Melting ice a hot topic at Arctic conference

Deutsche Welle, 22 January 2014

The Arctic Frontiers conference is now a key event in the polar calendar. With climate change opening up the region, a record number of politicians, scientists and journalists are gathered in Norway's Arctic capital.

As the dark sky of the long cold Arctic night lightens in the early hours of this winter morning in Tromso, Norway, an international crowd lines up on the iced-over snow at a harbor bus stop. They're heading for Norway's northernmost university campus. Construction noise competes with the cries of the gulls as climate change opens up the commercial potential of the icy north.

Outside the conference venue, TV crews jockey for position to capture the arrival of Erna Solberg, the Norwegian prime minister. A small row of youngsters line the entrance holding up a protest banner: Fossil Free Arctic Future.

Skjoldvear and other activists say
Norway should stop Arctic drilling

Ingrid Skjoldvear, of Young Friends of the Earth Norway, says they want the prime minister to stop Arctic drilling and focus on cutting emissions and achieving climate targets. The young people have their work cut out for them, as Norway's prosperity is based on oil revenue. And that's unlikely to change in the near future.

No future without oil?

Solberg makes no bones about the continuing importance of oil and gas drilling for Norway. Her goal is to make northern Norway an "innovative and stable region" and an "attractive place to live."

Like other high-profile politicians from Arctic nations speaking at the conference, Solberg talks of opportunities and of sustainable development. Fossil fuel extraction is an integral part of her policy to bring employment, education and an improved infrastructure to the region. This domestic policy priority is in line with growing international interest in the Arctic, said the conservative politician.

Climate change is having a dramatic impact on the Arctic. But while Solberg and her peers acknowledge the problems, the young people outside cannot expect any shift in fossil fuel policy. Around 13 percent of the world's remaining oil is thought to be in the Arctic. Minerals, including rare ores, are said to be there for the taking now that the ice is melting. Nina Jensen is head of World Wildlife Fund Norway, one of the few NGOs invited to speak at the conference. She feels that many Norwegians have a growing awareness of the paradox of hunting for Arctic oil as the ice "melts beneath our feet," threatening the fragile ecosystem.

The peoples of the Arctic

Hammond: Development in the Arctic
 should be determined by the needs of
the people of the Arctic

"Humans in the Arctic" is the focus of this year's conference, which the organizers say will attract around 1,000 people over the course of the week. The region is home to some 4 million people, many of them from around 30 indigenous groups. Greenland's Prime Minister Aleqa Hammond, herself an indigenous Greenlander, summed up the impact of climate change on her people.

"Imagine a giant island with three climate zones, being pushed almost two kilometers (1.2 miles) northward each year," she said. That statistic graphically illustrates the huge changes affecting the environment and people of the world's biggest island, with an ice sheet that contains the largest amount of water in the northern hemisphere, and which is of key importance to the world climate and global sea levels.

Hammond is a realist. She knows her small country needs revenue to achieve the goal of full independence from Denmark. But she is also well aware of the negative impacts of rapid industrialization on a people traditionally very close to nature. As well as the decrease in ice stability, she talked of the contaminants polluting the environment and finding their way into Arctic mammals, some of them a source of traditional food. While physical health has been improved by better housing, nutrition and health care in the last 50 years, Hammond stressed the negative mental and physical health effects of a loss of traditional values.

Health is the main focus of the agenda. There are above-average suicide rates in circumpolar areas, and chronic illnesses and heart disease are on the rise due to a shift from hunting and fishing to what Greenland's premier describes as the "office worker lifestyle." Urbanization is another factor, with 80 percent of the 15,000 Greenlanders living in the capital, Nuuk, and only 20 percent in villages. Just 100 years ago, everyone lived in small settlements.

Climate change is having a dramatic impact on the Arctic and the way
of life for indigenous people

Other Arctic regions face similar problems. High-profile politicians from Scandinavia, Russia, the US and Canada, the current chair of the Arctic Council, have spoken of the need for environmental protection, maritime safety, oil spill preparedness and better search and rescue programs, as industrial activity and new shipping lanes bring freight and tourists into the dangerous Arctic waters.

The dilemma, as Hammond sees it: How to bring prosperity to the Arctic's indigenous people with easier access to oil, gas and minerals, without destroying a society rapidly being catapulted from a traditional rural lifestyle into the realities of the industrialized, commercialized, globalized world where the environment is of secondary importance?

An expanding circle

Nearby, in the center of Tromso, senior Arctic officials from the Arctic Council member states and the growing host of "observers" meet in closed-door session at the organization's secretariat, which was set up here a year ago. Dealing with the increasing number of participants is an issue. Speaking with DW, Iceland's Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson said Monday (20.01.2014) that his country was happy to work with any countries planning to invest in the region, as long as they follow the laws and regulations. Iceland signed a free trade agreement with China last year; everyone here is calling for international cooperation.

But Greenland's Hammond has called for caution. “It's clear for me that development in the Arctic should be determined by the needs and inspirations of the people of the Arctic. Anything else would be wrong,” she told the gathering. At the same time, she appealed to any new partners to bear in mind that even small changes will have a big effect on a small indigenous population, perhaps reflecting the knowledge that developing the Arctic will not go ahead without the economic power and the expertise of outsiders.

The development of the high north is cruising ahead at full speed. And everyone, it seems, wants a piece of the Arctic cake now that the icing is melting.

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Is our Sun falling silent?


"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

New Mini Ice Age

“… The Weather

Let's talk about the weather. We retreat to exactly what we told you before in this very chair. The water cycle is a cooling cycle, not a heating cycle. You're going to have more severe winters and storms. It's going to get colder. But it gets warmer before it gets colder. That is the cycle, and it has always been the cycle. You can see it in the rings of the trees and the cores of the ice. Don't let your scientists pull the political wool over your eyes for their own purposes. Start seeing these things for what they are. It's a recurring cycle based on four Earth alignment attributes, including the wobble (the precession). You're in this cycle. Prepare.

The beginnings of it will be with you from now at least until the end of the 2012 36-year window, and you can watch it work. The first thing that happens is that the ice melts at the poles, but not completely. It's the way it has happened before. As the redistribution of weight from the poles to the oceans of the earth takes place, the weight is redistributed to the crust, and that creates earthquakes. And the earthquakes that will be the most powerful are the ones that are closest to the poles. We told you that some time ago. So it's not a mystery that suddenly you have some of the most powerful earthquakes that you've ever had. Not only that, but a cooling ocean creates larger storms.

What do the conspiracists do with all this? "See? We're doomed. Here it comes," they say. "Here it comes! The end is here!" Twenty-two years ago, we gave you the information that is happening today. We told you about the weather. We told you to get ready for it, but we still haven't told you why the water cycle is needed. We've hinted at it since it is very controversial, and we'll lose many readers right here and now. Here's the prediction: The scientists are going to laugh and biologists are going to scratch their heads and roll their eyes.

The Refreshing of the Cycle of Life

When you change the temperature of the waters of the planet, it changes the life cycle of the ocean and it eventually renews itself. The life cycle of the planet has a limit to its viability over time. There has to be a refreshing of the very cycle of life, and this is what the water cycle does. Are there any places you've seen too many fish lately? Yes. Millions of salmon in the north. Odd that it was in Alaska, isn't it? Alaska is very close to the poles where the water temperature is being felt first. Oh, again the experts will tell you that this is not the reason. It's about hatcheries and rivers. But nobody predicted this, did they? Science is fast to give you reasons, but slow to give you logic in advance. They always seem to be surprised.

We are saying things we haven't said before. Again, watch for this, an actual change in the life cycle of the planet's oceans because of the water temperature shift. Biologists are going to have to start redesigning the paradigm of how everything works, including reefs, ocean bottoms, and how plankton survive and reproduce. Listen, this is not the first time that the life cycle has been refreshed! But again, this may take generations of humanity to complete. In the process, you may again lose species. This is normal. Gaia is slow, and Humans are impatient. Your textbooks may someday tell of how naive humanity was back in 2011 when they tried to blame weather changes on everything but a natural cycle. Now you know why there is a water cycle.

So what does that tell you about Gaia? Gaia is beginning the cycle of refreshing life on over-fished oceans. It tells you that in the cracks, there is love and caring about the Humans who live on the earth. There's a reason you're here. There's a plan here, and a benevolent Universe and quantum energy with intelligent design. All is there for you, precious, sacred Human Being. …”

British Columbia salmon return one of largest seen in region (Sep 2013)

Pink salmon, shown in a file photograph, 

have a lifespan of two years