The Arctic This Week Take Five: Week of July 5, 2021

‘Doomsday Vault’ for Music to be Established on Svalbard

According to NME on July 6, the Oslo-based company Elire Management Group is developing a so-called ‘doomsday vault’ on Svalbard for the long-term preservation of globally significant works of music. Called the ‘Global Music Vault,’ the facility aims for the selected recordings to be stored for at least a thousand years thanks to the aid of new nuclear-resistant data storage technology. Selection of the most meaningful musical expressions across countries and genres will be performed through a global committee maintained by the Paris-based International Music Council and potentially facilitated by public participation. The Global Music Vault’s first deposits are scheduled for Spring 2022, focusing initially on the preservation of Indigenous music. (Billboard, NME) 

Take 1: Given the nigh-dystopian nature of the last year, the creation of a bunker to safeguard the last vestiges of human artistic expression in the event of an apocalypse feels pretty on par for the course. However, this unusual project actually copies a template already established by several other such ‘doomsday’ vaults. Svalbard is already home to both the Arctic World Archive – which stores historical and digital artifacts of governmental interest – and the Global Seed Vault, an exhaustive physical ‘backup’ of crop diversity. These initiatives are specifically suited to Svalbard for a multitude of reasons: frigid, dry conditions, and remoteness all aid in increasing the longevity of stored data. Svalbard is furthermore considered demilitarized, and so the vaults are not exposed to any conflicts or political turmoil that could otherwise compromise their critical cargo. Is it clear that despite being dismissed as ‘remote’ and ‘barren’, these characterizations have ironically now made the Arctic a concentrated storehouse for our collective epistemic heritage – presenting a fresh iteration of that classic ‘Arctic-as-global-commons’ narrative? However, with the region heating up – both geopolitically and literally- it remains to be seen if its position as some kind of bastion of humanity will actually incentivize us to protect it any better. Nevertheless, that these projects have actually gone forward in spite of heightened geopolitical tensions and uncertainty make these vaults a remarkable sign that global cooperation in aid of a common good is indeed possible. (Wired.com)

Doubts Cast upon Russian Claim that Boreal Forest Makes Country Carbon Neutral 

According to The Moscow Times on July 5, this year the Russian government has repeatedly claimed that Russia’s forest absorbs several billion tons of carbon dioxide annually. Originally declared by Viktoria Abramchenko- Russia’s deputy prime minister for environmental policy- that Russia’s forests neutralize as much as 2.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeated the claim at the virtual Earth Day Leaders Summit on Climate hosted by U.S. president Joe Biden in April as well as at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June. (The Barents Observer, The Moscow Times)

Take 2: Although this might seem like an offhand series of remarks, it is very telling of Russia’s approach to the politics of climate change. Long dismissive of the crisis, President Putin’s gradual transition towards acknowledging the issue has been followed with surprise. The repeated claim in the story points to the key role Russia aims for its forest to play in its newfound climate strategy. If true, the carbon claim would make the country a net-zero champion in the fight against climate change and aid them in accomplishing their commitment to the Paris Agreement, despite their decarbonization commitments being among the weakest of any G20 country, and Russia’s continued position as the fourth largest carbon emitter. However, multiple scientists have confirmed that the statistic is likely down to some clever budget manipulation. In violation of international climate reporting standards, Russia has factored all its forest land into the country’s environmental impact. Canada has been similarly accused of overestimation, but for Russia the need is more acute as the EU is threatening carbon tariffs that would damage Russia’s vital fossil fuel sector otherwise. Therefore, more than just inexact science, this is a strategic political decision. Ironically, Russia’s own climate inaction may end up compromising the ability of the boreal forest to store carbon at all. Scientists now speculate that emissions from increasing forest fires may shift the boreal biome from a global carbon sink, to a source. With the Russian boreal accounting for one fifth of our forests, it would not just be Russia facing the consequences of that shift, but the world. (Bellona.org, Bloomberg, NASA, The Barents Observer, The Moscow Times)

Scientists Suggest Extreme Rainfall in India Caused by Arctic Melting 

As reported by The Times of India on July 3, a new study published in the journal Nature has suggested that sea ice loss in the Arctic may be triggering extreme monsoon rainfall events in India. Comparing climate data from two periods of warming in the last century, scientists from India’s National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research found that the frequency of extreme rainfall events in central India during late summer correlate clearly to declines of summer sea ice extent. The study concludes that this link is likely due to upper atmospheric circulation changes caused by ice-melt, which could be causing enhanced moisture supply and convection over the Indian landmass. (CNBC, Hindustan Times, Times of India)

Take 3: It is easy to dismiss the idea of India and the Arctic having anything to do with each other. However, this study exposes the myth of changes in the Arctic as localised, instead making it clear that the region instead plays a pivotal -if poorly understood- role in our interconnected earth system. While we already know that a melting Arctic is ‘bad’ from a climate perspective, this paper further speaks to how compromising the role it plays can manifest unique consequences in unexpected locations beyond what we have previously considered- or prepared for. The implications of this new study are also important from a political perspective. The Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall (ISMR) is the primary source of freshwater for over a billion people. A stable monsoon is therefore critical for India’s food security as well as the wellbeing of its vast rural population. In contrast, increasing frequency of extreme ISMR events causes severe flooding and challenges this socio-economic stability. With the potential risks of the physical connection to the Arctic already hinted at in the first-ever Indian Arctic draft policy earlier this year, this study will likely confirm to India the importance of understanding, monitoring, and mitigating a melting Arctic moving forwards. However, with the complex teleconnections explored in the paper still remaining primarily theoretical in nature, it is necessary for further detailed numerical modelling to verify this causative mechanism to take place. Nevertheless, environmentally, politically and strategically, the Arctic can no longer be perceived as too far away to be relevant. (EPW.in, The Hindustan Times, Mongabay, Nature) 

New Study Highlights the Risk of Oil Spills in the Canadian Arctic for Indigenous Peoples

A new study published in the journal Risk Analysis concludes that an oil spill on the northern coast of Canada could pose significant risk to the wellbeing of Indigenous communities, as reviewed by Phys.org on July 7. The researchers developed a new interdisciplinary multi-period model to predict the risk of pollutants from increased shipping activity, which was then used to assess the socio-economic impacts of a potential oil spill in the Rankin Inlet region of the Canadian Arctic. Their results showed that an oil spill in this region has progressively costly social consequences the longer recovery efforts are delayed, with increasing disruption over years to the hunting traditions, family dynamics and cultures of local Indigenous communities. (EurekAlert!, Phys.org, ScienceDaily, SciTechDaily)

Take 4: Oil spills are never welcome news for anyone, but they are of particular concern when they happen in the Arctic. Freezing temperatures, extreme weather, and geographical remoteness make oil clean-up challenging. However, in addition to drawing attention to the underappreciated multidisciplinary nature of environmental disasters, this study emphasises that it is not only the physical environment of the Arctic that makes oil spills in the region so dangerous, but the unique risks posed to vulnerable communities. While important, that this study is considered novel sadly exposes how resource extraction in the Arctic is rarely deliberated in relation to Indigenous peoples, not only by the companies responsible for industrial development but even by their opponents. People are often far more concerned with the impact of oil spills on the environment and on charismatic marine mammals than the communities who exist there. Yet with shipping activity increasing not only across northern Canada but across the entire Arctic due to retreating sea ice, the cautionary tale of this study will become increasingly pertinent for a multitude of coastal communities. At the same time, the model created by the team is one that can be used beyond their chosen study location, hopefully paving the way for an effective communication tool to be used in decision-making to protect the rights of Indigenous communities in the future. (University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, WWF)

Human Remains Found at Site of Another Canadian Residential School 

CNN announced on July 2 that 182 human remains were discovered by the First Nations Aqam community at the site of former residential school St. Eugene’s Mission in British Columbia, Canada. The contents of the shallow unmarked graves were discovered through the use of ground-penetrating radar technology. The Lower Kootenay Band, a member band of the local Ktunaxa Nation, released a statement confirming that the unmarked graves could potentially be those of Indigenous children that attended the compulsory boarding school in operation from 1912 until the early 1970s. (BBC, CNN, The Guardian)

Take 5: Something that would already be horrifying and demanding of explanation as an isolated event, St. Eugene’s Mission School is but the latest in a relentless series of former residential schools shown to be host to mass anonymous graves these last couple of months. This latest incident serves in further uncovering the veil of Canadian exceptionalism that has previously obscured a violent colonial past and the use of educational institutions as weapons of cultural genocide. With this news, it is clearer than ever that each of the residential school sites across the country requires thorough investigation. However, even as these events have finally brought a critical conversation about Canada’s colonial past into the national spotlight, it is worth clarifying that these are not really ‘discoveries’ so much as confirmations of what survivors of the schools have been saying for years. That these claims have been dismissed until now, and have only received attention with the support of official commissions and scientific equipment, just goes to emphasise how much colonialism represents not just a past chapter in Canada’s national history, but a deeply embedded system. The story of the intergenerational trauma caused by the forced assimilation of Indigenous children also encourages us to remember that this was a system faced by many in the Arctic: by the Sámi, Greenlandic Inuit, Indigenous Siberians, and others. As the rest of the world watches Canada in shock, one hopes that they will be prepared to confront their own colonial pasts—and also their presents. (The Guardian, The Guardian, The Guardian, Reuters)