Introducing the Arctic Response Company Group

Military tents in the Arctic via Canadian Army

The Arctic Response Company Group has been introduced last week by canadian officials. The new Arctic Unit consists of regiments such as the Voltigeurs de Quebec, the Royal New Brunswick Regiment, the Grey and Simcoe Foresters, and the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. Those land forces have been assigned the important mandate to support the Regular Force and the Canadian Rangers in asserting Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. They will ensure security and respond to various threats in the Arctic as it is graduously becoming more and more suitable to the development of commercial activities with the improved accessibility associated with the melting ice cap.

Sources:
Metimes, Canadian Army

Deserted Arctic weather station is a mess

At the western entrance of the Northwest passage, on Prince Patrick Island, lies an abandoned weather station; another part of the Arctic mess puzzle. Left behind since 1997, Mould Bay site is nothing more than a big error of the past. Even if Arctic sovereignty wasn’t a hot topic back then, why would anybody take the decision to abandon a station in such a key location? Money? I sure hope savings never was the idea behind that; it will eventually cost a whole lot more to clean up the site than it would have cost to maintain it and keep it habitable over the years (According to reports, it isn’t fit for human activities). Why would the official decommission of this remote outpost be postponed by more than ten years? How irresponsible is this?

As mentionned earlier, this is just a piece of the canadian Arctic pollution puzzle: the full federal contaminated sites inventory can be found here. At least it seems that our part of the Arctic dump has been mapped and that it will be cleaned within the next few centuries (Yes, I refer to the use of the word quickly in the following statement).

I have asked my officials to proceed quickly on the clean-up of this shameful situation that has been allowed to linger since 2002 – this government will act where previous governments failed (…) We are using the investments made in Canada’s Economic Action Plan to clean up the legacy of contaminated sites across Canada by accelerating the assessment and remediation work. Mould Bay is part of this plan.
Honourable Jim Prentice, Canadian Minister of the Environment

Now walk the talk and prove me wrong Jim.

Sources:
Vancouver Sun, SYS CON Media

Dovekies in Svalbard (Wallpaper)

Photography by Paul Nicklen via National Geographic

Svalbard’s ecosystem links sky, sea, and shore. Dovekies dive for copepods and nest on rocky slopes.

Weststar Resources gets approval of Arctic Coal Licences

Crew and helicopter on Ellesmere Island. Photography via Weststar Ressources

Weststar Ressources Corp. announced tuesday that the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs have approved their first series of Arctic coal licences covering 267 645 acres of land in Nunavut, Canada. The licences have been granted to Canadian Sovereign Coal Corp., its wholly-owned subsidiary. 13 more licences are currently under application.

Sources:
StockHouse, Weststar Ressources

North Pole, Alaska

Driving outside of North Pole, Alaska. Photography by jkbrooks85 via Flickr

Somewhere in the middle of Alaska, about 1700 miles south of the geographical North Pole lies a small city named North Pole. Why would anybody give such a name to a city? In 1953, Dahl and Gaske Development Company purchased an homestead, subdivided it, and named it North Pole, in hopes of attracting a toy manufacturer to the area. It failed miserably.

Still, the little city near Fairbanks kept growing and it is now called home by about 2000 person. With candy cane streetlights appearing on streets named like Santa Claus Lane, St Nicholas Drive, Snowman Lane and such, the interest to develop North Pole as a theme city is obvious.

 Where the spirit of Christmas lives year round.

Sources:
Wikipedia, City of North Pole

Russians drove to the North Pole

A team of seven Russians recently set a new record in the exploration of the Arctic when they reached the geographical North Pole aboard two Zemelya experimental wheeled cars. After two years of preparation, the team departed from Severnaya Zemlya archipelago on March 20th, travelled 1100 km on drift ice to finally reach the northernmost point on Earth on April 26th. Congratulations!

Photography of a Yemelya vehicle.

Source:
Pravda

A rare bird in the Arctic (Update)

Here is a bit more information on the aircraft pictured in my previous article A rare bird in the Arctic

At the same time, a specially equipped DC-3 was flying more than 40,000 kilometres to conduct aerogravity readings — a preliminary survey to gauge the depth and density of the sea floor — throughout a triangle of ocean from Ellesmere Island to northern Greenland to the North Pole.

Source:
Canada.com

Canada publishes first comprehensive Atlas of Arctic Geology

Geological Survey of Canada just published the first comprehensive Atlas of Arctic Geology. The atlas, mapping riches of Arctic presents various figures such as continental plates, fault lines, rock type & age. The final result renders 1-billion dollars worth of data gathered in a joint effort by Canada, the United States, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. 

Collected by icebreakers, trekkers and aircrafts, all the information is now synthesized in one map (or 1222 depending on the level of detail wanted) providing an important amount of clues to exploration companies looking for gold, diamond gas or oil north of 60. It is also more likely that  such work will have a certain impact on Arctic nations’ land claims in the area in prevision to UN’s 2013 deadline.

The main overview map is said to be available electronically from Natural Resources Canada but it is honestly nowhere to be found. I will update as soon as it becomes available.

Sources:
AFP, National Post

Upcoming Commonwealth North forum on the Law of the Sea

Commonwealth North, Alaska’s premier non-partisan public policy forum will be holding a special Law of the Sea forum May 20th in Anchorage, Alaska. A panel featuring various Arctic experts will be disscussing the opportunities and challenges faced by the United States (Alaska) as an Arctic nation. A recently completed report exploring Arctic issues and advocating concrete actions will be presented as well.

(Read the report online: Why the Arctic Matters… America’s Responsibilities as an Arctic Nation)

Sources:
ArcticFocus, Commonwealth North

Overreacting russian talk of conflict

Last week in the news we could read that an official russian government report predicted possible military conflict over Arctic oil. It almost evolved to a full-on crisis for a moment. Just take for example the title of an article published on Times website: Russia warns of war within a decade over Arctic oil and gas riches.

Yuri Fedotov took it upon himself to remind us the meaning of the word miscomprehension. The Ambassador of the Russian Federation replied to the Times with a letter I was silently waiting for.

Sir, The national security strategy does not suggest, in any way, that Russia intends to pursue its territorial claims in the Arctic through military means (…) To suggest the national security strategy makes “threatening noises” rests more on an outdated view of the world than a fair assessment of Russia’s foreign policy priorities.

Just like him, I see no war declaration; just an official assessment of what everybody knows. How could any nation with arctic borders deny the possibility of military conflict over Arctic oil?