ArcticCircle&Assembly&& 2014& University&of&Iceland...
Transcript of ArcticCircle&Assembly&& 2014& University&of&Iceland...
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Arctic Circle Assembly 2014
University of Iceland Student Briefings
Anja Allabar: Indigenous People .................................................................................................. 2
Joel Zushman: Arctic Circle Assembly: Indigenous given a voice, but who was listening? ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Sindri Snær Jónsson: Ice navigation in the Arctic ................................................................. 4 Susanne Claudia Möckel: The people in the North ............................................................... 6
Nicolas Stoll: Google Fishing for data ......................................................................................... 7
Evan Alexander Adamic: The loss of place in the Arctic .................................................... 9 Jónas Þór Markússon: Freight shipping through the Arctic .......................................... 10
Sarah Løhr: Søndag eftermiddag blev højdepunktet for den 3 dage lange conference ........................................................................................................................................... 12
Josephine Dagmar Munch: The challenged Arctic ............................................................. 13
Raphael Hagen: Public data in a changing world ............................................................... 14 Omar Berbar: The Arctic Circle 2014 – A review ............................................................... 16
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Anja Allabar: Indigenous People The second Arctic Circle Assembly 2014 in Reykjavík was an event to hear both sides of interests about the future of the Arctic. On the one hand the interest of exploiting the Arctic, for example due to oil and gas resources and new shipping routes was one topic, which was extensively discussed. On the other hand countries were introducing their interest in the Arctic in their country sessions. Only a small session was about the voices of indigenous peoples, who are affected by climate change and the advance of interest in the Arctic. Since the session about indigenous peoples was on the last day of the conference it gave the impression of disregard. The time to discuss their point of view after the topic was introduced to the audience was too short.
One of the indigenous peoples in the Arctic and one of three distinct aboriginal groups in Canada are the Inuit. 60000 of them live there and obtain their food traditionally from land and sea, hunting polar bears and seals. 70% of the Inuit population relies on hunting and fishing for viability. Thus, the proceeding climate change affects their livelihood, society and health. To travel on thinner ice for hunting becomes more dangerous and the polar bears, which live on the edge of the ice are fewer sighted. Also sea mammals and fish species shift to other locations. Hence, the necessity to travel longer distances to reach the essential resources increases the costs and the danger for the Inuit. To change from traditional food to imported food is highly expensive. The loss of important food sources is only one of numerous impacts of climate change to indigenous communities.
The bitter fact of this story is, that innocent people have to suffer for the lifestyle, who people in more southern regions enjoy since decades. By blowing tremendous amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, they are responsible for the concerns about the Arctic. But not only climate change impacts their livelihood but also economic impacts by national societies are a maybe even greater threat to indigenous societies. The national societies thirst for oil leads the companies to initiate oil drilling in the Arctic, as 25% of the known remaining global Oil and Gas resources are in the Arctic. The indigenous peoples land, which they call their home for more than a millennium is invaded to operate to the advantage of foreign people. The interests of commercial development results in dispossession of land and human rights of indigenous people and threatens their survival. The indigenous peoples in the Arctic are a matter, which should awake more attention since they are one of the unprivileged societies in the Arctic. The Arctic itself needs more respect and therefore people should think about their own lifestyle, as the CO2 emissions are not from the Arctic but affect the Arctic and their peoples.
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Joel Zushman: Arctic Circle Assembly: Indigenous given a voice, but who was listening? Harpa, REYKJAVIK— Before lunch on Sunday, the plenary session, ‘Indigenous Voices from the Arctic’, rang out to a half-‐full conference hall— a room that, in previous sessions, had been filled to watch a video message from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, or a thinly veiled sales pitch from sharply dressed British representatives, or a Google Maps demonstration. The Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic were given a voice, an opportunity to be heard, but who was listening?
In the two days of presentations before the ‘Indigenous Voices’ session, representatives from governments and organizations gave us what we wanted to hear. Terms like “responsibility” and “conservation” and “sustainable development” were cast about freely, as well as an acknowledgement that interests of the Indigenous Peoples must be taken into account. But when it came to action, the Indigenous Peoples were given 45 minutes, on the last day of the conference, when all the Country Sessions had been delivered and representatives likely on a plane home.
For those of us listening, the message was loud and clear. Indigenous Peoples live in the Arctic and have for a very long time. “The Arctic is not a frontier to be conquered,” said Okalik Eegeesiak, Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Council, “People live here and have for thousands of years.” She asked us to imagine Arctic Indigenous Peoples holding a meeting to decide how use of land and resources should be regulated in Southern cities. The meeting would probably not be taken seriously, so how then are the Indigenous Peoples to accept regulations that come from governments so far from the Arctic?
Regulations on hunting seal, whale, walrus, and polar bear threaten a means of subsistence that Arctic Peoples have relied on for thousands of years. Well-‐intentioned ‘Save the Arctic’ campaigns do not address the right problems. The reason the sea ice is melting, the reason animal numbers are dwindling is not because of activities of the Arctic Peoples, it is because of the activities of the rest of the world. Pollution and emissions from places well south of the Arctic Circle are the cause of changes to the Arctic. Problems are not caused by the Arctic, but felt by the Arctic.
Terry Audla, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, who represents over 55,000 Inuit Peoples living in Canada’s North says to look in your own back yard first, rather than look to the Arctic to solve problems it hasn’t itself caused. Audla pronounced, “We’re doing fine in the Arctic. We always have.” The Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic know how to survive in their environment. Traditional knowledge kept the Arctic Peoples alive and their land and resources preserved long before science was introduced. On the question of traditional knowledge still being relevant, Audla retorts, “Is science relevant?”
In the following session, US representatives for Fulbright proudly quoted Secretary John Kerry as saying, “The Arctic region is the last global frontier.” They clearly weren’t listening to Ms. Eegeesiak when she said it wasn’t. They weren’t listening to the Indigenous voices, but I was.
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Sindri Snær Jónsson: Ice navigation in the Arctic Are you tired of your desk job or having to attend lectures on Monday mornings? Does your life lack excitement and adventure?
Then welcome the adventures of ice navigation, the perfect new field for you! With no global standards of education and training combined with ever growing demand, anyone can hop aboard and sail the cold regions of the Arctic. But that is about to change… During the Arctic Circle Assembly held this October in Iceland, Captain David Snider, senior vice president of the Nautical Institute hosted a breakout session aboard Sæbjörg an Icelandic training vessel, where he confronted both a curious and astounded audience with this problem. Based on an already existing program taught in Finland, David has suggested and developed a program with new globalized standards which are aimed to provide sailors and those of maritime interest with an international license claiming them to be suited for sailing in the harsh and chilling conditions which of the Arctic.
But one could ask, why do we all out of sudden need such a program? Haven‘t we sailed the Arctic for centuries, back when the conditions where even harsher?
Yes indeed, we have. But with our ever growing population and expansion of mankind, our need to travel and transfer supplies is also expanding. As the ice grows thinner we are getting closer to being able to sail across the Arctic, at least in the summertime. But the Arctic is treacherous. Ships can easily get stuck in ice due to rapidly changing weather patterns or poor judgment on part of its crew, this is quite common nowadays. Colossal icebreakers are available from most Arctic countries for rescue missions and are now being rapidly upgraded and newer models constructed, even in countries far away from the Arctic, e.g. India and South Korea. To maintain order, security and to prevent insurance complications an ice navigation license is vital.
Figure 1: A common sight in the Arctic
But what makes the Arctic so formidable?
There is a huge difference in the meaning of the word ice. Ice that forms over a single winter is soft and easily rammed through on a slightly modified ship. As the ice ages, a new layer of ice and snow forms atop of it. With time the ocean salts escape the ice, allowing the ice to get even more compacted and dense,
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closing all empty spaces and air gaps. Every child battling snowball fights in the winter knows this, yesterday’s snow is often than not, more dense and way too dangerous for your average playground battles. Knowledge like this tends to be forgotten as you grow up, only to pop up again on a snowless October evening, listening to Captain David explaining how a coffee table sized iceberg can make a hole in a steel icebreaker if dense enough. We must approach the Arctic with respect and means of Arctic security must be considered before we send our ships across the Arctic for the snowball fight of our lifetime.
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Susanne Claudia Möckel: The people in the North In the very beginning of the conference, Friday before noon, one fact was pointed out by Lisa Murkowski, the senior United States Senator from the State of Alaska. We were always talking about the Arctic in general, whereas, according to her, there was no such thing as one Arctic, but two. On the one hand there was the Arctic of the Scandinavian countries and Iceland, with good infrastructure, access to affordable energy, clean drinking water, internet etc. On the other hand there was the Arctic of countries like Russia, Alaska and Greenland, which largely lacked the aforementioned essentials. Instead, many communities in this part of the Arctic were struggling to survive and besides confronted with high suicide rates and violence. To provide a better standard of living for the people in the North, responsible handling of the ocean and land in these regions as well as collaboration and corporation beyond borders was crucial.
One could have thought that statement very promising, containing a few words that shall be emphasized here: the people in the North, responsible, collaboration and corporation. At least the latter three words were used by many speakers throughout the days of the conference. Especially collaboration and corporation seemed to be expressions that every person of importance in politics or economics, thought necessary to weave into their speech at least once. But where were the people? The people of the North, the indigenous peoples? Are they not included in the idea of collaboration and corporation? Could they not possibly teach us about the responsible handling of ocean, land and other resources in their regions? Because what is it if not the homeland of the indigenous peoples that we are talking about, when discussing the future of the Arctic! Whose environment and hunting grounds, whose life is the most affected by environmental changes, not to mention the consequences of the climate change? They were there, the people. But their presence did not seem to be regarded as a priority by the organizers of the conference. On Sunday, the third day of the conference, a small group of indigenous peoples was allowed a plenary session of one hour. According to the remarks of many auditors, this was one of the most important and interesting sessions of the whole conference and should not have been scheduled on the last day of the conference. As pointed out by Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, Professor at the University of Tromsø – the Arctic University of Norway, it was quite striking how sparsely seated the audience was at that time compared to previous sessions, when speeches of representatives of economics and politics, or, as Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv called them, “the big boys”, were in the majority. Nonetheless, I personally could draw one very important fact from this session: As inhabitants in a highly man-‐made environment, disconnected from nature, we have to listen to the indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic and collaborate with them to understand what a better standard of living means to them and how we can better handle the Arctic environment.
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Nicolas Stoll: Google fishing for data You’re snorkeling through a magnificent reef landscape, surrounded by a million of colorful fishes, sparkling corals and creatures you have never seen before. Suddenly a fast moving, black shadow is drawing closer while you’re trying to draw your diving knife in vain. But instead of revealing itself as a hungry shark, the mysterious thing turns out to be a camera, attached to a robot with a well-‐ known logo on it: GOOGLE. The multi-‐billion dollar company presented its newest ideas about mapping the coasts and oceans of our planet on the “2014 Arctic Circle Assembly”, which was held in Reykjavik from the 31st of October to the 2nd of November.
Situated in a plenary session about the future of fisheries in the Arctic region, Michael Jones, Chief Technology Advocate of Google, used this platform to inform the guests about the newest developments and trends in Google’s all-‐time goal: “Organizing the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. By doing a rather unusual, but entertaining presentation, it was a simple task to catch the attention of the weary audience, which had to fight through another lengthy country session by Japan just some minutes before. His presentation included the concept of taking pictures of coastlines from moving, unmanned swimming vessels to improve the current version of Google Map’s Street View. Taking this to the next level, Jones implemented the goal to map and document entire oceans since we know less about it than we do about the Moon. And as if this wasn’t enough he even outnumbered this approach by presenting the next step: the installation of transmitters on every ship on the seven seas. Sharing this data would lead to the possibility for everyone to see and follow every single movement undertaken by ships. Sounds great doesn’t it? Improving the huge safety issue in the Arctic and the better chance of tracing illegal fishing vessels is a great thing, but Edward Snowden’s publications showed the danger of data collecting projects very recently. On the one hand there is the technical question, is it really possible and affordable to collect enough data to fulfill such a quest. On the other hand there is the second big question whether we really need this. Are we not being watched enough already, shouldn’t we be able to move unobserved in the vast waters of the oceans. Nevertheless it is overdue to collect more information about the oceans, since mankind spent 250 times more money on space exploration than on the exploration of the oceans. The total number of 12 people, which walked on the moon, compared to the number of 3 people, who have been on the bottom of the sea, enhances this necessity. It is just important to approach this in a sustainable and appropriate way, which means that laws and guidelines have to be clearly defined. Also the public has to know what is going on and what the data is being used for. In addition, the whole presentation represents one of the major issues of the conference in general that could and should have been better. The enormous number of businesses and countries rather presenting themselves in an unnecessary, infantile way instead of using their resources for finding a reasonable solution for climate change and its consequences was just too high.
The main aspect should have been to find a solution, which combines the interests of indigenous peoples, science, politics and industry. Beyond doubt, this
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is a Sisyphean challenge, but still the reason for the conference and it is time to approach the future of our planet and our species in a serious and active way.
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Evan Alexander Adamic: The loss of place in the Arctic On 31. October to 1. November, I attended the 2014 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík. For three days I sat and listened to row after row of people (mostly male business executives and politicians) in suits speak about what they intended to take from my home, seemingly without being aware that they were even discussing a home or an inhabited landscape. Ideas were presented about continued petroleum extraction, infrastructure and even floating cities on the Arctic Ocean, all which seemed to ignore the disappearing identity of the cultures of place that inhabit the region and the land itself that they are grounded in. That which was wanting throughout the conference was the concept of landscape and its meaning for identity in Arctic cultures. It was not until the second day that a man mentioned briefly the «spirit of the North», and the meaning that it has for the people that experience the Arctic landscape whether as tourists, workers or inhabitants. It is rather amusing to mention that he was the owner of a mining company, for mining causes often some of the most drastic changes in the landscape that demonstrate disrespect for this spirit. The connection between humans and the northern landscape was of course implicit in all that the Indigenous groups that spoke on the third day said, but to them the importance of the landscape is self-‐evident, and thus is it likely that they feel no need to discuss it specifically. Especially striking was the lack of recognition about the condition of the built environment as an element of the concept of infrastructure. It was often repeated that the built environment will expand in coming times as Arctic habitability is seen in better light in societies in the south, but as we sat in a building itself that promotes an excessively disconnected experience of the urban landscape in Reykjavík, no one recognized how the dispersion of southern forms and urban patterns northwards has slowly degraded the identity of the cultures of place amongst Indigenous communities in Arctic Canada, the persistent and serious psychological problems that disconnected architecture has caused in these same societies, or how traditional activities of the Sami people have been sundered by roadways and other infrastructure in northern Norway.
I hold that it is the spirit of the North that is the region’s most valuable resource, rather than petroleum or minerals or other material elements, and although I find it uncomfortable to associate it with this economic term, it is this spirit that all northern nations have in common and that gives all northern inhabitants a common foundation for identity that is connected to place. It is with the common will to respect this spirit and strengthen its connections to human life that healthy cooperation amongst Arctic nations and not least a sustainable society can be achieved. The question remains unanswered after the conference: how can we who live in the North and experience the region's spirit help those who choose to understand the Arctic landscape in terms of business opportunities, resource exploitation and numbers in a spreadsheet to respect and value the spirit of the North, the spirit that makes our lives meaningful?
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Jónas Þór Markússon: Freight shipping through the Arctic With Arctic sea ice showing a decline due to climate changes for the last years, shipping through the Arctic has become more of a viable option for big freight ships. The sea ice reached a record low in 2012 with coverage of only 3.4 million square kilometers, in 2013 this number rose to 5.1 million km2 but was still the sixth lowest record of sea ice and reinforces a long-‐term downward trend. In the past shipping through the Arctic required big icebreakers, ships that have strongly enforced hulls that break “thin” ice sheets and make way for the bigger ships that haul the cargo. Due to the lowering of ice sheets freight companies have been toying with the idea of sending ships through the Arctic when the sea ice is at a yearly low (in September) without the company of icebreakers.
But what benefits does shipping through the Arctic impose? Shipping routes through the Artic have been classified into two different routes, Northwest Passage and the northern sea route. The Northwest Passage has been used to transfer coal from the west coast of Canada to European market. This serves then as an alternative to taking the Panama Canal. Ships that take this route from the west coast of North America save 4-‐5 days on average and as a plus can also carry more cargo due to weight restrictions when going through the Panama Canal.
The Northern Sea Route has been passed by Chinese and Russian ships. In 2013 the Chinese cargo ship Yong Shenq became the first ship to reach European markets via the Northern Sea Route. The transportation time was cut from 48 days down to 35, saving a total of 13. For a 70.000 metric ton ship this saving adds up to 1000 million liters of gasoline or 650.000$ per trip. As expected this also boasts a major cut in CO2 emission for the freight ship. Using the Northern Sea Route shipping companies save on insurance due to the relatively low risk of piracy when traveling through the Arctic compared to usual shipping route through the Gulf of Aden.
Still not viable
Many maritime experts have weight in on this topic and most of them agree that sailing through the Arctic at a major scale is still not a viable solution. These trips that have been made are all one-‐time event. Gary Li a senior maritime analysis said, “It’s early days. The Northern Sea Route probably needs another 20 or 30 years of climate change to make it fully viable. And even then it got so many constraints”.
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On of the major hurdle regardless of the sea ice is the lack of service station and the distance from available resources. The shores up in the Arctic have very few harbors and they are not tailored to servicing big cargo vessels if something happens or major components brake down. So all in all the opportunity for shipping through the Arctic is a great one but whether it will become one of worlds biggest shipping route time can only tell.
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Sarah Løhr: Søndag eftermiddag blev højdepunktet for den 3 dage lange conference Det har været en weekend pakket med indtryk af alle slags i rammerne af den smukke Harpa bygning. Det som står stærkest er søndagens program og i særdeleshed dagens sidste oplæg. 5 paneldeltager fortalte med passion, nærvær, mod og håb om klimaændringernes påvirkning af ’Nordborenes’ liv. ’Nordboer’ er et begreb som dækker over alle dem som bord nord for polarcirklen. Vi blev introduceret for betydningen af sikkerhedstrusler for familier, og hvor meget det påvirker den enkelte. Sikkerhed i det Arktiske er af høj betydning, da man her oplever større omfang af kriminalitet end man gør i samfund lige syd for Arktis. Det er ikke alle områder i Arktis der er lige berørt af usikkerhed i forhold til kriminalitet, men alle områder af Arktis er påvirket af den usikkerhed som klimaforandringerne bringer med sig. Nordborene lever i tæt symbiose med og af naturen, og naturens hastige forandringer skaber usikkerhed, om hvorvidt der er muligt at skaffe sit levebrød og i det hele taget forsætte den vanlige levevis. Denne usikkerhed er svær at håndtere, og det har vist sig især, men ikke udelukkende, at påvirket dem mandlige befolkningen. Fordi de helt konkret har vanskelige ved at udfører deres rolle i dagligdagen, meget af deres identitet bliver hængt op på deres jagt og fiskerievner. Den mest nærliggende løsning på problemet og det som en vesterlænding omgående tænker, er mere uddannelse. Nordboerne skal blot uddanne sig så de kan bestride nogen andre job. Afslutningen på dette oplæg var en kommentar fra en ung publikummer, der kort sagt fortalte at uddannelse i vedkommendes øjne var et nødvendigt unde. Reelt ville den nordboer helst fortsætte et traditionelt liv, hjemme med familie og traditionelle gøre mål og rammer. Pludselig stod der en person og delte sine egne tanker og drømme om et liv i nord, disse mennesker som gennem hele weekenden har været omtalt stod her, med en kommende kandidatgrad i hånden og sagde at uddannelse ikke var det første valg. Et valg truffet for at kunne sikre andre et liv uden uddannelse, men med traditionelle levevilkår. Modsætningen stod pludseligt lysende klart og har virkelig tydelig gjort vanskelighederne ved et globaliseret Arktis. For hvordan kan Arktis være en del af verdenssamfundet, uden at blive underlagt vestens samfundsstrukturer? Både fredag og lørdag hørte vi talrige politikere fra en snes lande fortælle hvor gerne de ville støtte op om nordboerne og deres kultur, men fremmødet søndag bestod kun af en lille flok dedikerede. Hvordan skal nordboerne kunne råbe os andre op uden at ændre livstil og uden at skifte sprog og identitet til det vestlige? Hvordan ændre man fredag/lørdags gode intentioner, til faktiske handlinger? Mange af disse spørgsmål har jeg hørt før, men at deltage på Arctic Circle seminaret har gjort at jeg selv stiller de spørgsmål og betydningen af dem er blevet langt mere nærværenden.
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Josephine Dagmar Munch: The challenged Arctic The second annual Arctic Circle Assembly has just finished. In spite of its short existence, it has quickly gained a big role as a gathering place for anyone with interests in the Arctic region. What is the future of the Arctic region? – An unspoilt and sustainable natural region, or a highly economically developed Arctic region, but unsustainable environment? Throughout the conference the various and conflicting interests of the region became very clear.
With many different interests of the Arctic and the unknown factor of climate change – how will this affect the future of the Arctic? From finance point of view the Arctic has got a huge amount of resources and new possibilities to create economic development on local, national and international scale. On the other side stand the indigenous peoples with a wish for a sustainable living circle.
The speeches from four indigenous peoples in the plenary session “Indigenous voices from the Arctic” send a strong message regarding their representations in forums and assemblies like these. They expressed their emotions and feelings of not being taken seriously enough about the future of the Arctic, their homes. They questioned the fact, on how they are listened to. They uttered their dissatisfaction on their missing position in the top political and finance discussions. Well expressed by the National Inuit leader and President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Terry Audla: “Who is asking what we think should happen in our homeland?” The described situation was well supported by the appearance of the audience, or more correctly, the missing appearance of suits in the audience.
The indigenous peoples do not want to be saved. They do not want to be shown in national costumes and become “tourist attractions”. They want to be respected as inhabitants of the Arctic. They want to be represented on equal terms with the business and political organizations. Their message was, that it is about time, that we, the people outside the Arctic, starts to acknowledge the importance of traditional knowledge and experiences which the indigenous people holds.
How do we change this? First of all, indigenous peoples have to become just as big a player as the rest of the participants of these types of assemblies. Secondly, indigenous people have to have a seat in the discussion panels in order to express their views of the future Arctic along with politicians and business people. They should not have separate discussion panels. Finally, traditional knowledge has to be put on the same footing as scientific knowledge – they have similar value and contribute both to a wider understanding of the broad topic of the Arctic.
The future of the Arctic is not only determined by the eight artic countries, their population and the indigenous peoples. They are affected by worldwide activities and decisions.
Is the sustainable living of the indigenous people going to survive the strong interest of exploiting the new Arctic activities and available natural resources? This conference did not give a positive reply.
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Raphael Hagen: Public data in a changing world The Arctic Circle Assembly is a multi-‐disciplinary conference that focuses on the future use, development and conservation of the Arctic. This broad field approach lets a diverse range of disciplines connect and share. Indigenous groups, scientific collaborations, oil & gas companies, startups and countries each presented their visions of the future of the Arctic. In the plenary session, titled ‘The Arctic from Space’, a San Francisco based startup called Planet Labs gave two talks about how Earth observations from space can help build a better world. Planet Labs manufactures miniature Earth-‐facing satellites, called Doves, which are equipped with high-‐resolution cameras. These satellites orbit Earth in what they call ‘flocks’ and together they steam beautiful images of Earth’s landscape back down to us. These cameras have a resolution of ∼3-‐5 meters per pixel, which prevents them from being used for surveillance. The goal of Planet Labs is not to compete with Google Earth, but instead provide high time-‐resolution space based images. High time-‐resolution means images every hour, instead of every few years. They have 71 satellites currently in orbit around the earth and as they add more, the time resolution increases. This unique goal will allow us to see how our planet changes in real time, allowing for the public to witness deforestation in the Amazon, melting of Arctic sea ice and slash and burn agriculture.
The inspiring thing about Planet Labs vision is that they aim to make their data open access, so everyone with an internet connection will be see the change
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around them. Making data accessible allows anybody with an interest to explore the world around them. The opening of access to scientific data and satellite imagery builds the public’s confidence and excitement in science, which leads to increased support and funding for science and returns to the public. After the plenary session, I got the chance to talk with the president of Planet Labs, named Robbie Schingler. I questioned him about the company’s recent loss of many of their satellites, which were scheduled to go into orbit aboard the Antares rocket that tragically exploded mid-‐launch. He laughed about it, then said ‘Space is hard’. This was their third satellite launch, the first two were insured and went off without a hitch, but this one wasn’t insured and exploded. He told me that the company is still very optimistic and is already building more satellites and planning their next launch.
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Omar Berbar: The Arctic Circle 2014 – A review The Arctic Circle Assembly, now in its second official year, was organized by Icelandic President Ólafur Grimson to spark conversation and serve as a forum on the everchanging realities of the Arctic. Attended by politicians, scientists, and professionals from across the globe, the forum sought to promote dialogue between the different Arctic stakeholders and to further the understanding of the changes in the region. Although informative, the conference fell short of providing any concrete steps forward and left many questions unanswered.
Melting sea ice is opening up new shipping routes and facilitating the extraction of resources that were previously inaccessible. Arctic nations pose to profit from the untapped wealth that the Arctic presumably holds. But development, as some argue, does not come without its consequences. Further exploitation of the planet will only lead to the burning of more fossil fuels, exasperating climate change. Thus the notion of the Arctic Paradox takes shape, a congruent theme seen throughout the conference. The paradox is the notion that developing the Arctic will accelerate climate change, while climate change itself is the reason development can take place. It is essentially an infinite loop; a never-‐ending cycle.
Some delegates from academia were calling for a boycott of all development, to leave nature as is. They argue that the language shouldn’t be focused on say, how can we extract oil or develop the Arctic, but rather, why should we even do it. They argue that we stand at a threshold, a tipping point if we want to limit global temperature rise. That argument indeed has merit; the world is over-‐saturated in oil, we produce enough as is not only to meet but exceed our consumption rates. And with the current plummeting oil prices, further oil exploration and extraction does not make much environmental or economic sense. But why shun all Arctic development entirely? Why paint all development in the region with the same brush? New shipping routes through the Arctic linking Asian markets with Europe can shave thousands of kilometers off the current routes across the Indian Ocean, not only increasing profit margins on all sides, but also decreasing the amount of fuel burned to make the journey. Such routes however require the development of ports and other infrastructure across the Arctic. Other industries such as mining and hydropower also have potential in the region, but require infrastructure and development to take place.
All in all, the conference was productive in generating ideas and discussion, but the debate was polarized with business on one side and the environment on the other. There needs to be something of a middle ground linking the two camps. While we most certainly cannot continue on our current path burning fossil fuels with no end in sight, we can’t just flip a switch and convert to renewables and recyclables. There needs to be a transition while we continue developing resources that are readily available in a responsible manner. Debating endlessly whether a paradox exists or not and the realities of climate change will lead to nowhere. Realities of a changing Arctic need to be accepted and the debate on how to effectively, responsibly, and sustainably develop the region needs to occur. As one speaker put it, we now stand at a cross roads, we can either debate about whether or not the Arctic paradox exists and its effects, or we can put our heads together, and try to come up with an appropriate solution to responsibly
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adapt to the changing Arctic. Granted, the conference is young and has plenty of room to grow. In future years, language should gravitate away from the classic change is coming mantra and rather accept that change is here, and it’s time to seize the day.