Source: USGS via Wikipedia
It isn't just that polar bears are white, a lot of other adaptations help them survive on the Arctic sea ice. C.R. Harington explains The Evolution of Arctic Marine Mammals (including polar bears) in the recent special Arctic mammal issue of Ecological Applications (2008):
It's common for stories on Arctic oil and gas to cite a 2000 US Geological Survey (USGS) estimate that 25% of the world's discovered oil and gas reserves may lie in the Arctic. For example: The Arctic: Oil's last frontier (Steve Hargreaves, CNN Money, October 25, 2006). Scott Borgerson cited the 25% figure in his article on the Arctic in Foreign Affairs this past March: Arctic Meltdown. But the USGS never said this.
Margaret Munro reports that Woods Hole scientists have found evidence of recent, and spectacular, volcanic activity on the central Arctic floor:Arctic seabed afire with volcanoes (Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service, June 25).
High commodity prices - including the price of oil - are driving much of the interest in Arctic development. The high prices would make the exploitation of high cost Arctic resources look more attractive, even if a warming climate didn't reduce those costs.
Figure: FRB Dallas
Why's the price of oil so high? Will it stay there?
Will the recent U.S. Endangered Species Act listing of the polar bear kill sport hunting for polar bears in Canada ( ;Canadians argue for polar bear hunt)?, H. Josef Hebert, AP, June 23):
Continue reading "Canadian Polar Bear Sport Hunting Takes a Hit" »
The US Coast Guard and Canadian and Russian Forces are getting up to speed for Arctic operations.
The Coast Guard is conducting limited operations in the Arctic this summer to see what needs to be done, and to learn how to do it: US Coast Guard deploys to Arctic to find answers (AP via Anchorage Daily News, June 23).
"We're going up there to build a requirements list for what we might need in the future," Webber said [Lt. Cmdr. Michelle Webber of the 17th Coast Guard District - Ben]. "We're going to identify any obstacles we have up there, and it's going to test the ability of our communication equipment to operate in the area."
Among this summer's deployments:
Continue reading "Arctic Learning Curve for the Armed Forces" »
Norway has begun to exploit its SnΓΈhvit (Snow White) Gas Field in the Barents Sea: Norway Looks North for Oil and Gas (Erin Wayman, Geotimes, February 2008). Underwater production facilities and pipelines, invisible from the surface, and designed to by "overtrawlable," extract the gas and deliver it over 140 kilometers to a liquification plant built on an island near Hammerfest in northern Norway. LNG carriers then deliver it to market.
Both figures: Statoil (http://www.statoil.com/statoilcom/snohvit/svg02699.nsf?OpenDatabase&lang=en)
Aker Arctic Technologies Arctic-class LNG carrier concept.
Are Arctic-class liquified natural gas (LNG) carriers a reasonable alternative to pipelines for transporting Alaska North Slope gas? Unlikely, thinks Jim Craig of the Minerals Management Service, as reported by Petroleum News: Icebreaker LNG carriers for Arctic Alaska gas an interesting but challenging concept (June 15, 2008). Among other things:
Continue reading "Can We Bring Alaska North Slope Gas to Market With LNG Carriers?" »
Greenland's home rule government and the government of Denmark have signed an agreement dealing with relations between the two countries, and outlining an approach to splitting income from the oil fields that are likely to be found off Greenland's coast: Denmark, Greenland Divide Arctic Island's Future Oil Income (Christian Wienberg, Bloomberg, June 13).
Oil income will be split as follows:
Under today's agreement, Greenland will receive the first 75 million kroner ($15 million) generated from oil production, while the two governments will split additional proceeds until Denmark has received an equivalent of the 3.2 billion kroner it pays in annual subsidies to the Arctic Island. Greenland will receive all additional proceeds after that.
In addition:
``This agreement recognizes us as a people, it makes Greenlandic our official language and it gives us our right to our underground resources,'' Enoksen said at a Copenhagen press conference after talks with Rasmussen.
The decision on the oil income split is not of academic interest:
Oil companies have begun looking for crude oil deposits off Greenland's west coast. The island's government hasn't made an exact estimate of the amount of oil in the region other than to say it's ``equal to North Sea reserves.'' The North Sea's past production and future reserves totals more than 50 billion barrels of crude oil....
Last October, Greenland's government awarded licenses to explorers including Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Husky Energy Inc. The companies will now collect seismic data to determine the best drilling locations.
The Inuit-owned Northern Transportation Company Limited (NTCL) provides cargo service from the inland port of Hay River down the MacKenzie River to Canada's Western Arctic and Alaska's North Slope, and from Churchill Manitoba to communities around Hudson Bay.
A company description of itself for a web page sponsored by Industry Canada (Northern Transportation Company Limited , March 27, 2008) reads:
Continue reading "What does North America look like to Canada's Northern Transportation Company?" »
