Who Owns the Arctic?

Russia's Arctic Opening

As Moscow prepares to open the icy waters of the Arctic to offshore drilling, dangers abound. But it's also a moment of opportunity to get things right.

CHARLES EMMERSON, FOREIGN POLICY, MARCH 30, 2011

When it comes to Russian oil and gas, major deals with foreign companies are a good deal like London buses: Just when you're about to give up waiting for one to come along, three or four turn up at once.

Already, 2011 has been a bumper year.

Norway hails Barents treaty OK by Russian Duma

Walter Gibbs, Reuters, March 26, 2011

OSLO - Norway welcomed a Russian State Duma vote ratifying a treaty to divide the Barents Sea into clear Norwegian and Russian zones, bringing Norway closer to a new oil and gas drive in the Arctic.

European Parliament pushy, ill-informed on Arctic, Canadian diplomats say

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press, 24 March 2011

Canadian diplomats are facing a determined and often ill-informed push by European lawmakers to increase their influence in the Arctic, documents show.

Briefing notes obtained under Access to Information legislation suggest many members of the increasingly influential European Parliament consider Canada a barrier to Europe gaining the larger role in Arctic governance it wants. The same notes suggest those parliamentarians understand little of the region they seek to influence.

"There is increasing attention to the Arctic within the European Parliament," says the March 15, 2010, note for officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, written after a meeting of the parliament.

"The wide range of knowledge and, at times, stunning lack of knowledge on the Arctic caused our Norwegian contacts also attending the debate to note 'we have our work cut out for us.' "

UTC-built oxygen generator fails on U.S. submarine

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

ABOARD USS NEW HAMPSHIRE, Arctic Ocean | Mon Mar 21, 2011 

(Reuters) - The machine that produces fresh air aboard the USS New Hampshire submarine failed during a mission under the vast ice cap of the Arctic Ocean last week, prompting the submarine to use an alternate oxygen candle system instead.

Climate Change Poses a Major Challenge for the U.S. Navy in the Arctic

Lauren Morello & Dina Fine Maron, New York Times, March 11, 2011

Climate change will pose major new hurdles for U.S. naval forces, forcing the military to grapple with an emerging Arctic frontier, increasing demand for humanitarian aid and creating rising seas that could threaten low-lying bases, the National Academy of Sciences said yesterday.

Aboriginal consultations delay tender on key Arctic radar chain

 

Map of the North Warning System. Photograph by: Postmedia News, Canadian Military Journal/Department of Defence

BY ANDREW MAYEDA, POSTMEDIA NEWS JANUARY 13, 2011

OTTAWA — The Harper government has put on hold its search for bidders to operate and maintain the chain of early-warning radars that guards against foreign incursions into Canadian and U.S. airspace in the Far North, Postmedia News has learned.

The North Warning System, a chain of 47 unmanned radars that lines the Arctic coast from Alaska to Labrador, is operated and maintained by Nasittuq Corp. under a 10-year, $624-million contract that ends Sept. 30 this year.

The Inuit prepare to defend their rights

The Economist, March 3, 2011

Ottawa - WHEN in the Arctic, you should at least treat your host well. Royal Dutch Shell, an oil giant, had to learn this the hard way when planning to drill exploration wells in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska a couple of years ago. The firm had spent $84m on offshore leases and had satisfied regulators. But it failed to win over the Inupiat, an Inuit group. They worried that icebreakers and drill ships would hurt the bowhead whales on which they depend. Their leaders and environmental groups sued American regulators for not following a 1970 law on environmental impacts. This allowed them to wrest a number of concessions from Shell, including a commitment to stop all offshore operations during the bowhead migration and hunt, should drilling ever proceed.