ARCTIC: US Coast Guard’s Vessels & more – 3rd Dec 2024

Góðan daginn from BA! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 3rd of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

The impending governmental change in the US has the Russian government celebrating hopes of an easing of economic sanctions, but the UK has different plans. On Monday the 25th, the UK government announced its largest-ever sanctions package against Russia. Thirty oil tankers that have engaged in shipping Russian oil, including many that operate in the Arctic region, will now be placed under massive international restrictions.

The UK government believes these tankers have been operating as part of Russia’s Shadow Fleet, a fleet of ships used to bypass international sanctions by pretending not to be Russian. In this case, the ships were all registered in Gabon but have been selling Russian oil.

Russia is the dominant force in the Arctic Ocean, with the US Coast Guard currently only operating two icebreaker vessels, compared to Russia’s forty. But the US is starting to catch up, with the shipping news agency gCaptain reporting on Friday the 29th that the US Coast Guard has closed on a $125 million dollar deal to acquire and convert the commercial icebreaker Aiviq into a Coast Guard vessel for Arctic operations.

Aiviq has now been sailed to Florida, where it will undergo an eighteen-month conversion before the Coast Guard can finally celebrate its first new icebreaker in fifty years.

The Coast Guard might be celebrating, but Alaska’s fishermen have had one of their worst years ever. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported on Monday the 25th that in twenty twenty-four the total number of salmon harvested was the third lowest since nineteen eighty-five, and the value of those fish was the third lowest since nineteen seventy-five. Climate change and international trade issues have left Alaska’s fishing industry in dire conditions, losing billions of dollars and thousands of jobs in the last year.

Thankfully, the Department of Fish and Game predicts that next year the number of salmon should improve by fifty to a hundred percent, but if the fish remain small, then the economic troubles of the industry won’t ease.

Even Santa isn’t escaping the effects of climate change. As reported by the news agency AFP on Tuesday the 26th, the town of Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland, marketed as the real home of Santa since the nineteen eighties, should be blanketed in white snow but instead is dealing with above-freezing temperatures and melted ice. The Santa tourism industry in Finland is extremely valuable, bringing millions of dollars to Rovaniemi every year, but Lapland is seeing record heat waves that threaten to turn the winter wonderland into a melted mess.

Next up, Finland’s northern regions have received an economic boost from Google. Metsähallitus, Finland’s state land and water resources department, revealed in a press release on Friday the 29th that they are selling land in the Muhos and Kajaani areas to Google for about $30 million US dollars. Google intends to use the land to expand its data center operations in Finland, with its government stating this sale fits with its strategy to become the Nordic’s leading hub for data centers — a strategy intended to bring significant economic growth and strengthen Finland’s digital infrastructure.

Tech corporations are all over Scandinavia, with Swedish steel producer SSAB announcing on Friday the 29th that they have entered into a co-operation agreement with Amazon Web Services to supply fossil-free steel in Sweden. The steel is produced in the northern town of Luleå and will be used in the construction of a new data center in Mälardalen. According to Amazon’s statement on this cooperation, this venture marks a significant step in becoming net zero by twenty forty.

On another note, Reuters reported that, on Sunday, the 1st of December, Norway’s ruling coalition government agreed to suspend selling mining licenses to secure crucial votes from the Socialist SV Party for its new budget. Lars Haltbrekken, SV’s environment spokesperson, emphasized that while Norway requires rare minerals for its green energy transition, the ecological risks of deep-sea mining are too severe. This environmental victory may be short-lived with an election looming in September, giving pro-mining politicians the opportunity to begin mining the Arctic Ocean.

Hopes for better Indigenous rights in Norway are struggling. Last week, the Norwegian government apologized for historic injustices against the Sami people and pledged meaningful change. However, on Monday the 25th, Eva Josefsen, a professor at the Arctic University of Norway, told the broadcaster NRK that the government’s focus on preserving Sami culture and language overlooks urgent land and resource rights. Nearly 200 wind projects planned on Indigenous lands threaten reindeer grazing and migration routes, severely impacting Sami livelihoods. Josefsen called on the government to prioritize resource rights alongside cultural preservation to ensure real support for Sami communities.

To see Norway’s new commitments to supporting Sami livelihoods, take a look at the link in the show notes.

Meanwhile, Indigenous opportunities have received a huge boost in Canada. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, or ITK, the national representative organization for Inuit in Canada, released a statement on Wednesday the 27th that they have received a $35 million US dollar investment from the Mastercard Foundation toward the dream of creating the first Inuit-led university. ITK wants to break many barriers, with the Inuit Nunangat University intended to be Canada’s only Arctic university and the world’s only university grounded in Inuit society. ITK says it still requires over $100 million US dollars in funding before it can open a main campus, but hopes to raise funding from the public and private sectors in time for a planned twenty thirty opening.

The future of Arctic shipping is under scrutiny. Sunday the 26th was World Sustainable Transport Day and the Clean Arctic Alliance used the day to renew demands for cleaner practices in Arctic waters. Despite some environmental victories in twenty twenty-four, with Denmark banning certain wastewater discharges and the International Marine Organization banning all heavy fuel oils from being transported in the Arctic, these changes won’t come into effect until twenty twenty-nine.

The Clean Arctic Alliance has called for the new regulations to be implemented immediately and for their scope to be expanded to include the North Atlantic region too, as any pollutants entering the Atlantic typically migrate into the Arctic quickly.

To know more about this story, check out the Rorshojk Arctic Update with the link in the show notes!

The most famous cat in Iceland, Diego, has had a busy week. According to a Facebook post by Diego’s owner on Sunday the 24th, a stranger stole Diego from one of the public places he likes to visit, and was seen taking him away on a bus. This received a national outcry, with a rescue operation launched by the Icelandic police and cat charity Dýrfinna. Then on Tuesday the 26th, the Capital Area Police confirmed they had found and secured Diego, and returned him home. The police said that the person who took Diego had given him to a friend as a Christmas present. Diego has a fan club of almost 20,000 members who have been celebrating the safety of the country’s favorite feline.

Still in Iceland, the country held its snap general election on Saturday the 30th. The national broadcaster RUV reported the final results on Sunday the 1st of December. The Social Democrats won the biggest share of the votes, taking twenty-one percent and fifteen seats in the sixty-three-seat parliament. With four other parties receiving over ten percent of the vote, there is no guarantee the Social Democrats will enter power. The challenge of building a coalition of parties to form a new government is on.

And to wrap up this edition, let’s head over to Greenland. On Thursday the 28th, Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, inaugurated its expanded international airport. It will be able to receive larger flights from more destinations around the world, with the Greenlandic government predicting this airport will double the number of tourists arriving in a single year. Greenland is opening up to the world like it never has before.

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

Do you know that besides the Rorshok Arctic Update, we also do others? Our latest ones are the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the world covered in salt water, and the Multilateral Update, about the world’s major multilateral institutions. The other ones are all country updates, we have a selection of countries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Check roroshok.com/updates for the full list, the link is in the show notes.

Bless bless