ARCTIC: Climate Change Warming Deepest Waters & more – 25th Nov 2025

Aang from Islington This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 25th of November twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down in the icy north!

The oil industry continues to expand to new depths in the Alaskan Arctic. On Thursday the 20th, the US Government announced a new offshore oil drilling plan that will open virtually all of Alaska's marine territory to drilling. The proposed new oil exploration areas range from southernmost Alaska to the high Arctic, including many areas that have never been drilled before.

Fierce criticism has already come from opposition politicians, with Jared Huffman, the top Democrat in the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, noting that Alaska’s fishing industry is too fragile and valuable to risk such a massive, intrusive development.

That’s not the only oil expansion in Alaska. On Wednesday the 19th, The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas announced the results of its newest oil and gas lease sale. Leases for oil and gas exploration were offered along the north coast of Alaska and drew almost $17 million US dollars in bids, the highest amount of money received since twenty fourteen.

This sale marks a new direction for drilling in the Arctic, with oil companies largely refusing to purchase exploration leases in the last three auctions. Yet, with the US government now heavily encouraging new energy developments across the country, companies are taking action.

Oil is the priority for some Arctic nations, but Russia is taking a different route to making money in the north: natural gas. The shipping news agency, gCaptain, reported on Thursday the 20th that thick sea ice has returned to Russia’s north coast and closed off the northern sea route, drawing the twenty twenty-five shipping season to a close.

According to official figures from Russia’s largest natural gas producer, Novatek, in twenty twenty-five its two Arctic gas facilities managed to export almost 3 million tonnes of supercooled gas to Asia via the Arctic, with the vast majority going to China. While exports from the Yamal plant declined slightly compared to last year, the Arctic LNG2 facility is now close to fully operational. These exports have driven the Russian north to record high gas exports, even while operating under US and EU sanctions.

The abundant natural resources of the north are creating a race for their extraction. In a piece written by Sam Meredith of CNBC on Thursday the 20th, he summarizes the scramble for countries to grab a piece of the rare minerals unearthed in the Arctic. Simultaneously, China is imposing bans on its exports of rare minerals that are crucial for technology development, while Greenland is melting and revealing its own deposits of these same critical materials.

Greenland isn’t the only Arctic nation holding untapped wealth, as northernmost Sweden recently discovered one of Europe’s largest mineral deposits, Russia’s vast Arctic has barely been explored for potential materials, and Canada is ramping up its own mining operations.

Check out the piece with the link in the show notes.

The newly discovered minerals in northern Sweden might be good news for some, but local governments aren’t happy. As reported by Swedish broadcaster, SVT, on Thursday the 20th, all of the fourteen municipal governments in northern Sweden are opposing the national government’s proposal to remove their veto powers regarding uranium mining, with four uranium sites uncovered so far in the north.

The Swedish government believes harvesting uranium deposits is too valuable and important to the nation to waste time on local government negotiations, but representatives of the municipalities say that the government is impeding their autonomy and the rights of residents to decide on their futures.

In science news, it turns out nowhere is safe from the effects of climate change. Researchers from the Ocean University of China published research on Wednesday the 19th that reveals that climate change is warming the deepest Arctic Ocean.

The Arctic Ocean has plenty of geothermal vents that release heat into the sea, but the researchers investigated whether all of the undersea warming comes from these vents. Through monitoring heat exchange across the northern ocean, they found that the Greenland basin, which used to be the largest source of cold water in the Arctic, is warming much faster than normal levels. The warmer water being distributed from here is driving deep-sea heating as far north as the pole.

The northern oceans are changing rapidly, bringing in more ships, and more dangerous conditions. On Thursday the 20th, The Canadian Press reported that Canadian shipping firms are asking the federal government to invest in Arctic infrastructure and navigation technology.

The melting Arctic is opening the north up to more and more shipping opportunities, but the breaking sea ice is unleashing dangerous icebergs into the path of ships. With the Canadian Hydrographic Service stating that less than twenty percent of Canadian Arctic waters had been adequately surveyed, if Canada is hoping to increase its marine traffic, it will need to be better prepared for dangers in the north.

Ships are on the rise in Canada’s northern seas, but beluga whales are declining. According to Canada’s Fisheries and Oceans Department on Friday the 21st, they have asked Inuit hunters to delay the fall beluga harvest, as population estimates for beluga whales in eastern Hudson Bay have hit record lows, with only 2,200 whales recorded in twenty twenty-four.

The eastern beluga population migrates away earlier than the western population, which is in a healthier state. The hope is that by delaying the hunt, it will increase the survival chances for the eastern population, and aid their recovery. But this will, in turn, make the hunting season harder for the Canadian Inuit, who rely on this hunt for their food, clothing and trade all winter.

The Canadian Arctic is home to many unique stories, but the Yukon’s capital city of Whitehorse is getting irritated by a noise no one can explain. As reported by Canadian broadcaster CBC on Thursday the 20th, residents of Whitehorse are complaining to the city council because of an annoying hum that has been heard constantly over the last few weeks.

The community has come together to investigate the source, but it remains a mystery. The energy company says it isn’t their generators, and the airport says it isn’t coming from airplanes. City officials say they will keep working to solve the mystery of the annoying hum.

A much more ancient mystery from the Arctic comes from Greenland: the mystery of the Viking settlement of 3,000 people who disappeared in fourteen eight. But with the publishing of a new book, Greenland and the people who disappeared, on Wednesday the 19th, by Valur Gunnarsson, the story becomes a little clearer.

Gunnarsson writes that the settlement was very vulnerable to sudden environmental changes, being heavily reliant on trade from Europe to sustain daily life. A combination of volcanic eruptions, a drop in temperatures, and the plague devastating Norway left the settlement isolated and struggling.

However, Gunnarsson notes that this doesn’t explain the disappearance of 3,000 people without a trace, and the mystery remains one of the great Arctic questions.

Let’s fast forward to modern Greenland and a rare tale of peace in the Arctic. On Sunday the 23rd, Vivian Motzfeldt, Greenland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Atsushi Sunami, President of the Japanese Sasakawa Peace Foundation, signed an agreement to establish a center of peace research in Greenland.

Greenland hopes to promote peace throughout the Arctic, and through a partnership with Sasakawa, which is internationally renowned for its efforts to spread peace worldwide.

Greenland is making peace a priority.

And to wrap up this edition, the future for the Arctic can seem dim, but it might just be very bright, literally. On Wednesday the 19th, researchers from the University of London published their research into changing seasons amid climate change. They found that the last time the Arctic warmed greatly, 6,000 years ago, it caused air currents to slow down and seasons to extend. This made European summers last approximately 200 days, and if patterns continue, Europe could see over forty extra days of summer by twenty-one hundred.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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