Russian Presence in the Arctic & more– 19th Sep 2023

Góðan daginn from Keswick Village! This is Rorshok Arctic Update from the 19th of September twenty twenty-three. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

There were two firsts for Arctic shipping this week, both from Russia. As the sea ice continues to melt, Russian oil and gas companies are finding new ways to transport their fossil fuels through the Arctic Ocean. The first Capesize Bulk Carrier, the largest class of dry cargo ship, has traveled through the Northern Sea Route carrying 164,000 metric tons of iron ore.

The second debut for the Arctic Ocean was a non-ice class oil tanker that traveled from Murmansk to China. Leading icebreaker manufacturer Aker Arctic responded to this news by stating “Even in this day and age, a fully-laden crude oil tanker is probably the last type of ship that should be sent through the Northern Sea Route without any ice-strengthening.”

Russian efforts to increase natural resource extraction in the Arctic have not gone unnoticed. On Thursday the 14th, the US government’s State Department updated its anti-war sanction list against Russia. Many of the key companies that are contracted to produce, extract, and transport liquid natural gas, coal, and oil in the Arctic have been included in the newest round of sanctions. These sanctions will prevent almost all fossil fuels extracted in the Arctic from being sold to any country supporting Russia. According to James O’Brien, the US State Department’s Head Office of Sanctions Coordination, the purpose of these sanctions is to “restrict Russia’s defense production capacity and to reduce the liquidity it has to pay for its war”. Russia will now be forced to look toward Asia for the selling of their goods.

The militarization of the Arctic continues to break new ground. NATO deployed its first surveillance drone in Finland on Wednesday the 13th. According to NATO, this mission aimed at improving “reconnaissance missions on the Alliance’s eastern borders in the wake of Russia’s full-fledged war against Ukraine.”

On that note about Finland, on the other side of the border in Russia, satellite images show that three new large buildings were swiftly erected this week in the Russian wilderness close to Finland. Russia’s Arctic Motor Rifle Brigade will use these buildings. When Finland was not within NATO, the Russian military neglected to invest in its border defenses. These new buildings mark the first sign of military investment in the Russia-Finland border and will likely not be the last.

Over in Greenland there are worrying signs for the economy. The country relies heavily on its fishing industry which accounts for over 10% of the workforce and over 20% of the Gross National Income. The Royal Greenland Company. is responsible for the vast majority of Greenlandic fishing. A recently published half-year account shows a deficit of 113 million Danish Kroner, around $16 million US dollars. Last year, the fishing company had a profit of 96 million Kroner, around $13 million US dollars, in the same period. According to the company, the joint impacts of Russian boycotts, Brexit, and the rising cost of energy have caused this deficit.

Staying in Greenland, holidaymakers had a nasty surprise when the luxury cruise ship MV Ocean Explorer ran aground in the Northeast Greenland National Park on Monday the 11th. The 206 passengers on board had to wait for three days to be rescued. On Thursday the 14th, a fishing vessel was able to pull the cruise ship free. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the accident. This saga shows that the increasing marine traffic in the Arctic is prone to risk. Cruise ship traffic has increased by 50% in the last year around Greenlandic. But these are uncharted waters and vulnerable to hidden dangers that were once covered by ice.

The Canadian wildfire season is finally slowing down. The largest settlement to be evacuated, Yellowknife, with a population of almost 20,000 people, had its evacuation order lifted this week. Residents have been returning home but it will take time for normal life to resume. Public buildings like schools and hospitals remain closed for now as thorough inspections of fire and smoke damage take place. This is the end of the most devastating wildfire season in Canadian history which killed five people and displaced over 250,000.

In contrast, Canada’s neighbor Alaska was able to enjoy one of the lowest wildfire seasons in the last twenty years. On average, wildfires burn about one million acres or four thousand square kilometers a year. This week the fire season officially ended and the total affected area was only 300,000 acres or around twelve hundred square kilometers. Weather systems over the North American Arctic have been stagnant over the summer. When Canada was dry and hot it couldn’t receive rain, yet when Alaska had all the rain and humidity, no dry weather would arrive. As weather patterns continue to change as the world’s climate shifts, predicting and preparing for natural disasters will become ever more difficult.

Moving on to the indigenous peoples of Scandinavia, the Sami. The Sami term for their traditional handicrafts is Duodji. This term carries great cultural significance, encompassing everything from needlework to heavy carpentry made with traditional techniques. In order to protect their culture from poor imitations or foreign influence, a new trademark application was submitted this week. This will ensure that any product bearing the mark of a Sami Duodji has been made with appropriate materials and methods.

The University of Aarhus in Denmark published a report on the Duodji of the Sami. To check out the piece, follow the link in our show notes!

Back in Iceland, the fallout from lifting the ban on whaling has intensified. On Thursday the 14th a bill was tabled in the Icelandic Parliament to end commercial whaling for good. The bill has the backing of the Pirate Party, the People’s Party, the Social Democrats, and the Liberal Reform Party. The bill proposes making whaling illegal by repealing the nineteen forty-nine Act on Whaling and bringing whales under the nineteen ninety-four law on the protection, preservation, and hunting of wild birds and wild mammals. The Parliament is on a summer break but Pirate Party MP Andres Ingi Jónsson is hopeful their bill will progress quickly once Parliament resumes.

When you think of The Arctic, one of the first things you think of is likely the North Pole. Not just where Santa lives, this is the place all compasses point toward. The magnetic North Pole is constantly on the move and on Tuesday the 12th the Russian Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics released a statement declaring the North Pole is heading toward Russian Siberia. First measured in Canada in eighteen thirty-one, the North Pole used to move at a slow pace of nine or six miles a year. But since two thousand one, the movement has accelerated, now moving at an incredible fifty-two km or thirty-two miles per year toward Russia. Likely because molten iron in the Earth’s core has moved toward Russia, this could cause problems for ships and aircraft that rely on accurate compass measurements to travel safely.

Lastly, New York Fashion Week just got a new taste of the Arctic. The event which took place from the 7th to the 13th of September saw Arctic Sea Ice make its debut as wearable art. Artist Amy Lauren and designer Corentin Daudigny collaborated with the University of Alaska Fairbanks to design clothes inspired by the Arctic Sea Ice for NY’s Fashion Week. They released a statement saying they intended “to inspire collective action and shift the conversation about climate change away from environmental doomism towards the beauty of all there is still left to save”.

And that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us! Before we leave, we wanted to thank everyone who has been listening to us, and welcome all the new subscribers! We are happy the Rorshok Arctic community is growing!

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Farvel!