Climate Change is Getting Faster & more – 21st Nov 2023

Góðan daginn from Keswick Village! This is Rorshok Arctic Update from the 21st of November twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

Let’s start the week with news about the warming of the planet. Researchers from University College London published a report on Monday the 13th in the journal Earth System Dynamics, which aimed to estimate how the warming of the Arctic is affecting the global temperature. According to the study, the Arctic is warming about four times faster than the rest of the world. If this continues, the threshold of two degrees Celsius of warming, set by the Paris Climate Agreement as the limit to prevent a global catastrophe, will be reached eight years faster than previously thought, now in twenty fifty-one. Rapid Arctic warming affects the whole planet for many reasons, including rising sea levels and melting permafrost. The report calls for increased action to limit climate change and more funding for monitoring the Arctic to predict global changes.

Speaking of the Paris Climate Agreement, the Greenlandic parliament voted on Tuesday the 14th that the country will join the climate change agreement. This will legally bind Greenland to work toward keeping the world’s temperature rise below two degrees Celcius. The government also announced it would design its first national climate change strategy, which will incorporate the needs of citizens, businesses, and civil society.

The Alaskan climate got a major report, too. On Tuesday the 14th, a scientific report the Biden administration issued included a chapter devoted specifically to Alaska. The document says that Alaska is warming between two and three times faster than the continental US and will significantly impact Alaska's infrastructure, security, health, and livelihoods.

The document says that National Security is at risk as well. Flooding, erosion, and other physical disruptions that climate change brings might damage military installations.

The report concludes that massive investment is required to adapt the US state to climate change in order to protect its citizens and security.

In other Alaska news, the Willow Oil project has another legal battle to overcome. Last week, a district judge denied the statements from environmental groups, which said that the project would be too harmful. The Sierra Club, Alaska Wilderness League, and other environmental groups have now appealed this decision. They filed an injunction on Wednesday the 15th to block construction of the $8 billion US dollar oil and gas drilling project, arguing a delay is necessary to stop imminent cultural and environmental harms. By the 29th of November, environmentalists should have a response, which will determine whether the construction proceeds this winter.

Winter in Alaska is always harsh, but this year has been dangerously difficult. In the last week, four homeless people died in Anchorage after the city experienced over three feet, or ninety centimeters, of snow from the 5th to the 14th of November. These deaths bring the total homeless fatalities to forty-nine in twenty twenty-three, which vastly eclipses the twenty twenty-two figure of twenty-four. In response, the city government met in a special session on Tuesday the 14th and approved increasing the size of a new homeless shelter from 150 to 200 beds.

From Alaska to Canada. On Friday the 17th, the federal government announced in a press release that there would be a huge funding boost to fishing communities in Newfoundland and Labrador. $25 million Canadian dollars, about $18 million US dollars, will be split across 150 projects to modernize equipment and improve productivity, quality, and sustainability in the province’s fish and seafood sectors.

As the Arctic Ocean melts, Russia aims to send more ships via the Northern Sea Route to deliver oil and gas to Asia. A new record for traffic traveling through this route has been achieved, with the amount shipped reaching over 30 million tonnes. This represents a 6% increase compared to twenty twenty-two. The shipping lanes are now all closed as the winter sea ice thickens, but as Russia aims to increase traffic to 200 million tonnes by twenty thirty, more ships will probably be traveling through the Arctic very soon.

Russia’s neighbor, Finland, has highlighted how relations between the two countries are deteriorating. Petteri Orpo, the Finnish president, announced that the nation will close four of its borders with Russia on Saturday, the 18th. This decision aims to stem the flow of asylum seekers into Finland from Russia. On Wednesday, the 15th, Orpo asserted that Russia is sending record numbers of migrants to Finland in an attempt to destabilize the country as revenge for joining NATO earlier this year. Norwegian Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said Norway, which shares an Arctic border with Russia, is also ready to close its border if necessary.

As Russia’s European relations continue to fracture, the country is looking elsewhere for cooperation. Russia announced last month that it will set up its own Arctic science base on the Norwegian islands of Svalbard. According to a press release from The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute published on Friday, the 17th, China and Brazil have shown great interest in developing scientific cooperation with Russia in the Arctic. Brazil has shown interest in joining the Arctic Council as an observer as it seeks to gain access to mineral extraction projects in the Arctic. Russia has also invited India, Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, and South Africa into its Arctic research.

Let’s go to Iceland, where the threat of volcanic eruption continues. After Grindavík, the town closest to the expected eruption site, was evacuated on the 10th of November, there have been a number of updates from the area. On Thursday, the 16th, the Minister for Social Affairs announced he is presenting a bill to parliament to provide financial relief to any evacuees from Grindavík who are now unable to work. On Tuesday the 14th, construction of a massive lava barrier began around the Svartsengi Power Plant and Blue Lagoon spa. The barrier will be between six and eight meters, or twenty to twenty-six feet high, and will cost around $2.3 million US dollars. A small increase in the property tax will finance the barrier. The Blue Lagoon Spa also announced it will remain closed until the 30th of November. Earthquakes continue to frequently batter the area as the people of Grindavík wait in uncertainty about how the situation unfolds.

An independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission is urging Sweden and the Church of Sweden to apologize for historical injustices against the Tornedalians, a northern Swedish minority. The Commission's report, published on Thursday the 16th, highlights assimilation policies that harmed Tornedalian culture and language. Terje Raattamaa, Vice President of the Swedish Tornedalian Association, sees the report as a positive step toward government recognition and support. The Tornedalians, descendants of 19th-century Finnish settlers, faced assimilation, including a ban on their language until the nineteen sixties. The Commission recommends measures to strengthen their language, Meänkieli, and calls for an official public apology from the State of Sweden.

And to close this edition, some sports news. Norway has just two professional football clubs, Bodø Glimt and Tromsø, which play within the Arctic Circle. Neither have been historically very successful but this year in the Eliteserien, Norway’s top-tier league, both clubs have been dominating. With two games left in the season, Tromsø sits in second place. After beating Aalesund on the 12th of November, Bodø Glimt was named champions of Norway for the third time in four years. Before twenty nineteen, an Arctic club had never won the Norwegian title, marking an incredible shift in sporting power in the country.

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