ARCTIC: Positive Effects of Wildfires & more – 10th June 2025

Góðan daginn from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 10th of June twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

President Trump’s promise to open up the protected areas of Alaska to oil drilling began in earnest this week when on Monday the 2nd, the US Department of the Interior announced its plans to lift environmental protections on roughly half of the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope. This decision will reverse the environmental protections created under the prior Biden administration. The plans are now open for public comment, with final action to follow later.

Reversing environmental protections in the Arctic risks warmer summers, reduced snowfall, and more wildfires, but wildfires have rarely been included in climate models. However, that changed on Tuesday the 3rd, when the University of Washington published a groundbreaking study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzing the climate effects of wildfire smoke. The findings were surprising. Smoke, soot, and ash from wildfires create reflective clouds that bounce sunlight away from Earth, reducing warming.

According to the study, if wildfires in northern Canada and Siberia continue to grow, the smoke could offset Arctic warming by nearly forty percent. While wildfires remain dangerous and destructive, this study reveals the complex nature of climate systems, and suggests that even natural disasters might carry unexpected side effects.

Alongside climate change, the biggest change to the modern Arctic landscape is the increase in military activity. On Thursday the 5th, NATO announced its new purchasing targets for all of its member nations to defend the North Atlantic and Arctic.

While the exact details are classified, Pete Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary, said that many NATO nations agree with the US that nations need to increase their defence spending from two point five percent of their GDP to five percent.

NATO’s deployment target is to have 300,000 troops available along its Russian border, a massive increase on the current 40,000 troops deployed in the area.

On a related note, on Monday the 9th, Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, announced his nation is accelerating its defence spending plans by five years. Canada has previously promised to increase defence spending to two percent of its GDP by twenty thirty, but Carney has announced that this year the military budget will be boosted by almost $15 billion US dollars, hitting NATO’s spending target.

In Carney’s announcement speech, he named the Arctic as one of his military’s main defence objectives, citing the new political reality that Canada can no longer rely on the US.

Another industry on the rise in the European Arctic is mining. Last week we reported that Greenland had asked the EU to increase its investments in Greenlandic mining. Well, the EU has listened, as on Wednesday the 4th, Stéphane Séjourné, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, announced thirteen mining projects worth over $6 billion US dollars, with one of them taking place in Greenland.

The EU will develop a new graphite mine on the island of Amitsoq in southern Greenland under this plan, which hopes to make the EU less dependent on foreign imports of key minerals and boost Greenland’s small economy.

Economic development in remote areas of the Arctic is seen as the future for northern nations, but what will be the impact on the Indigenous communities? Russia’s new Indigenous development policy, released in May, is drawing sharp criticism from community leaders and rights advocates.

On Tuesday the 3rd, the newspaper The Moscow Times published its investigation into this policy, revealing that while there is plenty of progressive language about protecting Indigenous rights, there are virtually no commitments to provide real help to protect native cultures and rights.

Pavel Sulyandziga, an activist from the Udege community, likened the document to those from the Soviet era, saying that its positive language will be twisted to exploit the natural resources the Indigenous lands lie on, while providing no benefits to the local communities at all.

To read this fascinating and important investigation yourself, take a look at the link in the show notes.

On Monday the 2nd, Mark Carney, Canada’s Prime Minister, highlighted the Gray Bay Port project in the northern territory of Nunavut as a key nation-building initiative. The $700 million US dollar project would build transport links connecting the mineral-rich western Nunavut to a deepwater port on the north coast, improving access to critical minerals and asserting Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.

Oddly, the project has the support of federal, local, and Indigenous governments. They all agree on the project's potential to strengthen national resilience, support economic growth, and foster Indigenous partnerships.

While other countries are pumping money into Arctic businesses, Iceland is preparing for fossil fuel-induced disasters. On Monday the 2nd, the Icelandic government announced an expansion of its national flood and avalanche protection initiatives, with over $30 million US dollars allocated this year alone to accelerate urgent flood defense works in urban areas. The government will also increase avalanche funding by over $7 million US dollars annually.

These budget expansions come as Iceland has frequently found itself at the mercy of fossil fuel-induced disasters, in addition to the increasing volcanic activity southern Iceland has experienced recently.

The vast increase in military and industrial activity in the Arctic is having a serious negative impact on marine life due to the rising volume of underwater noise.

On Thursday the 5th, the news agency High North News published an article on a report released by the Arctic Council which predicts a significant increase in underwater noise in the Arctic Ocean by twenty thirty. Many marine species rely on sound as their primary sense, and the report warns that noise pollution is rising faster in the Arctic than anywhere else on Earth.

The Arctic Ocean is also the world’s second-largest marine feeding ground, after the Antarctic, meaning its health is crucial to global ocean life. The Council is urging world governments to act now to reduce noise before Arctic development causes irreversible harm to one of the planet’s most fragile ecosystems.

Meanwhile, in Finland, the military is getting involved in real estate deals. On Wednesday the 4th, Antti Häkkänen, the Finnish Defence Minister, announced he has decided to block two real estate deals on national security grounds. One of them involved a Chinese company's attempt to acquire real estate near a Finnish Defence Forces training area in Rovaniemi, in Lapland, in the north.

With Finland's northern regions becoming increasingly tense due to their proximity to Russia, the military is taking a close look at any foreign businesses attempting to gain a foothold in the north.

In other news, the Sami Parliament in Finland wishes it could make such important decisions, but it operates with only limited power granted by the Finnish national government.

However, that might change soon.

On Wednesday the 4th, the Sámi Parliament announced that its Parliament Reform Act has advanced after a government committee endorsed key provisions to improve Sámi self-governance.

The proposed law would revise electoral roll criteria to focus on voting rights rather than defining Sámi identity, aiming to avoid a repeat of the twenty twenty-three chaos when elections were annulled over identity disputes.

Should the Parliament vote to accept the reform, by the end of the year, a new era of self-determination could come to Finland’s Indigenous communities.

Norway’s Sami community can also celebrate this week. On Thursday the 6th, Norway’s Sámi Parliament announced it has secured an independent observer status at the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, marking the first time Indigenous peoples have direct influence in salmon governance.

Salmon play an enormous role in daily Sami life and culture, so this is a big win for the community. Sandra Márjá West, the Sámi Parliament advisor, said this status ensures Indigenous knowledge and leadership are now foundational in decision-making, and strengthens the Sámi's role in protecting salmon.

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

We’re looking for someone to write the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the world covered in salt water. Send us an email info@rorshok.com with “Ocean Writer Position” in the subject line if you’d like to join the Rorshok team.

Check out the job description with the link in the show notes.

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