Green Options » polar ice cap

Russia to Create Special Military Force to Protect the Arctic

Amiel Blajchman — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:50:31 +0000

Russia’s Security Council released its Arctic strategy for the year 2020 this week. The strategy includes the authorization of a special military force to “guarantee Russia’s military security in diverse military and political circumstances”, like the country’s controversial claims to large portions of the Arctic shelf. With the possible opening of the NorthWest Passage and the subsequent opening of natural resource deposits, Russia has also been steadily pushing its claims to the Arctic.

US Bans Commercial Fishing in Arctic as Ice Recedes

Timothy B. Hurst — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:27:44 +0000

In response to the rapid decline of Arctic sea ice in the last thirty years, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council has unanimously voted to prohibit fishing in nearly 200,000 square miles of Arctic waters.

The plan bans commercial fishing in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, which stretches from 3 miles offshore to 200 miles offshore, starting at the Bering Strait and extending north and east to the U.S.-Canada border.

No fishing of any considerable scale occurs in the Arctic, and the few surveys of fish stocks done there have not shown large populations. But some experts say it’s that commercially valuable seafood species such as pollock or crab populations could expand in the Arctic, especially as water warms and ice unlocks.

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Scientists Discover New Global Warming Threat: ‘Methane Time Bomb’ Under Arctic Seabed

Andrew Williams — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:11:31 +0000

Scientists have today warned that global warming could rapidly accelerate as millions of tons of methane escape from the arctic seabed. According to preliminary findings, as the Arctic region gets warmer massive deposits of the greenhouse gas - 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide - are rising to the surface.

Orjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University, one of the expedition’s leaders, said in an email from their Russian research ship that, for the first time, the team had discovered an extensive area of methane release so intense that “the methane did not have time to dissolve into the seawater but was rising as methane bubbles to the sea surface.” The team believe that the accelerated release is connected to rising temperatures throughout the Arctic region.

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Robot Planes Getting Bird’s Eye View of Shrinking Greenland Ice Sheet

Timothy B. Hurst — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:34:06 +0000

Two low-flying unmanned aircraft are cruising over Greenland this month to closely observe the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its potential contribution to global sea level rise in the coming century. The flights will help scientists determine whether the ice sheet’s melt rate will accelerate in the future.

The drones are flying out of Ilulissat, half way up Greenland’s west coast, for three weeks through the end of this month. Scientists studying the rapidly vanishing Greenland ice sheet need to fill gaps in their data that was collected through satellite imagery.

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