Arctic

A decision by the U.S. Administration to nominate Alaskan geographer Mike Sfraga as an ambassador-at-large for the Arctic is seen as a direct response to Russia’s ramped-up northern military presence and Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski says that dealing with national security threats from China as well as Russia and China in the region will be a challenge. [node:read-more:link]

A flag-raising ceremony and dock launch today for two Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers tasked with ensuring year-round operations in the Western Arctic was attended remotely by President Vladimir Putin. “Both icebreakers were laid down as part of a large serial project and are part of our large-scale, systematic work to re-equip and replenish the domestic icebreaker fleet, to strengthen Russia’s status as a great Arctic power,” Putin said. He also said his country’s current economic difficulties would not stop further development of the fleet. [node:read-more:link]

A report today from the Office of the Auditor General says that Canada lacks a complete picture of who is entering or traversing Arctic waters, partly due to the fact that a naval surveillance station can only operate four weeks a year. Overall, it says, the country cannot stay on top of threats to national security, illegal fishing or pollution posed by marine traffic which has tripled in recent years as sea ice diminishes. [node:read-more:link]

A State of the Cryosphere report released at the latest UN global climate change conference predicts that the Arctic will lose its entire summer sea ice cover at least once in the next few decades and probably more frequently “It's a threshold tipped,” Pamela Pearson, a former U.S. diplomat and one of the report’s editors, said November 7. “Loss of summer sea ice is now inevitable.” [node:read-more:link]

As representatives from most nations gathered in Egypt for the latest global climate conference, the World Meteorological Organization sounded yet another warning about the accelerating impact of global warming. WMO chief Petteri Taalas said “there are no positive indicators so far” and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the agency’s report as “a chronicle of climate chaos.” [node:read-more:link]

The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Wayne Eyre, has told the House of Commons standing committee on national defence that Canada’s “tenuous hold” on its Arctic territories will come under increasing challenge in the decades ahead as China and Russia expand their presence. He also mooted the notion that an increasingly isolated Russia could become a Chinese “vassal state” because of its increasing reliance on its neighbour. [node:read-more:link]

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is in the Canadian North this week for an unprecedented tour of defence installations. Officials say the visit is meant to highlight that the region is a security priority, in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and issues related to climate change. [node:read-more:link]

The commander of the U.S. Coast Guard said July 14 that her service needs to beef up its icebreaker capability to counter growing Russian and Chinese activities in the North. “We are an Arctic nation,” Admiral Linda Fagan pointed out to a congressional committee. “Getting the capability and capacity to create an enduring presence in the Arctic, in the waters off Alaska, are absolutely a priority.” Russia has more than 40 icebreakers and China, hoping to exploit a longer ice-free season, has declared itself a “near-arctic power.” [node:read-more:link]

Environmental activists are taking Norway to the European Court of Human Rights in what is considered a potential international test case of how much of the Arctic’s natural resources can be exploited. Seven other countries, including Canada, have interests in the region but since it is mostly marine, there is no international Antarctic-style environmental treaty protecting it from economic development. [node:read-more:link]

David Cohen, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, says he has been assured Canada will follow through this year on crucial investments to modernize Arctic defences, even though this month's budget included no specific funding. He says he has pressed the issue in “candid conversations” with senior cabinet ministers and although this “this budget does not include funding for NORAD, for modernizing and improving the northern defence for Canada and for the United States . . . it will be forthcoming during the course of this fiscal year.” [node:read-more:link]

Two new Arctic patrol ships being built for the Canadian Coast Guard by Irving Shipbuilding evidently will cost nearly twice as much as their six Royal Canadian Navy counterparts. Struggling with supply chain issues and inflation, as well as meeting CCG-specific design requirements, Irving has told Parliament that it is “working to quantify those challenges in a revised cost estimate.” The latest estimate is $750 million each compared with about $400 million for the RCN vessels. [node:read-more:link]

Results of a peer-reviewed study published today in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences shows that the world’s oceans last year were at their warmest in recorded history as average temperatures rose for the sixth consecutive year. “The ocean heat content is relentlessly increasing globally, and this is a primary indicator of human-induced climate change,” commented report co-author Kevin Trenberth, distinguished scholar at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. [node:read-more:link]

It’s no secret in Canada or other northern nations that the Arctic has become a bellwether for global warming. The World Meteorological Organization confirmed today that a record high of 38 degrees Celsius was reported on June 20 last year in Siberia. That was some 18 degrees above the region’s daily average for the month, a situation the UN agency said had contributed to “massive sea ice loss” and evoked the Mediterranean rather than the Arctic.” [node:read-more:link]