ARCTIC: Unity Among Inuit Women & more – 11th Nov 2025

Góðan daginn from BA! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 11th of November twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

While predictions for the future of the Arctic can often be bleak, many scientists do think there is still hope.

According to the twenty twenty-five State of the Cryosphere report, published by fifty leading ice scientists on Thursday the 6th, there has been a severe decline in environmental health across both the northern and southern pole regions, with sea ice reaching a record low in twenty twenty-five, ocean acidification becoming fatal to shelled creatures in certain areas, and permafrost releasing record levels of methane gas into the atmosphere. However, it also says that we can still reverse many of the worst impacts of climate change, and if global governments make immediate changes to climate emissions, world temperatures will begin to cool down by twenty forty.

Change is being demanded in the Arctic culturally as well as environmentally. The news agency, Eye on the Arctic, reported on Tuesday the 4th that the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) held its first Inuit Women’s Summit in Greenland at the end of October. It was held to bring Inuit women together to work toward a future that ends the injustices against Indigenous women in the Arctic.

Sara Olsvig, the ICC International Chair, called the summit a huge success. Participants came from four different countries and were able to share valuable experiences, creating the Inuit Women’s Summit Declaration: a document outlining recommendations to promote and protect the rights of Inuit women at community, national, and international levels.

Amid hope for a better environment and stronger women’s rights, the shadow of war still looms over the north. On Wednesday the 5th, the Kremlin published details of a meeting held that day between Vladimir Putin and his Defence Ministry. Within that meeting, Andrei Belousov, the Defence Minister, advised Putin to immediately begin the testing of nuclear weapons on the Novaya Zemblya archipelago, in far northern Russia.

The Arctic used to be a popular place for testing nuclear bombs, with Russia testing over 200 weapons on Novaya Zemblya between nineteen fifty-five and nineteen ninety. The age of a nuclear Arctic was thought to be over, but it may have just been dormant.

To read more about the history of nuclear testing in the Arctic, check out Thomas Nilsen’s fascinating blog post. Link in the show notes!

Norway is responding to the increasing threat posed by its Russian neighbor. On Wednesday the 5th, the EU announced it is granting Norway almost $20 million US dollars to strengthen its border security along the Russian border.

Norway’s current border security consists of a few sporadic, basic wire fences. This funding will allow the country to build stronger, higher fences with new sensors and surveillance cameras along the border.

There’s plenty of money flowing into the Canadian Arctic too, but there are concerns over what it will be spent on.

On Tuesday the 4th, the Canadian government unveiled its annual budget. At first glance, the Arctic feels well represented. There is almost $3 billion US dollars aimed at improving housing conditions, with new investment in mining, and over $700 million US dollars has been allocated to the Arctic Infrastructure Fund, which will be used to improve northern transport links for military and civilian use.

But on Wednesday the 5th, R.J. Simpson, the premier of the Northwest Territories, said the annual budget isn’t investing in Indigenous people enough, with a lack of investment in addressing the drug problems prevalent in rural communities, and public service funding in northern territories being cut.

While Canada welcomes increased Arctic funding, the lack of money in Alaska is a serious problem. On Tuesday the 4th, the Alaskan news agency, Anchorage Daily News, revealed that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is cancelling its funding of the Alaska Earthquake Center. This Center’s most important duty is to monitor the hundreds of earthquakes that Alaska experiences every day, assess whether any could pose a tsunami threat, and then, within minutes, send an evacuation warning to the affected areas.

But, with the US government slashing all federal spending, NOAA is having to make difficult funding decisions. The Earthquake Center has said it will try to continue basic operations, but this funding cut could end up being a fatal mistake.

The US government wants to save money by cutting disaster preparation funding, but it’s much more expensive to repair after a disaster has caused damage.

The Alaskan news agency, The Northern Journal, reported on Monday the 10th, that a study was published by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium shortly before the devastating storm that hit western Alaska last week. This study said that there is a government funding gap of about $80 million US dollars a year needed to either protect communities or fund their relocation to safer ground.

While expensive, the study also predicted that without these protections, in the next few decades Alaska could end up spending over $4 billion dollars in disaster relief. The sensible option to save both lives and money seems to be funding proper protections today.

The Arctic Ocean is getting more dangerous every day. Like most bad things happening in the north, it’s because of climate change. A new study, published on Wednesday the 5th by scientists from the IBS Center for Climate Physics, reveals that ocean turbulence in the Arctic and Antarctic regions is increasing drastically due to sea ice melt. In the Arctic, with less sea ice to block the wind, they found that gusts would churn up stronger, rougher and more turbulent currents.

Not just a problem for those with sea sickness, the researchers believe more chaotic currents could mix heat and nutrients in unexpected ways, causing chaos in an already rapidly changing polar ecosystem.

Let’s go back to Norway for a second, as the government’s policies of hunting endangered species are under fire. Professor Ragnhild Sollund of the University of Oslo wrote a piece on Thursday the 6th calling Norway’s policy of issuing hunting licenses to those wanting to kill species that are endangered in the country, such as lynx, wolf and wolverine, a violation of international law.

With Sweden also currently reducing its wolf population under pressure from farmers who believe the predators are a risk to their livestock, Sollund calls for Norway to comply with international laws, or else wolves in Scandinavia will face extinction.

Another controversy is brewing in Norway, but this time over Sami representation in a new animated film. On Friday the 7th, the national broadcaster NRK reported that the new Norwegian animated movie, North, features two characters of Sami descent. Even though this would normally be a cause for celebration, Marit Kirsten Eira of the Sami Language Center was shocked to hear one of the character’s names: Finn-Maja.

Finn is a derogatory term for the Sami people, used historically to degrade the Indigenous community. Bente Lohne, North’s director, has said she was unaware of this slur and simply meant to indicate the character was from Finland.

Sami representatives were shocked at Lohne’s response, saying she must have done no research into the Sami people to make such an offensive error.

Speaking of Finland, as reported by Finnish national broadcaster, YLE, on Saturday the 8th, there are hundreds of tourism firms operating in Finnish Lapland that disregard labour laws. Seasonal workers hired to work in the so-called home of Santa have reported issues like being forced to undertake unpaid training or even being charged for it.

The majority of these seasonal workers have come from abroad, and paid for their travel expenses themselves. Their employers see them as vulnerable and take advantage of them. The report notes that the largest tourism companies all follow Finnish law properly, but action needs to be taken to stop Santa’s workshop from being a terrible place to work.

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

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