ARCTIC: Plans for a New Marine Corridor & more –7th Oct 2025

Aluu from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 7th of October twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

Let’s kick things off with the industry set to dominate Arctic waters in the coming years, shipping. The US is looking to increase its share of the industry, and on Friday the 3rd, the US Coast Guard revealed it is planning to create a marine corridor across the northern and western Alaska coast, which can become a safe, reliable route for shipping from the Arctic to Asia.

The route requires much mapping to be completed, as three-quarters of the US Arctic waters are unsurveyed. But, if there are no obstacles, then the planned corridor should avoid marine mammal feeding grounds and hazardous rock formations, leading to a safer and healthier Alaska while keeping an increase in the money supply a priority.

Not all shipping companies are keen on moving north, though. On Thursday the 2nd, the news agency High North News reported that the largest shipping company in the world, MSC, has committed to avoiding all polar shipping routes. According to MSC’s statement, the Northern Sea Route remains underdeveloped for commercial shipping since safe navigation and transit are not assured. They also note that the impact of travelling through the Arctic on both the fragile environment and local Indigenous communities is unclear, so to avoid causing excess harm, MSC will not be using the Russian, Canadian or Alaskan Arctic routes for shipping.

To visualize exactly how Arctic shipping is playing out, check out the map linked in the show notes.

Concerns about the Arctic’s growing shipping industry may be well-founded. On Thursday the 2nd, the news site, Eye on the Arctic, reported on a new Chinese study challenging the belief that using the Arctic as a shipping shortcut will cut global carbon emissions. The researchers found the opposite may be true. As melting sea ice opens northern routes, governments and companies are expected to dramatically increase shipping traffic through the Arctic.

In twenty twenty-two, ships released around one megatonne of carbon in the region, but the study predicts that by twenty-one hundred, that figure could rise to nearly 120 megatonnes, an increase that would drive global emissions up by around eight percent. The researchers concluded that only reducing global shipping, not rerouting it, will cut emissions.

The US government is looking at getting involved with a mining company in Greenland. Reuters reported on Saturday the 4th that officials from the Trump administration are currently discussing taking a stake in the Critical Mining Corporation, which owns the Tanbreez rare earth deposit in southern Greenland, one of the largest rare mineral sites on Earth.

With Donald Trump still expressing interest in taking control of Greenland, his government is now exploring the use of private companies as a way to expand its influence in the Arctic island.

Meanwhile, Sweden is investing heavily in redeveloping its national infrastructure. On Tuesday the 30th of September, the Swedish Transport Administration presented its plans to develop roads, railways, maritime and aviation over the next twelve years, spending over $120 billion US dollars to do so. Arctic Sweden will see plenty of this money, with a new icebreaker vessel high on the priority list, and the development of rail and road links running up to Lulea, the largest city in Arctic Sweden.

In Indigenous news, Tuesday the 30th marked an important date in the North American Indigenous calendar. In Canada, the 30th of September is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day to recognize the legacy of residential schools, which took thousands of Indigenous children away from their families in an effort to erase traditional cultures. The day commemorates the missing children, their families and the Survivors of these institutions.

Now, Canadian and Alaskan Indigenous communities join together on this day, wearing orange in remembrance, to celebrate the survival of their once persecuted cultures, and remember those who could not be there.

Another way of keeping Indigenous culture alive is to embrace technology. The Canadian broadcaster CBC reported on Saturday the 4th that the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyӓk Dun, in the Canadian Yukon, has created a project that uses virtual reality games and a holographic display as tools to teach their language Northern Tutchone, which has fewer than a dozen speakers left.

In collaboration with the nearby Carleton University, the Nation is building a digital language model supported by artificial intelligence which will allow the language to survive even as its remaining speakers die.

In other news, while Russia’s Indigenous communities are struggling to survive, Russia is developing its Arctic homelands. According to a The Moscow Times report on Tuesday the 30th, the Russian government has been negotiating with the US and China to increase their investments in Russia’s vast northern region, bragging about the wealth of natural resources just waiting to be tapped.

But while the Kremlin talks of Arctic riches, the report reveals that poverty, disease and starvation are the daily lives of Russia’s remote Indigenous communities, with little or no support from the government.

If Russia wants to create a prosperous Arctic, it should start with the people who have lived there all along.

The Indigenous Sami and Kven peoples in Norway are seeing investments in their futures. According to a press release by the Sami Parliament from Monday the 6th, the Parliament is investing over $50,000 US dollars in Sami and Kven cultural and tourism projects to ensure these communities are able to thrive and grow in Norway.

For instance, the tourism company Alpehuset Benonisen has received over $20,000 US dollars to start a new tour company which will specifically offer experiences where Sami guides will introduce the little-known Sea Sami culture to visitors.

In science news, climate change is affecting polar bears in unexpected ways. According to research published on Monday the 29th of September by Canada’s Mount Royal University, climate change is causing polar bears to age faster. The researchers studied hair and blood samples of Canadian polar bears going back sixty years, and measured how the animals are aging on a cellular level.

The results of the study have found that polar bears today, compared to those sixty years ago, are aging about two years faster. With the stress of habitat loss and climate change, the stress of daily polar bear life is causing them to age faster and die sooner.

There’s another scientific study looking into the past, but this time by 40,000 years. On Thursday the 2nd, the University of Colorado published the results of their study where they resurrected ancient microbes that had been trapped beneath ice for up to 40,000 years, to see what happens when the melting Arctic opens up areas that haven’t been unfrozen since before the last ice age.

The study found that even after thousands of years of being frozen, it only took a few months for the microbes to reproduce and form a flourishing colony. The concern is that once they wake up, they start producing carbon dioxide and methane gas, potent greenhouse gases. Once the Arctic melts, it doesn’t take long before the organisms that live there start warming up the region even more.

Lastly, over to Finland for some good environmental news. According to the Natural Resources Institute of Finland, the country’s wolf population has risen by almost fifty percent within a year. The twenty twenty-four estimate placed the wolf population at about 300 individuals, but according to a population estimate conducted in March, there are now approximately 430 wolves in Finland.

The government hasn’t welcomed this report though, and according to broadcaster YLE, the Ministry of Agriculture is preparing a draft law to legalize the hunting of wolves, fearing that the increased numbers will affect farm livestock.

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

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Takuss