moment so choosing between them is quite a challenge.
The polar Expo is located in a very large area and has almost all things polar on display ranging from small posters to massive arctic vehicles. The polar information commons were officially launched 16:15 and aims to insure that the IPY data legacy are more generally open and accessible and safely preserved for future generations.
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