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We’d like to wish all readers a happy 2013! We hope it will bring each of you peace and success. We’re also pleased to announce a new addition to the TAI family: Kevin Casey is joining us as a co-author for The Arctic This Week. For this first issue, he contributes the Energy and Sports sections. Send Kevin a welcome message if you like.
We’d also like to announce that five TAI team members will be at the Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø, Norway later in January, presenting on several different issues. If you’ll be at the conference, send us a note in advance; it would be great to meet face-to-face.
As always, all editorial choices, opinions and any mistakes are the authors’ own. To comment or to request a back issue, feel free to contact Tom or Kevin directly.
Reads of the Week
If you’re slowly tunneling out from under a pile of holiday email, the following few articles will give you the best writing and information in the shortest time.
There’s been lots of good writing on the Kulluk incident, but you should turn first to Alex DeMarban and Suzanna Caldwell’s article in the Alaska Dispatch. While the story continues to develop, this article gives a good summary of the events that led to the grounding and an overview of the other mishaps that have plagued Shell’s 2012 Alaskan Arctic drilling project. It also begins to explore how this incident might impact US Arctic energy policy. For a different perspective on the event, read Carey Restino’s compelling editorial in the Bristol Bay Times that gives voice to the personal and local impacts of the accident, a viewpoint often lost in national reporting.
It’s not possible to justly select the “best” articles on the Idle No More movement. From the many great articles we read this week, the three which we found most interesting, useful and intelligent came from: Pamela Palmater, who offered a cogent and well-written explanation of the movement’s motivations in the Ottawa Citizen; the Aboriginal Public Television Network, whose reporting covered a subtlety that has gone unmentioned elsewhere – the division between the Idle No More movement and the First Nations chiefs themselves; and from Rachael Petersen, who tells you what you need to know about the development of the movement online.
Other articles that merit your attention are: an analysis of the challenges of responding to increased Arctic SAR demands (ipolitics.ca); an excellent, information-rich and concise briefing on the role of various specific Asian shipyards in the construction of vessels for Arctic use (from Vijay Sakhuja at India’s Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict); Laine Welch’s year-end review of highlights, bests and worsts in Alaska’s fishing industry (SitNews); and a second piece from ipolitics.ca that tidily explains the challenges that face small utilities in the Arctic.
The Political Scene
Idle No More
It has been jaw-dropping to watch the development of the Canadian and, increasingly, international (CBC) Idle No More movement. It strikes me, at least, as the perfect case study of political organizing using online tools: see the homepage and related tumblr and Facebook sites, or track #idlenomore on Twitter. For my own part, I hope to hear more from Rachael Petersen, who wrote about it in mid-December. I’d also suggest you scan an article from Derrick O’Keefe assessing just the Twitter side of things. Articles on Idle No More practically drowned me this week, and so I beg the pardon of anyone whose thoughtful reporting I have missed in the deluge. It should be said as well that this is not a movement restricted entirely, or even in large measure, to Canada’s aboriginal inhabitants north of 60°. It clearly concerns aboriginal residents across the country.
Pamela Palmater offered a cogent and well-written explanation of the motivations of the movement in the Ottawa Citizen, though hers was not the only such. She followed that with a sort of Q-&-A later, which will also help you to understand how things have gotten to where they are. The Aboriginal Public Television Network’s reporting covered a subtlety that has gone unmentioned elsewhere – the division between the Idle No More movement and the First Nations chiefs themselves. Tim Querengesser has gone to what seem to be heroic lengths to assemble links to background documentation of all kinds, including the central Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report from 2006. Also worthy of your attention is a New Year’s Day article from Matt Moir suggesting that the disproportionate incarceration of aboriginal people in Canada, and of African Americans in the US, may have more behind it than simply a dispassionate interest in the maintenance of order (rabble.ca).
Judging by what gets press, the central storyline of the movement’s development is the hunger strike of Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, who began her demonstration in Ottawa on 11 December in order to compel the attention of PM Steven Harper to an increasingly unacceptable political relationship between Canada and its First Nations, which Chief Spence and others believe is characterized by broken and unfulfilled treaty agreements. PM Harper did not agree to a meeting at first, and Chief Spence turned down invitations to meet with other representatives of the federal government instead. She was, though, visited by former PM Joe Clark and 15 MPs from the New Democratic Party in the waning days of 2012 (CTV News, EOTA). As Chief Spence’s health becomes a matter of increasing concern (CBC), PM Harper agreed to a working meeting with First Nations chiefs, scheduled to take place on 11 January (CBC). That day will also see protests organized throughout Canada and elsewhere – if you’re a Twitter user, #J11 will help you track those.
Support for Chief Spence and the whole movement has come from the Green Party’s Elizabeth May, Yukon NDP leader Liz Hanson, singer Nelly Furtado (When you’ve got Nelly Furtado, what more do you need?) and the leadership of the Anglican Church of Canada, among countless others. Not all response has been positive, however. A more critical eye was turned to the movement by the National Post and the Calgary Herald (again, among others).
International
The turn of the year is always a time for ambitious previews and reviews; this year is no exception to the rule. Congratulations first are due to the many prominent authors who contributed to the newly-published “Environmental Security in the Arctic Ocean,” including our friends at Ecologic, whose article looks at transatlantic policy options to address the rapidly changing Arctic. For a history of the project, click here. The perhaps equally ambitious next round of the Arctic Yearbook also opened its call for abstracts for 2013; if you’ve got something intelligent to say about the Arctic as a patchwork and as a unified global actor, get your ideas in now. CSIS also offered, in essence, a university course of lectures, videos and documents on Arctic Geopolitics, of which you can avail yourself via iTunes U.
On the more easily-digested side of things, the Institute of the North offered its concise yet comprehensive assessment of the 13 Trends to Watch in the Arctic this year.
Canada & the US
For those of you with an eye on politics in the Canadian North, I can do no better than to encourage you to revisit 2012 through the eyes of Nunatsiaq News. Thanks are due to the whole staff for their painstaking review of the year’s activities in Nunavut, in Nunavik and in Iqaluit proper.
Other pieces you might want to read on Canada include one overview of Canada’s upcoming Arctic Council chairmanship (Maclean’s – and guys, you mean “reins”) and a brief report on the re-re-announcement of a student debt forgiveness plan for any of Canada’s medical professionals who elect to work in rural or remote communities (NN).
In the US, Alaska’s Senator Lisa Murkowski looks like she will be keeping her committee assignments in the US Senate. Both she and Senator Mark Begich will be on the Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee (ADN). Meanwhile Alaska’s only Representative in the House, Don Young, was sworn in for his 21st term; he is now the fifth most senior person in the House (AD). As the 113th Congress convenes in Washington, Alaska’s Arctic Policy Commission is preparing to take on its job of tackling both state and national Arctic issues; our best wishes for the Commission’s success (Podcast from KMXT). The state’s finances, however, appear to be in the process of a slow-motion train wreck which should reach its flash point in 2023 unless major changes in spending or saving are made; thus saith the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the U of Alaska Anchorage. Sound familiar?
Elsewhere
Is Iceland likely to keep moving towards eventual EU membership under the new government to be elected in April 2013? Time will tell (IceNews). What does seem likely is that the government’s plans to remove capital controls this year will be postponed (IceNews). Radio Sweden meanwhile discussed whether the Nordic Council of Ministers, which will be chaired for the immediate future by Sweden, has a continued role to play in light of the fact that Finland, Denmark and Sweden are EU members while Norway and Iceland remain outside the union (EOTA).
Blood & Treasure
Much of this week’s military news comes from Russia, where the recent convulsions in the military hierarchy seem to have settled out for the time being. Perhaps most exciting was the final commission of the Borei-class submarine SSBN Yury Dolgoruky into the Russian navy, and the launch of her cousin the SSGN Vladimir Monomakh, both at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk (Naval Today, RIAN). These are two in a suite of eight similar subs to be delivered to Russia by 2020. RIA Novosti gives you a nice diagram of the Dolgoruky’s basic stats. The Sevmash yard also said it had begun construction on a new deep-sea research sub, though few details are available (Naval Today).
Russia’s Northern Fleet is looking ahead to a year of military cooperation, including the Pomor and Barents exercises (jointly with the Norwegian navy) and the more global FRUKUS drill, for which the Northern Fleet will partner with the navies of France, Norway and the US (RIAN). For a quick overview of the readiness of the military and civilian fleets of the US, Russia, Norway and Canada to assert their countries’ presences in the Arctic, look to Naval Technology.
Russia’s civilian Federal Marine and River Transport Agency is also contracting with a German shipbuilder for two multi-purpose ice-class search-and-rescue (SAR) vessels to be delivered 2015. They’ll be assigned primarily to monitor and assist Arctic offshore oil-&-gas installations (BO). Norway was glad of Russia’s SAR capacity earlier in December when a massive Russian helicopter was called upon to haul a smaller Norwegian Sea King off the top of a mountain in Finnmark (BO – with a great picture). In contrast, the spirit of Canada’s SAR forces is willing, doubtless, though the flesh may be weak – an analysis of the challenges of responding to increased Arctic SAR demands comes this week from ipolitics.ca.
Science, Climate & Wildlife
Ice
Frontier Scientists capably and concisely recapped several of the important climate headlines from this past year, while the Washington Post listed the Arctic cyclone of this past summer as #5 among top weather events of 2012. A newly released paper in Geophysical Research Letters puts solid numbers not just on the increased light absorption of first-year ice in comparison with multi-year ice (50%) but on the increased transmission of sunlight through first-year as compared to multi-year ice (nearly 300%). The authors point out that this dramatically alters the surface energy budget of the Arctic Ocean, though no specific changes are hypothesized. For more analysis of the paper, turn to slightly different articles from EurActiv and the New York Times. Other innovative research is coming out of Alaska, where scientists are using tools never before deployed to assess the state of permafrost soil in the Arctic tundra. They are beginning to consider whether the massive carbon stores contained therein will be released or not if (when?) the permafrost thaws (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory).
For all that additional warmth, though, 2012 was the coldest year for Anchorage, Alaska since 1982 (AD) and a much colder winter in Finland so far this year means unusually thick ice on Finnish lakes (YLE).
Animals
Let’s begin in the ocean, where bowhead whales, which can live for 200 years, are looking at a population rebound according to a scientist who’s been counting them for 34 years as they migrate past Point Barrow, Alaska (AD). Doing substantially less well are bearded and ringed seals, both of which have been upgraded to “threatened” by the US’s National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Endangered Species Act (LA Times). The probable cause as cited by NOAA is loss of sea ice habitat. It’s not just physical habitat, either: The dietary needs of seals, whales and other pelagic predators may depend more on having concentrations of prey species in particular areas than on high overall prey-species biomass (phys.org).
In order to protect whales from the disturbance of biopsies, a doctoral student at the University of Rhode Island is attempting to figure out ways to assess basic health metrics from beluga whales by capturing their exhalations, the scientific term for which is “whale snot” (phys.org). Interested in tracking beluga’s relatives, narwhals? You can do so via the WWF narwhal tracker; they’re heading south through the Davis Strait right now.
Moving onto land: the WWF and the Humane Society International have a difference of opinion on the proposed global ban in trade of polar bear products (IceNews); red foxes appear, anecdotally, to be supplanting Arctic foxes onshore in the region of Churchill, Manitoba (BBC); and an adorable and profoundly lost dovekie was delivered, somewhat shaken, to a fire station in Roxbury, near Boston (Boston Globe).
If you prefer your animals 12,000 years old, you’ll want to browse a quick article on recently-discovered woolly mammoth bones in the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (Nat’l Parks Traveler).
Uncollected
The first Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-1914 doesn’t get much attention, but it was a significant contributor to Canadian science and sovereignty (Canadian Geographic). / A delightful blog from one of the INTERACT stations in northern Russia tackles the challenges of winter Arctic science with good humor (Arctic Research blog).
Energy
The Kulluk
You would have to be living under a rock to have missed the news of the grounding of Shell Oil’s arctic drilling rig Kulluk on Sitkalidak Island, Alaska. The press on this issue has been voluminous, but you’ll want to start with a superb overview of the chain of events surrounding the Kulluk’s grounding and the work to free it from the FuelFix blog. Start with Jennifer Dlouhy’s initial story on the topic, then follow the thread across the subsequent posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) for a blow-by-blow account.
Afterward, move on to coverage of the fallout. Rep. Ed Markey demanded accountability from Shell and the Coast Guard on contingency plans that were in place before the decision was made to move the Kulluk across the Gulf of Alaska in December (FuelFix). Jennifer Dlouhy also explores what the implications of the incident may be for Shell’s 2013 drilling plans, and also for other companies planning exploration in the Alaskan Arctic (FuelFix). Will this event represent a tipping point in terms of wider perceptions of Shell’s Arctic program, or Arctic oil exploration more generally? As one might expect, Greenpeace saw the accident as another example of Shell’s lack of preparedness for Arctic operations. Surprisingly, though, skepticism of Shell’s plans also found voice in articles in Bloomberg, Forbes and CNN, and calls for reconsideration of Arctic drilling writ large have figured prominently in coverage of the event. The Kulluk accident has also served to overshadow the substantial problems that continue to plague Shell’s other vessel, the Noble Discoverer (FuelFix) and the series of mishaps that have haunted Shell’s 2012 drilling season.
Finally, it is well worth digging into the regional Alaska press on this story, where there has been some exceptional reporting. Ben Anderson (AD) and Jim Paulin and Carey Restino (both BBT) look at whether Shell might have moved the Kulluk in order to avoid millions in state taxes which would have come due had the rig stayed moored in Dutch Harbor past 1 January. As the Kulluk ran aground on 31 December within 3 miles of the Alaska coast, Shell will likely be liable for the tax bill, anyway. It appears nature has a sense of humor. Jill Burke looks into the politically well-connected company that provided the ice-breaking tugs to Shell that failed to keep the Kulluk off the rocks in exceptionally rough seas (AD). And last but not least, read Carey Restino’s compelling editorial in the Bristol Bay Times that gives voice to the personal and local impacts of the accident, a perspective often lost in national reporting.
Alaska
The Golden Valley Electric Association has taken the first step in a state-supported project to provide North Slope LNG for Interior customers by applying for a pipeline permit that will feed a yet-to-be-built North Slope LNG plant (FNM). GVEA’s plans to increase use of North Slope natural gas have caused concern among south-central Alaskan gas consumers that shortages and price increases may be in the offing (Petroleum News). There seems to be no shortage of wind, however, as several of Alaska’s fledgling wind generation projects are reporting higher-than-expected production in recent months due to above average winds (AD).
Canada
An interesting article in iPolitics does a great job of setting out the challenges of managing an electrical grid in Canada’s Arctic: huge expanses of territory, tiny population bases, and mining and resource exploration projects that require massive amounts of energy. iPolitics also explores how the Kulluk disaster has highlighted gaps in Canada’s ability to respond to a similar incident in its own waters.
Jeff Lewis in the Financial Post writes about the rising interest in and continued uncertainty about shale oil potential in the Northwest Territories. Tight oil has the potential to revive production in the region which has been declining for years.
Russia
Russia, once a shale gas denier, has begun touting its own potential unconventional gas reserves, which, according to Gazprom, may be two and a half times as large as their conventional reserves (NGE). Meanwhile, Novatek is looking to skirt state-owned Gazprom’s LNG export monopoly and export Yamal Peninsula gas itself. The issue is before President Putin currently, and a decision in Novatek’s favor would represent a shift toward liberalization of Russia’s gas export policies (BO).
Even though offshore Arctic oil has yet to come on line, Russian crude production last year rose 1.3% from 2011 allowing the country to remain the world’s top oil producer (BO). Apparently not satisfied with first place, Moscow announced it would lift export duties and other taxes affecting Arctic exploration to hasten bringing Arctic oil and gas to market (RT). The tax relief will likely help feed rumors of the Shtokman project’s eventual realization by increasing its profit potential (BO). For a look at the state-vs-business politicking in Russia to gain access to hydrocarbon projects on the country’s continental shelf, turn to an excellent Interfax piece, via the commendable Johnson’s Russia List.
Europe
Iceland took a major step in its drive to begin offshore oil production this week by offering its first two exploration and production licenses in the Dreki region (Rigzone). Norway’s state-owned Petoro will have a 25% stake in both licenses, representing the company’s first work outside of Norway (Europe Online). Norway’s stake was assured thanks to a 1981 agreement with Iceland concerning exploration in the region around Norway’s Jan Mayen Island, 370 miles off the coast of Iceland (WSJ). Iceland’s ambassador to Japan is meanwhile pushing the Asian country to consider geothermal energy development as an alternative to further use of nuclear or hydrocarbon energy (IceNews).
Mining
Now that the Mary River project has received its project certificate from the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NN), the massive proposed Izok Corridor project – zinc, copper and lead mines in western Nunavut - is taking up the newly-vacant space in mining headlines. The project is the subject of a thorough and engagingly-written briefing from Bob Weber (WFP), and it is but one of many indications of China’s interest in Arctic resources in Canada and elsewhere, according to ipolitics.ca. For a much more thorough synopsis of all that’s new in mining in Canada’s North, read the most recent issue of the NWT & Nunavut Chamber of Mines newsletter. Also of potential interest is word that a set of gold-mining leases near Yellowknife has changed hands; the Northbelt leases are now owned 100% by TerraX (press release).
Elsewhere, it was a good year for Europe’s largest iron-ore mine in Kiruna, Sweden, which shipped a record high 26.3 million tons of iron-ore products in 2012, mostly to steel producers in Europe (BO). Greenland’s much-touted rare earth metals, however, will have a couple of significant hurdles to clear before making their way out of the ground and onto the world market – they’re bound, often, with uranium, and (as reported before) finding enough skilled labor to run massive mines in the country may present a challenge (mining.com).
Other Business and Industrial News
Fishing
Laine Welch’s year-end review of highlights, bests and worsts in Alaska’s fishing industry in 2012 is a fascinating read (SitNews). In terms of what’s going on right now, it looks like the recently-instituted observer regulations for Alaskan trawl fisheries are the target of a lawsuit which, if I understand it correctly, actually wants the regulations to be tougher in order to protect key species for recreational and subsistence fishing (AD).
Norwegian king crab is shipped all over the world from Finnmark; the “routine” – which is hardly routine – of the fishermen who bring them up from the sea floor is the subject of a delightful article from Barents Observer. Nearby, a massive Atlantic salmon farm in Murmansk is the beneficiary of a RUB 2.1 billion loan from Russia’s Rosselkhozbank (thefishsite.com).
Shipping
Not being a shipping expert myself, I can only say that the position paper on Arctic shipping released by the International Chamber of Shipping in December seems important. Its seven recommendations seem logical and practical; they begin on page 3.
The dominance of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which is already far better-equipped to manage traffic than the Northwest Passage, is the subject of a piece in ipolitics.ca warning the US and Canada to cooperate and “step up” – although I can’t imagine what kind of political dealing would be necessary to get increasingly scarce funds devoted to preparing the Northwest Passage as an international shipping route. Russia and India Report took a quick look at the advantages of the NSR over more popular and longstanding shipping routes (to wit: no pirates), and Russia announced that it would open its new administrative offices for the NSR in Moscow, rather than in Arkhangelsk or Murmansk (Arctic Portal). Various reasons for the choice have been given.
TAI’s own Andreas Raspotnik and colleague Bettina Rudloff published a working paper on the EU’s interests in Arctic shipping (SWP Berlin), and an excellent, information-rich and concise briefing on the role of various specific Asian shipyards in the construction of vessels for Arctic use comes from India’s Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict.
General Business and Econ News
Up Here Business is to be thanked for their year-end reviews of the economies of Yukon and the Northwest Territories. / Iceland’s tourism sector is working now to attract additional business customers, relying on its advantaged location between Europe and North America (IceNews). Helping out the country’s tourist industry is Elizabeth Thorp, who published 8 reasons that visiting Iceland should be your mission in 2013 (HuffPo). / The first direct flight between Europe and the Chinese city of Xi’an will be run by Finnair, out of Helsinki (IceNews). / A long-lived smuggling operation that brought narwhal tusks across the Canada-US border at St. Stephen, NB and Calais, ME has been busted, at last (OC).
Infrastructure, Health, Education, Arts…
The cries of Idle No More seem to have drowned out most social news this week, or perhaps it’s simply 2013 getting off to a slow start. To start us off well, however, an excellent blog from Heather Exner-Pirot highlights the demographic challenge faced by indigenous communities in Canada’s North (EOTA). In the Arctic, as elsewhere in the world, high birth rates and unusually young populations are correlated with greater poverty and lower social and economic outcomes. Couple that with a lengthy profile in Alaska Dispatch of the town of Kivalina, Alaska, which is famous for attempting to sue energy majors for the damage caused to their town by climate change. The article is engrossing and well-written, though it’s also well-trodden territory.
A dire-sounding consideration of Canada’s lack of a national housing strategy (ipolitics.ca) is complemented by an article describing the revolting housing conditions that eventually caused tenants to be moved out of a housing co-op in Yellowknife (NNSO). In Yukon, the Mounties have identified driving under the influence as a chronic, intractable problem (CBC), while in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, a holiday liquor ban seems to have achieved next to nothing (CBC).
A program at the U of Alaska Fairbanks to develop computer-assisted language-learning tools will enjoy a USD 1.9 million grant from the US Department of Education (Dutch Harbor Fisherman). Company Iristel is moving into Yukon for real, providing perhaps the first real competition for resident monopoly Northwestel (WS). Travel between Norway and Russia at their shared northern border was up dramatically in 2012 over 2011, including a particular bump for Christmas-shopping Russians in December (29,737 crossings, of about 250,000 total in 2012) (BO).
Sports
Alaska Dispatch reports that the Knik 200 sled-dog race has been canceled due to poor snow conditions. This is the second major sled-dog race to be cancelled in Alaska this year after the Sheep Mountain 150 was cancelled in December for lack of snow. The Top of the World 350 did go ahead, however, and was run from Tok to Eagle, Alaska, with all 22 mushers finishing the race (FNM). Volunteers meanwhile got to work grooming the trails for the upcoming 1,600-km Yukon Quest dogsled race (CBC).
It wasn’t warm weather but extreme cold that almost canceled the Don Sumanik Memorial Cross Country Ski Race in Whitehorse, Yukon, this week (WS). The Yukon Freestyle Ski Association took advantage of funds from Lotteries Yukon and the territory’s Community Development Fund to purchase a 15m by 15m airbag so that Association members can practice aerial tricks without necessarily having to “stick” their landings (Yukon News).
The New York Times reports that warm temperatures are wreaking havoc on hockey in Nunavik: 9 of the 14 villages in northernmost Quebec have had to install cooling systems in their ice rinks over the last five years. Climate projections say that natural ice for hockey may disappear completely from Canada’s southern tier by mid-century. For full results of the World Junior hockey championships, which were completed on Saturday, head to www.worldjunior2013.com. For water-cooler purposes, the US won, Sweden got silver and Russia landed bronze, with Canada coming in fourth, to the disappointment of many Canadian fans.
Lithuanian horseback rider Vaidotas Digaitis completed a long-distance ride from his home to the Arctic Circle and back (Horsetalk). Meanwhile last week brought the tragic news of the death of Japanese bicyclist and athlete Haruhisha Watanabe who was killed when stuck by a vehicle in Murmansk as he attempted to ride to the Arctic Circle in the depths of winter (RBTH).
If you missed the news over the holidays, check out this video from Norwegian Håvard Rugland. After his YouTube video showing off his unbelievable kicking skills with an American football went viral, Håvard won an invitation to try out for the NFL’s NY Jets (IceNews).
And finally, a site that is new to me, at least: Arcticsurfblog.com. The site is devoted to documenting unexplored waves in cold, remote regions. Having squeezed myself into two wetsuits to surf off Noyes Island in Alaska once, I can appreciate the pioneering spirit of these athletes. Will it be long before we see surfing take root along the shores of an ice-free Arctic?
Images and Videos
Start your perusing with any of the following three collections: a re-published collection of great Svalbard photographs from Roy Mangersnes; YLE’s collection of the best Finnish weather photos of 2012; or pics from a BBC cameraman’s encounter with a polar bear.
Follow up with individual images from excellent amateur photographers around the circle. Arctic skies (1, 3, 4, 5), the Lena pillars in winter (2), dog-sledding in Sweden (6, 7), Greenland’s Eqi Glacier (8), Arctic surfing (9), a darkened Tromsø from above (10), and the New Year’s parade in Arctic Bay, photographed by perennial favorite Clare Kines. This last is also our cover photograph this week.
The Grab Bag
Now for some choice tidbits that fit nowhere else…
Oh, lord: Now Psy’s “Gangnam Style” has been covered in Inuktitut (AD). / The Arctic Sounder’s Carey Restino put together a great list of the top 10 Arctic stories of 2012 (AD). / Oulu, a city in Finland’s North, emerged into 2013 as a much bigger city after a merge with 4 neighboring municipalities (YLE). It makes Oulu the fifth largest city in Finland and in the Barents Region (BO). / The waning days of December saw profiles of photographers Camille Seaman, whose iceberg photographs graced the website of the NYT (AD), and of Dave Brosha – this one is really great, well worth reading – from Up Here Business. / A Nunavut man who went lost when his snowmobile died just before Christmas talked with Nunatsiaq News about surviving until his rescue. / The former Anglican archbishop of Yukon is starting a street ministry in Whitehorse (WS). / The New Year’s Eve fireworks display in Akulivik, Nunavik went dramatically awry, but – thankfully – did not harm anyone in the process (CBC, with delightful video embedded). / Will the French stop at nothing? A French family is spending its second winter on a yacht in Grise Fiord (CBC). / The Giant Mine site topped Maclean’s list of ghost towns in Canada that one ought to see before they vanish. / Alaska state troopers rescued a man from Nome who was stranded on sea ice with his snowmobile (FNM). / The Klondike River Lodge in Dawson City, Yukon was destroyed by fire (CBC).
Abbreviation Key
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN)
Aftenbladet (AB)
Alaska Dispatch (AD)
Alaska Native News (ANN)
Anchorage Daily News (ADN)
Barents Nova (BN)
Barents Observer (BO)
Bristol Bay Times (BBT)
BusinessWeek (BW)
Canadian Mining Journal (CMJ)
Eye on the Arctic (EOTA)
Fairbanks News Miner (FNM)
Financial Times (FT)
Globe and Mail (G&M)
Huffington Post (HP)
Indian Country Today Media Network (ICTMN)
Moscow Times (MT)
Natural Gas Europe (NGE)
Naval Today (NT)
New York Times (NYT)
Northern News Service Online (NNSO)
Northern Public Affairs (NPA)
Nunatsiaq News (NN)
Ottawa Citizen (OC)
RIA Novosti (RIAN)
Russia Today (RT)
Voice of Russia (VOR)
Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
Washington Post (WP)
Whitehorse Star (WS)
Winnipeg Free Press (WFP)
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