Temperature Rises in Finland & more– 3rd Oct 2023

Bures from Keswick Village! This is Rorshok Arctic Update from the 3rd of October twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

We start this week in Finland. The Finnish Environment Institute warned on Wednesday the 27th that the average temperature in Finnish Lapland is likely to rise by two to three degrees Celcius —or thirty-six to thirty-seven degrees Fahrenheit— within the next fifty years. The average temperature in Lapland has already risen by two degrees in the last hundred years. As the temperature rises, natural habitats change and disappear. The land will become green and grassy as snow and ice melt away. Almost forty percent of open tundra species are already endangered and many might go extinct within fifty years.

Over in Canada, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Canadian House of Commons with an Inuktitut message of inspiration that Governor General Mary Simon taught him earlier that day. Simon is from the Inuit community of the Canadian Arctic and is the highest-ranked Indigenous government official in Canada. She is the first Indigenous person to hold the rank of Governor-General in the country. In his speech, Zelensky relayed a message Mary Simon gave him, as he said “Ajuinnata. She said the meaning of this word is: don’t give up. Don’t give up, stay strong against all odds.” Governor Simon was banned from speaking her native tongue as a child yet now she imparts her language to some of the most influential world leaders.

This week marks the annual Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Week. Its aim is to learn and commemorate Indigenous history and culture, and to honor the legacy of survivors and victims of Canadian Residential Schools. These schools were a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children with the purpose of eradicating traditional values and assimilating kids into Christian culture. This week investigators from the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation found fifteen unmarked graves of children at the former Chooutla Residential School in Carcross, Yukon. The Center believes that up to thirty-three children died at the school. According to the body’s investigations, kids were kept in poor conditions at the schools where disease easily spread, and there was no healthcare. According to The Center, the majority of kids died from Tuberculosis This is a potent reminder of a terrible legacy, and Memorial Week hopes to ensure that an event like this will never be repeated.

Alaska has its own checkered history with native boarding schools. On Saturday the 30th, the state held its first Orange Shirt Day. Originally just a Canadian day of remembrance for the tragedies committed at Residential Schools, this year Alaska joined the festivities. This marks a shift in public policy as schools are now no longer suppressing the history of Indian Boarding Schools and instead aiming to teach and heal from the state’s painful past.

Remaining in Alaska, this year ten killer whales have died because they got caught in fishing gear from trawler fishing boats, which use large, deep nets to scoop every fish from the bottom of the sea. From twenty sixteen to twenty twenty only six whales died due to fishing gear, so the death rate in twenty twenty-three is beyond average. The federal government is carrying out an investigation into the reasons behind the deaths and is analyzing what measures can be taken to prevent further killer whales from being slain.

From whales to bears, the fight to protect polar bears took an important step forward this week. A new report by Dr. Steven Amstrup has closed a legal loophole that prevented polar bears from receiving appropriate protections. In two thousand eight, the US introduced the Endangered Species Act, and the polar bear was “the first species ever to be listed due to future threats from human-caused global warming.” However, the US Department of Interior then declared the link between climate change and polar bear health was not clear enough, and therefore the animal would not receive protection from climate change. Since then Dr Amstrup has worked to prove that climate change is the main threat to polar bears. The animal will now once again be listed as a climate-vulnerable species and the US government will be required to create a specific conservation plan to protect the species.

Polar bears are known as a ‘Keystone Species’, which means they have the biggest impact on the ecosystem of any species. That’s why protecting the polar bear is so important to the Arctic. If you want to learn more, Protect The Arctic has written a great summary on this subject, link in the show notes!

Now we go to Greenland where the government has undergone a cabinet reshuffle this week. The most significant change is that Vivian Motzfeldt, the Foreign Affairs Minister, will take on the additional duty of Minister of Independence. Her department has been tasked with drafting a new independent constitution and progressing work on the formation of a Greenlandic nation-state, independent from the Danish Empire.

Let’s go over to Russia where a military vessel has been touring the northern coast throughout September to host a propaganda tour for towns across the Russian Arctic. The 135-meter-long vessel can normally hold thirteen battle tanks but has instead been packed with war trophies collected from Ukraine. The propaganda campaign is named Strength through Truth or Sila V Pravde and attempts to promote a picture of a victorious Russia. According to the Russian Armed Forces, at least 20,000 people, many being school children, have visited the display in the last month.

Staying in Russia, specialists from the Institute of Technical Chemistry at the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a new frost-resistant adhesive, able to work at up to minus seventy degrees Celsius, or minus ninety-four Fahrenheit. The Russian Foundation for Basic Research is funding this promising project.

Over the border in Norway, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology published a new report, and it has revealed how the Svalbard reindeer overcame inbreeding to successfully evolve. About seven thousand to eight thousand years ago, a few common reindeer traveled from Russia to settle on Svalbard. These reindeer became stranded and could only breed within their family. Normally a severely inbred population of a few animals will succumb to disease or harmful mutations. Amazingly, this inbreeding worked to the benefit of the reindeer. Because they moved to such a harsh environment, any harmful mutations would quickly kill young reindeer before they could reproduce. This led to only the healthiest and most adapted reindeer breeding, and now there is a healthy population of over 20,000 reindeer.

Finishing the week, once again in Norway, as a result of EU sanctions, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, and Poland have closed their borders to all Russian entries. On Tuesday the 3rd, Norway’s Foreign Ministry said in a press release that the country will comply with EU sanctions and close its own border with Russia. This is the northernmost border in Europe and has been a place of community between Norwegian and Russian Arctic residents for over thirty years. Norway was the last European country to still allow entry to travelers from Russia. EU member states have been frustrated that Russian travelers entered Norway via this border on the Kola Peninsula and then traveled onto other European countries, therefore avoiding EU closed borders but legally entering Europe. As of Tuesday the 3rd, this loophole will be closed to all Russian vehicles.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Mana!