ARCTIC: Lowest Global Ice Levels & more – 1st April 2025

Góðan daginn from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 1st of April twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

The winter in the Arctic is a time of recovery, for temperatures to drop, snow to fall, and ice to grow, but this year’s sea ice failed to rebound. On Thursday the 27th of March, NASA reported that Arctic sea ice reached its lowest-ever winter maximum on the 22nd of March, covering just 5.5 million square miles (14 million square kilometers).

NASA also revealed that Antarctic sea ice had its second-worst year on record, making twenty twenty-five the lowest ice year globally ever recorded. This alarming trend signals worsening conditions for the planet’s poles, raising concerns about the future of polar ecosystems and global climate stability.

Meanwhile, Greenland is looking towards its future with a new government. On Friday the 28th of March, the government announced that a coalition agreement was signed between four of the five parties in the country’s parliament, representing three-quarters of the election’s votes. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the leader of the Democratic Party, will serve as Prime Minister alongside the Inuit Ataqatigiit, Atassut, and Siumut parties.

The only excluded party is Naleraq, which won the second most votes but is the only party pushing for immediate independence from Denmark and closer ties with the US.

With rising political tensions, the coalition aims to counter perceived US influence rather than cooperate.

The ongoing saga between Greenland and the US continued at full force this week. On Friday the 28th of March, the US Vice President visited a US military base in Greenland where he gave a speech accusing the Danish government of treating Greenland poorly, suggesting the US would do better.

Then, on Saturday, the 29th of March, President Trump told the US news outlet NBC News that he was 100 percent certain he would take control of Greenland in the near future, once again refusing to rule out the use of a military invasion.

Greenland’s PM Nielsen responded immediately with a Facebook post where he declared that the US would never take control of his country, and that his countrymen would be the ones to determine their own future.

Speaking of the US, it is ramping up efforts to secure Arctic dominance. On Wednesday, the 26th of March, news outlet The Maritime Executive reported that the US government is injecting nearly $1 billion dollars into its long-delayed icebreaker program. The Polar Security Cutter project, launched in twenty fourteen to build three heavy icebreakers for $1.3 billion dollars, has yet to produce a single vessel. Costs have since skyrocketed past $5 billion dollars, and no ships are under construction.

This latest investment aims to finally push the project forward, as the US struggles to match the icebreaking capabilities of other Arctic nations. The government insists this funding will be the last needed to complete its first new heavy icebreaker in over fifty years.

Norway’s recent Arctic investments are expected to be very lucrative. The newest oil field in the Arctic Barents Sea of the Norwegian oil company Equinor finally began oil production on Monday the 31st of March, according to a statement published by the company.

The oil field has suffered two years of delays and has cost over $8 billion US dollars to develop, but Equinor’s statement predicts that the oil field will repay that entire figure within two years, and then extract oil for another thirty. Norway is investing heavily in Arctic oil, and it’s already paying off.

Norway’s Arctic almost had much more to celebrate this week. The Andoya Spaceport in northern Norway has promised to launch the country into the space age, and be Europe’s first commercial spaceport. The first rocket launch finally took place on Sunday the 30th of March.

But, according to a report by the spaceport on their Facebook page, thirty seconds after launch the rocket fell to the ground and exploded. Even though it didn’t go as planned, the event still made history as the first rocket vehicle launched from Norwegian soil, as Andoya looks forward to a more successful future.

To watch the historic launch yourself, take a look at the link in the show notes.

Sweden is making heavy Arctic investments too. Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish Prime Minister, announced on Wednesday the 26th of March that Sweden is embarking on a massive armament plan to vastly expand the size of its military due to Trump’s and Putin’s aggression in the Arctic. The country will increase its defense spending to about 3.5 percent of its GDP by twenty thirty, with an initial investment of almost $30 billion US dollars.

This marks the largest military investment in Sweden since the Cold War, as Kristersson said that the country faces a new security environment in the north.

In northern Sweden, the effects of chemical pollution are being felt even deep underground. News agency SVT reported on Thursday the 27th of March that the Swedish mining company LKAB was drilling a tunnel in the Kiruna region in the north about 700 meters (over 2,000 feet) underground. While drilling, the mining team hit a water channel. LKAB tested the water and revealed it was heavily contaminated by PFAS, known as forever chemicals.

Helena Söderlund, the environmental manager of Kiruna, said that her major concern is that this contaminated water has spread to local waterways used for drinking or fishing. LKAB told SVT that they will install a treatment plant as soon as possible to purify the water, to hopefully keep it safe.

Over the border in Russia, massive plans are being made to transform the country’s Arctic. Gadzhimagomed Guseynov, the First Deputy Minister for Development of the Arctic, announced plans on Friday the 28th of March to develop sixteen settlements in Russia’s north.

The project will spend over $40 billion dollars in an attempt to turn the currently sparsely populated north coast into an area with developed towns and cities, working towards exploiting Russia’s untapped Arctic natural resources, and supporting the transformation of the northern ocean into a global shipping hub.

Speaking of transformation, Iceland has become a nation of almost complete female power. On Saturday the 29th of March, Icelandic newspaper RUV reported that Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir has taken over as rector of the University of Iceland.

With this appointment, something extraordinary has occurred in the country. Every single position of the highest offices of Iceland is headed by a woman, for the first time in the country’s history.

The Prime Minister and President, every parliamentary party, the Reykjavik council, the head Bishop, police commissioner and prosecutor, and now every Icelandic university, are all led by women.

In Canada, Indigenous communities are uniting in the pursuit of justice. On Tuesday, the 25th of March, the Aboriginal People’s Television Network reported that the First Nations Leadership Council is urging the Canadian government to criminalize public denial of residential school abuses. For over 150 years, these schools forcibly took more than 150,000 Indigenous children from their families in an attempt to erase their cultures, with thousands never returning home. Despite this history, denial of these atrocities has been increasing in the country.

The Council aims to prevent misinformation and ensure the truth is acknowledged, pushing for legal measures to protect survivors and their stories while ensuring such injustices are never repeated.

However, there is cause for celebration in Indigenous Canada. The Canadian music awards, the Junos, were held on Sunday the 30th of March. The Inuit singer, Elisapie, was nominated for two awards for her album Inuktitut and walked away victorious in the Adult Alternative Album category, marking her third Juno win.

She wasn’t the only Inuit winner. Deantha Edmunds was also nominated twice, for her song Angmalukisaa, winning her first ever Juno in the Best Classical Composition category.

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

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