Pacific Spirit Marine Institute

Fire and Ice. The Arctic is heating up in more ways than one.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Russia’s missile cruiser ‘Marshal Ustinov’ is on its way to joining up with the “Severomorsk” which is already in the Svalbard archipelago near Norway.

A Russian Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo says, “We have been talking for a long time about widening our activity in the Arctic.” “There is nothing aggressive in it- it is in the interests of security.”

Protecting Russian fisherman who have been blocked from the seas around the island of Spitsbergen is said to be the aim of the patrols. Norway claims exclusive fishing rights to that area which has a U.N. designated boundary. Russia however does not recognise that boundary.

The Serveromorsk is one of Russia’s Northern Fleet’s submarine destroyer. Russia has said it plans to increase its combat presence in the area.

The seas around Spitzbergen are rich with fish and are claimed by both Norway and Russia. The ships are said to have been sent on requests for protection from Russian fishermen who have been challenged by the Norwegian navy for illegal fishing.

Svalbard was placed under Norwegian sovereignty by a 1920 treaty that Russia does not recognize. Oslo plans to name the archipelago an ‘economic zone which would further bar Russian fishermen from the area.

Spokesman Dygalo categorized the latest patrols in the area as part of “significant expansion of the activities of the Northern Fleet.”

Recognizing some international law but not others?

Dygalo says the movements of the ships will remain “in strict accordance with international law,”

Russian General Vladimir Chamanov has said the training division immediately set out (training) plans for troops that could be engaged in Arctic combat missions. This, following the response from several nations after the flag planting at the North pole.

Arctic Chess anyone?

Chamanov said in an interview with the Russian military daily news Krasnaya Zvezda, “Wars these days are won and lost well before they are launched.”

The U.S. Coast Guard plans over this summer include: The Icebreaker Healy to make as many as 3 scientific research trips into the Arctic with the National Science Foundation.

The Ice breaker Polar Sea returned to Beaufort Sea having been pulled away from the Antarctic.

The Buoy tender Spar will sail from Kodiak to make an accounting of the ’state of Arctic navigation’ assessing needs for lights, buoys and transit separation schemes along with other navigational aids.

C-130 planes will begin flying missions from Nome and Barrow.

The future is now.
Rear Adm. Arthur “Gene” Brooks, commander of Coast Guard District 17, which covers Alaska says, the “new Arctic is now; the effects of polar melting are no longer something that could happen in the distant future.”

Who has been listening indeed.

Brooks also says,”I thought when I first got here (Alaska) that this was an issue for 2020,2030 or 2040.” “My first year in Alaska convinced me the new Arctic is already here, that this is an issue for now. I go around in Alaska and talk to people and say, ‘are you seeing the same things?’ and the response I’m getting is ‘we’ve been seeing these things for years, why haven’t you been listening?’”

Knock knock…who’s there?

The wistful visions of the Arctic being a brilliant white and silent land where exotic creatures roam is a delusion. The largest open-pit mine in the world operates in the polar latitudes. The Red Dog mine sees enormous vehicles truck ore to it’s storage facilities in mile-long warehouses.

Enormous bulk cargo ships, displacing 70,000 tons or more sail through the Chukchi Sea to the the ore. They anchor 11 miles offshore and send in huge ferries to move the ore those 11 miles.

A fleet of at least 18 energy exploration ships set to explore this summer looking for anticipated huge reserves of coal and oil.

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Far more pollution has been streaming into the atmosphere in the Arctic for far long than most people realize. There is no possible way that the exhaust from all the ‘ventures’, from diamond mines to ore ferries, have not contributed substantially to the degradation of the atmosphere over the Arctic.