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Arctic Canada
An international team of scientists will try to avoid polar bears, frostbite and cracks in the sea ice, as they drive across the Northwest Passage in a Humvee.
The team hopes to help advance human exploration on the Moon and Mars and measure the thickness of the ice in the passage.
The trip,organized by the Mars Institute and supported by both NASA and the Canadian Space Agency begins in Kugluktuk, western Nunavut and ends at the Haughton-Mars Project Research Station on Devon Island in eastern Nunavut.AP
Construction of Arctic Bay's new airport, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2010, is being delayed by warming climate and eroding permafrost. Northern News Service
A northern logistics firm has opened an office in Winnipeg to help simplify the shipping of goods between southern Manitoba and Nunavut.
Starting today, customers living in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut will be able to hire Braden-Burry Expediting to handle all of the shipping arrangements for goods being shipped from Winnipeg to their Nunavut communities. Northern News Service
Canadian Polar Commission, Canada's lead agency on polar research needs to start fresh with a new mandate, more funding and more staff or be disbanded, says Terry Fenge, an independent consultant on Arctic affairs.
CBC
Meanwhile, the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory in Nunavut faces a precarious future as two key sources of federal money that keep the lab and its science going are drying up. Calgary Herald, AB
Alaska
Alaska residents receiving unemployment insurance benefits will see a temporary $25 hike in their weekly benefit as part of the federal economic stimulus package, under an agreement signed by Gov. Sarah Palin. The additional weekly benefit are 100 percent federally funded and will have no fiscal impact on the State of Alaska. KTVA, AK
A new state report is sharply critical of BP for neglecting a natural gas pipeline that ruptured last fall in the Prudhoe Bay oil field, hurling big hunks of mangled steel pipe across the tundra. The rupture was the result of what has become a painfully persistent problem for BP – corrosion that can eat holes in Prudhoe Bay's vast and aging pipeline network. McClatchy
Six weeks ago, Mount Redoubt came roaring back to life in a fit of seismic activity that prompted experts to issue warnings that the peak could erupt within a matter of hours. Weeks later it has yet to erupt.
John Power, a geophysicist at the Alaska Volcano observatory in Anchorage, said the peak has continued to show signs that have led him and his colleagues to believe the peak will still erupt.Peninsula Clarion, AK
A Coalition of Alaskan indigenous peoples, citizens and community organizations are demonstrating support for students protesting Uranium activity in the traditional cultural use areas near the Arctic Inupiat community of Elim. The students are leading the effort to raise awareness on the uranium’s destructive impacts on the environment, ecosystem and people.
Atlantic Free Press
The executive vice president of lands and resource development for Arctic Slope Regional Corp, Richard Glenn, says he is confident that exploration drilling more than 60 miles from shore can be done safely and with little negative impact on villages and subsistence.The Arctic Sounder
Skyrocketing coastal erosion occurred in Alaska between 2002 and 2007 along a 64 kilometer (40 mile) stretch of the Beaufort Sea, a new study finds. The surge of erosion in recent years, averaging more than double historical rates, is threatening coastal towns and destroying Alaskan cultural relics.
Science Daily
One hundred thirty miles north of Nome, a small coastal village on Sarichef Island is feeling the effects of climate change. Shishmaref, Alaska, is falling into the sea. Rising temperatures are melting the permafrost, the layer of frozen ground beneath the surface. Without this firm base, waves have eroded the land on which Shishmaref’s villagers make their home. They must relocate their houses inland or start all over somewhere else.
Popular Science
Four miles south of the Arctic Circle, the morning sky is streaked with apricot. Frozen rivers split the tundra of the Seward Peninsula, coiling into vast lakes. And on a silent, wind-whipped pond, a lone figure, sweating and panting, shovels snow off the ice.
The young woman with curly reddish hair stops, scribbles data, snaps a photo, grabs a heavy metal pick and stabs at white orbs in the thick black ice.
"Every time I see bubbles, I have the same feeling," says Katey Walter, a University of Alaska researcher. "They are amazing and beautiful."
Beautiful, yes. But ominous. When her pick breaks through the surface, the orbs burst with a low gurgle, spewing methane, a potent greenhouse gas that could accelerate the pace of climate change across the globe.
Los Angeles Times
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Cold War?
There was no good reason for the Conservative government to poke the Russians over Arctic sovereignty questions. Canada does not have any maritime boundary disputes with this northern neighbour, and in fact the largest unsettled dispute involves not Russia but Canada's ally, the United States, which incidentally has also taken the lead in disputing Canada's control over the Northwest Passage.
The largest of the disputes involves a large area of the Beaufort Sea, which has rich oil reserves, claimed by both Canada and the U.S. And, of course, there is the squabble with Denmark over Hans Island. Despite the bravado associated with planting the Russian flag at the North Pole, and despite the Russian penchant for flexing its rusty military muscle, it's not Russia that Canada need concern itself with.
Globe and Mail
Canada
Michael Byers, the Canada Research Chair in global politics and international law at the University of British Columbia, is urging the federal government to work with the new administration in the United States on resolving long-standing disputes over the Northwest Passage and other Arctic areas.
The U.S. and Canada have long disagreed on the status of the Northwest Passage, with Canada maintaining that it has sovereign claim over it. Earlier this year, then-U.S. president George W. Bush released a new Arctic policy, reiterating that nation's position that the Northwest Passage is a "strait used for international navigation."CBC
This week, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon stressed Canada's wider interest in leading a "collaborative process" with countries such as the United States and Russia to manage polar disputes as the resource-rich region becomes more accessible. Gunboats alone can't guarantee Canada's claim to the Arctic. While we should aim to project a credible military presence in the Far North, we must also play a more robust role in circumpolar diplomacy, science, geological mapping and development.Toronto Star
United States
As President Obama pursues economic recovery, he has a significant opportunity to promote global security and stability by advocating for ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Proponents include former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton; former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice, Gen. Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Admiral Mike Mullins, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; major environmental groups and many others.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Scores of sailors are headed to the frigid waters off the northern coast of Alaska for an exercise that will test undersea tactics in Arctic conditions.
Ice Exercise 2009 begins later this month and will last roughly two weeks, depending on ice conditions, according to Lt. j.g. Megan Issac, spokeswoman at Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, in Norfolk, Va.
The attack submarines that will participate are on the way. Helena left San Diego for northern waters Friday and Annapolis left Groton on Monday. During the Cold War, U.S. submarines began operating frequently under polar ice. The first submarine to make a submerged transit across the top of the globe and reach the North Pole was Nautilus in 1958.
The polar region has been subject to increased attention lately because of the effects of climate change and potential international competition for natural resources.Navy Times
Five countries own the Arctic - sort of.
A 1982 United Nations treaty called "The Law of the Sea" grants ownership of significant undersea portions to the U.S., Canada, Russia, Norway and Denmark, but any country can use it for transit.
Lately, that access has led to some sleepless nights for U.S. military and national security strategic planners.
Melting ice - whether it's the result of climate change or natural phenomena - has created a list of problems.
"It has national security implications, homeland security implications and commercial and natural resource implications that we need to address in a measured methodical way," says Rear Adm. Dave A. Gove, the oceanographer/navigator of the Navy.
WTOP
Russia
Russia's navy will monitor submarine exercises by the U.S. navy to be held under the Arctic Ocean later this month, a Russian navy spokesman told the RIA-Novosti state news agency on Thursday.
"Any activities by foreign submarines in the immediate vicinity of Russia's maritime borders naturally require increased attention by the navy," said the spokesman for Russia's Pacific Fleet, based in the port of Vladivostok.
Easy Bourse
Norway
For Norway, a small country with strategic interests stretching far into Arctic waters, cooperation with the four other states with Arctic coastlines is vital. In a recent speech to parliament, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that Russia is a key axis in Norwegian High North policy and that Norwegian-Russian cooperation is developing positively. He also maintained that the Arctic could become an important part of Norway’s cooperation with the European Union. In addition, the new administration of Barrack Obama has already expressed commitment to fight climate change and to step up cooperation efforts in the Arctic.Barents Observer
Feet on the ground
Rankin Inlet was the first stop in an eight-community tour by Canadian Forces Joint Task Force North commander Brig.-Gen. David Millar this past month. He met with Rangers, Junior Rangers, cadets, elders, administrative officers, mayors and educators in each locale.He said the rangers are the Canadian Forces in the North.
"The Rangers are our eyes and ears, and there's no substitute for boots on the ground and people living in the communities."
Nunatsiaq News
Nunavut premier, Eva Aariak says, "There are no dots or lines on the lands, waters and ice of the North as there are on maps. Instead, Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic is proven by, and relies almost totally on, the continuous presence of Inuit here for centuries.
It is our residents who embody sovereignty."Nunatsiaq News
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There is a rapidly growing body of knowledge regarding the size and extent of large potential hydrocarbon resources throughout the Arctic region. Increased attention to the region is driven by a combination of factors including: the melting of the Arctic ice cap enabling ease of access to formerly difficult operating areas, the need for new sources of energy due to geopolitical issues such as difficulties in the Middle East, the depletion of existing hydrocarbon resources and the significantly increased demand for existing resources brought on by the energy needs of China and India which have become major importers of energy.
Russia and the US, the two most powerful regional military powers in the Arctic, view the Arctic as an area of the highest geostrategic importance for their future national security. Canada therefore cannot afford to be either slow or late in ensuring that its national security concerns are well known to all concerned and well represented through increased presence and capability in the region.
Cutting Edge News
Water
Importing water is not a new idea. For years, engineers and politicians have been coming up with proposals to transport water from water-rich northern California or Alaska down to the desert south-west.
In the early 1970s, the US Bureau of Reclamation began looking into the idea of building an underwater aqueduct to carry water from northern California to the south of the state.
The feasibility studies were never completed, but in the 1990s, Alaska Governor Walter Hickel resurrected the idea of an ocean pipeline, this time to transport water from Alaska to the south-west US.
Several companies have been formed in recent years promising to make water transportation a reality, according to the consultants' report.
One such firm - Transglobal Trade - has signed long-term agreements with Native American groups in Alaska for bulk water rights, although it has yet to begin shipping it.
And Global H20 Resources, a Canadian firm, has been granted rights to 4.8bn gallons of glacier water every year for 30 years by the Alaskan city of Sitka.
For years, engineers have dreamed of tapping into the freshwater resources of the Arctic, by towing icebergs from northern waters down to California.
But such proposals have always foundered because of the impracticability of insulating the ice to prevent melting in transit.
BBC
Transport
It seems harsh to say that bad news for polar bears is good for Pat Broe. Mr. Broe, a Denver entrepreneur, bought the derelict Churchill's Hudson Bay port from the Canadian government in 1997 for about $7.
By Mr. Broe's calculations, Churchill could bring in as much as $100 million a year as a port on Arctic shipping lanes shorter by thousands of miles than routes to the south, and traffic would only increase as the retreat of ice in the region clears the way for a longer shipping season.
Common Dreams
A Highway to the End of the World -
The Dempster Highway has the distinction of being Canada's first road to cross the Arctic Circle. For 734 km this gravel lifeline winds through Yukon to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. It follows a traditional Gwich'in hunting and trapping trail across three mountain ranges, two continental divides, five rivers and two time zones.
Northern Research Portal
Mining
Alaska lawmakers this year are beginning to look deeper into the massive, controversial Pebble project. The debate over Pebble involves a proposal to build one of the world's biggest hard-rock mines in the headwaters of the world's biggest sockeye salmon fishery. Many consider it a battle on the scale of the duel over oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The mineral prospect north of Iliamna, in Southwest Alaska, could hold metals worth hundreds of billions of dollars. It holds an estimated 72 billion pounds of copper, 94 million ounces of gold and 4.8 billion pounds of molybdenum.
Anchorage Daily News
During the past few years, the Canadian diamond industry has branded itself as a perfect “guilt-free choice” for the progressive consumer, often to the consternation of those committed to creating benefit through African diamonds. Though no conflict diamonds are coming from Canada, every diamond has an impact, no matter where it comes from. And there is no denying the diamond mining impact on People, Wildlife in NWT of Canada.
It’s all about the ice road trucker, driving across the tundra. When you have a strip mine you have all kinds of impacts — roads and infrastructure, waste water, spills of oil and gas, the dust from trucks driving up from the pits 24 hours a day, and the oxidizing waste rock piles...what they do to the water and acidification of the water, to the aquatic life, is monumental.
Diamonds.net
Russian mining and metallurgy giant Norilsk Nickel has received yet another newly-built ice-protected vessel, thus completing the establishment of its own Arctic fleet.
The diesel-electric vessel “Nadezhda” is the fifth and last in a series build on order from Norilsk Nickel as part of the company’s strategy to achieve transport independence along Arctic routes. All the new vessels are able to operate without icebreaker assistance.
Barents Observe
Aurora Energy Resources Inc. ("the Company" or "Aurora") (TSX:AXU - News) is pleased to announce that it has secured a strategic addition to its assets through a deal with Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd. ("Pacific Ridge") (TSX VENTURE:PEX - News) on a uranium exploration and development opportunity in the Baker Basin of Nunavut, Canada.
Biz-Yahoo
The arctic Sydvaranger mine outside Kirkenes, Norway, wants to become one of the first ever mines running on wind energy.
Together with the Troms Kraft company, the Sydvaranger Mine intends to invest about 700 million NOK (80 mill EUR) on the acquisition and erection of 20 windmills. That will be enough to fuel mining operations, company representative Per Helge Høgaas told newspaper Sør-Varanger Avis.
Barents Observer
Fossil Fuels
A bill introduced Friday by U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska would permit oil production in the ecologically sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but only from directional wells that are drilled outside the refuge's borders.
Murkowski, a Republican who first announced her plan last week during an address to the Alaska legislature, characterized the bill as a compromise that addresses environmentalists' concerns about impacts within the refuge while allowing for some of the oil beneath it to be tapped.
Environmentalists criticized the idea.
Reuters
ConocoPhillips is working with the U.S. Department of Energy on a field test of carbon dioxide injection and methane production in a gas hydrate on the North Slope, according to the company's manager for the project.
"This potential supply of a clean fossil fuel will remain untapped unless a technically and economically viable means of producing methane from hydrates is found," said David Schoderbek, ConocoPhillips' manager of the hydrate project.
If the procedure works it could also open up a new way of storing CO2 that will be produced when commercial gas production begins on the North Slope, Schoderbek said.
Alaska Journal
A federal appeals court has vacated an opinion issued last year that halted Shell Oil Co. drilling plans for the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's northern coast, leaving both sides in the case wondering what the action means.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday gave no indication whether a change in the Nov. 20 ruling would mean exploration drilling will be allowed, or whether the ruling by a smaller panel of the court's judges will be replaced with a similar decision.
Business Week
A Norwegian oil company has gone to the ends of the earth -- almost literally -- to get at some of the world's last untapped energy resources.
StatoilHydro ASA operates a pioneering venture deep inside the Arctic Circle, energy's final frontier. The company pumps natural gas from under the freezing waters of the Barents Sea, cools it into a liquid and exports it to Europe and the U.S.
Wall Street Journal
The Norwegian industry has listed three areas off the scenic Lofoten and Vesteraalen islands as the most interesting oil and gas exploration areas off Norway's Arctic coast in a new report to the government.
The oil industry has long hungered for the areas of Nordland VI, Nordland VII and Troms II, and the Norwegian Oil Industry Federation (OLF) and its partners in the KonKraft group said opening them to drilling could contribute significantly to slowing a long-term decline in Norwegian petroleum production.
Reuters, UK
Pipelines
Environmental hearings on Canada's proposed $6 billion Mackenzie Valley pipeline opened with warnings that the safety of the pipeline and the natural gas fields that feed it is threatened by climate change that already is damaging northern roads and airstrips.
Government scientists and environmental groups said pipeline builder Imperial Oil hasn't accounted for permafrost melting under the pipeline. Nor has it considered the effect of higher sea levels and longer storm seasons along the low-lying gas fields that would serve Canada as well as the United States.
MSNBC
Houston - JP Kenny is using new multi-physics simulation technology to ensure that arctic oil pipelines can withstand gouging from ice formations... Ice gouging is one of the major obstacles for pipeline engineering in the arctic. This is especially relevant given environmental worries as technologies emerge to contend with arctic exploration and production challenges.
The arctic region, mostly offshore, holds as much as 25% of the world's untapped reserve of hydrocarbons according to the US Geological Survey.
Offshore Magazine
Mackenzie Gas Project proposes to develop natural gas fields in the Mackenzie Delta of Canada's Northwest Territories and deliver the natural gas to markets through a pipeline system built along the Mackenzie Valley. Our goal is to have natural gas moving through the pipeline by 2010.
Mackenzie Gas Project
Two Republican lawmakers want Gov. Sarah Palin to review a state license awarded to TransCanada Corp. for a natural gas pipeline.
Reps. Jay Ramras and Craig Johnson said the global recession and the availability of potentially cheap U.S. gas have changed the project's dynamics.
A $500,000 state investment under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act is no longer sound, Ramras said.
AP
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