ARCTIC: NATO Exercises & more – 5th Mar 2024

Góðan daginn from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 5th of March twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

Let’s kick off this week with some news on NATO. The Arctic is amidst the largest NATO military exercise since the Cold War and with Sweden joining NATO imminently, a lot more military hardware is coming to the country. On Wednesday the 28th of February, the Swedish Air Force confirmed two US strategic bombers arrived in northern Sweden’s Luleå-Kallax Air Base to assist in NATO training. This marks only the second time US bombers have ever landed in Sweden, as the US military seeks to demonstrate its commitment to bolstering European allies even in the high Arctic.

Still, Sweden's Arctic region faces unending challenges. Following a major train derailment in December that halted iron production across much of Europe, the tracks were finally cleared on the 22nd of February. However, just four days later, on Monday the 26th, the Swedish Transport Authority reported another major derailment on the same tracks, with authorities suspecting sabotage as the cause. As police investigations unfold, the repercussions are dire, as according to Luossavaara Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag, the owners of the mine which supplies eighty percent of Europe's iron ore, there will be at least one month of further delays. They urged the government to install additional tracks for redundancy, but sluggish action has failed to avert another incident in northern Sweden.

Going back to NATO for a second, the increase in the alliance’s activities up North has Russia responding in kind. The Russian navy’s two newest warships had been deployed to the Northern Fleet to take part in its own training exercises. This fleet is helping to reinforce Russia’s Arctic ambitions on land too. On Wednesday the 28th, The Arctic Century reported that several units of railway troops had been added to the fleet and were being deployed across the Arctic to repair and maintain railway tracks. According to Russia’s Ministry of Defence, the reasoning behind this action is to increase the speed in which the military can move to the Finnish border, moving weapons, fuel, and other materials to Europe as fast as possible.

Russia's Arctic focus lies on military endeavors and energy projects, with the LNG2 initiative taking center stage. Designed to extract and export natural gas globally, the project has faced delays in production commencement due to international sanctions. However, The Barents Observer reported a significant breakthrough on Tuesday the 27th as two vessels from China arrived, delivering vital components to expedite LNG2's construction, so the project aims to be completely built by autumn.

Amidst rising tensions, cooperation emerges in the Arctic. On Thursday the 29th, the Arctic Council revealed an agreement, including all members, even Russia, which had been suspended. This accord paves the way for the resumption of meetings via digital platforms, ending a stalemate since March twenty twenty-two. With work set to gradually resume over the next four months, cooperation on critical issues like climate change will once again take center stage, heralding a renewed era of collaboration among all Arctic nations.

The Arctic offers a beacon of hope through its Doomsday Vault in Svalbard, which preserves agricultural crops to act as a backup for the world to protect essential plants from war, disease, and climate change. The facility announced on Tuesday the 27th that it has received the largest batch of seeds ever from countries around the world. Twenty-three nations deposited new seeds, with nine countries being first-time depositors. There are now crop samples from seventy-seven states stored in the high-Arctic. With this addition, the future of global food security becomes a bit more secure.

In Canada, an environmental threat looms large with the potential release of a carbon bomb at the Faro mine in the Yukon. Once the world's largest lead-zinc mine, its abandonment in nineteen ninety-eight has left it among the most contaminated sites in the country. A report of the Yukon Environmental Board published on Thursday the 29th of February paints a dire picture: the fifteen-year cleanup operation is projected to emit carbon equal to almost 50% of the Yukon's annual emissions every year. However, the board stipulated that if the operation proceeds, all emissions must be offset. The report outlines offset options such as tree planting or wetland restoration, but given the vast amount of carbon set to be released, the offset project will need to be substantial. The report is now open to public comment until May.

From the end of one Canadian mine to the beginning of another, on Tuesday the 27th a new nickel mine opened in Nunavik. The mine is named Anuri, which means wind in the local Inuktitut language. Glencore Group, the mine owners, announced at the opening ceremony on the 27th that they expect the mine to run for at least twenty years. Glencore is Nunavik’s largest private sector employer and the promise of two more decades of employment is welcome news to the over a thousand employees, most of whom are from small Indigenous Arctic communities.

Speaking of Arctic communities, many suffer from extremely high costs of living due to the cost of getting everything from food to furniture into the north. But rural Alaskans should see their energy bills reduced soon with the announcement on Tuesday the 27th from Senator Lisa Murkowski that the US Department of Energy has allocated $250 million dollars for five new large energy projects in remote Alaskan communities. Each of these projects will aim to deliver sustainable, clean and cheap energy. A total of $1 billion dollars is being allocated across the USA to rural energy, and Alaska will benefit from a significant proportion of this to help alleviate energy costs in the state.

In other news, the iconic Arctic fox, once endangered in Europe due to centuries of hunting, now finds hope through a comprehensive restoration project spanning Scandinavia. According to a Reuters report released on Thursday the 29th, The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research led the initiative. The Norwegian government supported the measure by investing $300,000 US dollars annually. Since its inception in two thousand six, the program has seen remarkable success, boosting the Arctic fox population from just sixty to nearly 600 across Scandinavia. By establishing feeding stations and ensuring higher survival rates, the project aims to bolster the fox population to 2,000. With the current growth rate, this milestone is projected to be achieved in approximately twenty-five years, signaling a promising future for the Arctic fox in Europe.

Wanna know more about the program and see some stunning pictures? Follow the link in the show notes!

While the surge in Arctic fox numbers brings hope, Greenland grapples with a different challenge: the escalating influx of cruise ships. The report of Statistics Greenland, the government's statistics agency, unveiled a staggering seventy-five percent spike in cruise ship passengers from twenty twenty-two to twenty twenty-three. To stem the tide of tourism and safeguard Greenland's pristine environment, the government has implemented a passenger tax on new arrivals. Concerns loom over maintaining environmental integrity and averting accidents, like the grounding of a cruise ship last September, which needed government intervention in rescue efforts..

And to close this edition, there’s a creative way to improve the health of the Arctic. Real Ice, a Dutch startup, revealed in an interview with The Guardian on Tuesday the 27th that they have been experimenting with thickening thin sea ice by shooting water on top of it. This should then refreeze and thicken the ice by ten to twenty centimeters, having a higher chance of surviving warmer temperatures. The hope is to develop automated drones that explore the ocean looking for spots of thin ice to thicken. Even though successful trials in Nunavut, Canada, have been reported, critiques from University College London question the project's effectiveness in significantly aiding the Arctic environment due to its limited scale. Despite this, such initiatives could contribute to a range of strategies aimed at restoring Arctic health in the long term.

Aaaaand that’s it for this week.

We want to invite you to take a look at one of Rorshok's other projects. The Daily Knowledge is a daily pocket newspaper that comes out Monday through Friday. It is in our Ourzine format, a little booklet that you have to print in order to read. In the Daily Knowledge ourzine you’ll find a collection interesting of newsletters and selected articles that takes about an hour to read. Visit rorshok.com/ourzines/thedailyknowledge to find the latest editions. The link will also be in the show notes.

Ha Det