Pan Arctic Forum

Direct Access to White Paper at Arctic Regulation 2 01 15

The year 2015 is going to be a pivotal year in the development of the Arctic; the US is going assume chairmanship of the Arctic Council and EU is going to make a determined effort to be admitted as an official observer to the Arctic Council.

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE), who provides staff support to the Pan Arctic Forum, believes that the development of the Arctic resources should be science based and that the EU’s adoption of the precautionary principle is inconsistent with that objective. Consequently the EU proposal for admittance as an observer should not be considered until which time it revokes the precautionary principle.

By Lee-Anne Goodman

The Brandon Sun

OTTAWA – Greenpeace and the Inuit have joined forces to protest Arctic seismic testing, warning that plans to gauge oil and gas reserves with high-intensity sound waves in Baffin Bay and the Davis Strait pose grave dangers to marine life.

Inuit activists are staging a protest Wednesday in Nunavut’s Clyde River, a tiny Baffin Island hamlet just above the Arctic Circle, a week after Greenpeace took their cause to the United Nations.

An Inuit environmentalist also took aim at Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, a Nunavut MP, accusing the Conservative government of “cultural genocide” for its efforts to open up the Arctic to oil and gas exploration.

Petroleum News

The Alaska State Chamber of Commerce and the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission have named Lori Davey, Bruce Harland and Gail Schubert as U.S. representatives to the Arctic Economic Council. Davey is the general manager of Fairweather LLC, Harland is vice president business development for Crowley Marine Services Inc. and Schubert is president and CEO of Bering Straits Native Corp.

Chuck Greene, vice president community and regional affairs for NANA Development Corp., is a backup representative, should one of the appointed representatives not be able to participate.

Greenpeace has made repeated attempts to curtail seismic exploration in the waters off Nunavut in the eastern Canadian Arctic.

In doing so Greenpeace made biased  presentations to the Inuit population in which Greenpeace  not only stated that seismic exploration is detrimental to marine mammals but opposed any development whatsoever in the Arctic thereby denying  economic growth for local communities.  In making these accusations Greenpeace failed to inform the Inuits of the  massive data base  that demonstrates seismic exploration does not harm marine mammals.

By Kathleen Macknicki

Alaska Dispatch News

The Alaska State Chamber of Commerce and the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission (AAPC) announced BSNC President & CEO Gail Schubert as one of three Alaska business leaders to represent the U.S. on the newly created Arctic Economic Council (AEC). The AEC willl work to foster
business development in the Arctic, engage in deeper circumpolar cooperation, and provide a business pperspective to the work of the Arctic Council, its parent organization.

We are pleased that a number of influentials  are attending a Brussels Seminar on 11 September to discuss “EU in the Arctic”.

We are also pleased that the program sponsors state:

Understanding the EU’s impact on the Arctic starts with an efficient and effective use of scientific and fact-based information.

We have prepared a draft proposal to the Arctic Council titled Arctic Regulation  which addresses an identical point.

We thank you  for your consideration.

Pan Arctic Forum

By Mikå Mered and Victor Chauvet, Guest Contributors

Diplomatic Courier

Although the Arctic remains an unfamiliar area—almost a terra incognita to many southerners—it is on track to come to the forefront of world politics. In this context, it seems that, while everyone in Brussels is perfused with news streams from the Middle East, Africa, or Ukraine, the EU is starting to lag behind other non-Arctic competitors such as China, South Korea, or Japan, in the race for Arctic influence; the one geographical area that may truly rule Northern hemisphere geostrategic dynamics in the 21st century.

Congressional Arctic Working Group will help better coordinate and advance U.S. Arctic policy

Press release from US Congressmen Rick Larsen (WA) and Don Young (AK)

The Arctic Journal

WASHINGTON—To help the U.S. better prioritize its interests in the Arctic, Reps. Rick Larsen, WA-02, and Don Young, AK, announced today they are creating the Congressional Arctic Working Group. The bipartisan group will bring together stakeholders from across the native, environmental, oil and gas, mining, national security, and navigation communities to advise Congress about the opportunities and challenges for the U.S. as an Arctic nation.

By Victoria Wagner Ross

The Examiner

In a place at the very top of the Northern Hemisphere scientists are collecting the most important samples. Arctic News yesterday reports how devastating the changes have been in the Arctic due to warming waters and ash blown from fires in Alaska and Canada. There is an urgent need to collect data on the changes in the Arctic.

Phytoplankton is the key element in the change of the planet as the specks of algae are emitted to the clouds from the basic phytoplankton. This is the key to affect climate swings and it is the key to feeding arctic inhabitants.