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April 16, 2004
Greenland's economy
nose-diving
A report issued on Tuesday
by the independent advisory committee on Greenland's economy is telling the
home rule government to cut taxes and find new investments as a first aid measure.
"Greenland's economy
is in the midst of a crisis," Christen Sørensen of the University
of Southern Denmark told the Copenhagen Post.
Greenland should kick-start
investment to revive the region's ailing economy, as long as these investments
don't mean additional operating costs. These investments could include public
housing projects, with future tenants footing the bill for maintenance or sewage
system costs.
Greenland's annual growth
rate expressed as Gross National Product has fallen from 7.8 per cent a year
in 1998 to minus 1.5 per cent in 2001.
The committee forecast
this year's GNP would be zero to one per cent.
April 16, 2004
Open passage across
North Pole, Russia urges
Russia's new ambassador
to Canada told the Winnipeg Free Press it's time to work on opening the
"Arctic Bridge" to ship goods across the North Pole by sea.
"Before it was just
a dream - the northern dream, if you will," Georgiy Mamedov said. "But
now its time is coming."
He said the transportation
link would be the most cost-effective and time-efficient route between North
America and northern Europe.
Mamedov said the Russian
government is already boosting infrastructure in the northern port of Murmansk
to prepare its end of the "bridge."
April 16, 2004
Global warming threatens
Greenland's ice sheet
Greenland's huge ice sheet
could melt within the next 1,000 years and swamp low-lying areas around the
globe if emissions of carbon dioxide contributing to global warming are not
reduced, scientists said this week.
A melt-down of the massive
ice sheet, which is more than three km thick, would raise sea levels by an average
seven meters, threatening countries such as Bangladesh, islands in the Pacific
and parts of Florida.
Researchers calculate that
an annual average temperature rise of more than three degrees Celsius would
be sufficient to melt the ice sheet in the future.
New calculations, published
in the science journal Nature, show that a temperature rise of that degree is
likely to happen, but it could go up by three degrees within 100 years.
Once the Greenland ice
shelf melts, scientists do not think it will reform.
However, the impact of
global warming could lead to more snow and less melt on the ice shelf. It could
also slow or stop the Gulf Stream, which would also lead to less melt.
April 9, 2004
Norway's weather warmer
than normal
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR
NEWS SERVICE
Last month, average temperatures in Norway were higher than normal throughout
the country.
The High Arctic community of Longyearbyen on the Svalbard Islands had an average
temperature of -7.7 C for the month, 8 degrees C above average, Norway's Meteorological
Institute reports.
The temperatures in the Norwegian Arctic were among the highest since measurements
began at the beginning of the 20th century.
Norway has been warmer than normal in 2004. The average temperature so far
this year is 1.5 C above normal, making it the 30th highest since the institute
began measurements in 1867.
April 9, 2004
Hans Island fuels
April 1 jokes
Media in Denmark and Greenland
have had some fun with the debate over Hans Island, which is claimed by both
Canada and Greenland.
An April Fool's news report
aired on Greenland's radio suggested that Denmark should declare war on Canada
over Hans Island.
And a bogus April 1 news
release from an Arctic News Service in "Hungtingtung," Davis Strait,
described a skirmish between Canadian Rangers and a group of Greenlandic "Eskimos"
on a small island in the High Arctic claimed by both Canada and Denmark.
"The skirmish started
with a heated discussion which the Inuit provoked by showing a picture of Queen
Elizabeth and the Polar Eskimos telling their fellow Inuit that the island's
original name was Issuapaluit (Flat Balls) and that it belongs to all Inuit
and cannot be claimed by either Canada or Denmark."
The two Inuit groups ended
up resolving the issue peaceably, building an igloo on the island and camping
out.
April 2, 2004
More Alaskans commit suicide in the spring
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
Between 1990 and 2002, there were 1,618 suicides in Alaska, and that over this
13-year period, 153 people of them took their own lives in May, more than in
any other month.
April followed, with 150 suicides.
The fewest suicides occurred in December and October, with 117 in each of those
months. November was ninth, with 131.
Susan Soule, program coordinator with the Alaska Division of Behavioral Health,
said the public often links the winter months and winter holidays with higher
suicide numbers.
"It may be that bad things around the holidays are more newsworthy because
they conflict with the sort of forced commercial gaiety of the season,"
Soule told the Anchorage Daily News. "There is some increased stress
around the holidays... maybe there's an oversimplification of the link between
stress and suicide."
April 2, 2004
Norway to count its bears
Norway's polar bear population will be the subject of a census this year. Researchers
from the Norwegian Polar Institute told Norwegian Broadcasting Company that
the size of Norway's polar bear population has largely been based on sheer guesswork.
"This is the first time that the authorities will go in and create a credible
overview of the polar bear population in the Arctic," said Jon Aars of
the Polar Institute .
Previous estimates have put the polar bear population between 2,000 and 5,000
animals in the Norwegian and Russian areas of the Arctic.
Polar bears have been protected by law in Norway since 1973, following years
of hunting that reduced the population by half.
Aars said he and fellow researchers also hope to learn how polar bears and
their main prey, ringed seals, are affected by changes in the global climate.
April 2, 2004
Trekkers to test Bering Strait
A Belgian and an Alaskan are scouting ice conditions on the treacherous Bering
Strait for an expedition across it next year.
Dixie Dansercoer, 42, and Troy Henkels, 37, were were in the village of Wales,
the last community before North America drops into water.
The two men, who are experienced adventurers in extreme cold, told the Anchorage
Daily News they hadn't expected the strong winds and expanses of frigid water,
which have forced them to scrap their plan of using kites to propel them on
skis across the ice of the strait.
The team joins others, usually foreigners, who are fixated on getting across
the 75 km-stretch of ice and water between Alaska and the Russian Far East,
Since the mid-1980s, many, including elite athletes and the mentally ill, have
tried to cross the strait by swimming, dog mushing and bicycling.
In 2002, British multimillionaire Steve Brooks and a partner made it through
the ice to the international dateline, in an amphibious vehicle, before Russian
border guards cut the journey short.
Most expeditions fail because of the ice, wind and water currents. Polar bears,
hypothermia and frostbite are other hazards.
One man claims he made the trek. Russian explorer Dmitry Shparo and his son
Matvey entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 1998 after they crossed
from Siberia to Alaska, mostly drifting hundreds of kilometers north on sheets
of ice.
April
2, 2004
Greenland mayors against home rule government cabinet
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
The mayors of Greenland's smaller communities are against the Greenland Home
rule government's plan to scrap the one-price system for goods and services.
Last week, 14 mayors who participated in a community conference in Kangerlussuaq
signed and handed over a letter of protest to the Home rule cabinet.
"When you remove the one-price system, you go back to G-60 policy (that
is, Danish policy in Greenland during 1960s), that closed down the smaller towns
and communities," wrote the mayors.
The mayors say they're afraid people will move to larger towns to survive and
over the long term their communities will empty.
April 2, 2004
Artist paints iceberg... red
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
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PHOTO TO ENLARGE
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Last week in Disko Bay, Greenland, Danish artist Marco Evaristti accomplished
what he called his biggest challenge to date — painting an iceberg red.
"It is so poetic — it looks like a red pea," Evaristti said
shortly after finishing the job of painting the iceberg.
He used four 1,000-litre stubs to mix the paint needed to cover the iceberg.
He then used 200 metres of fire-hose and a pump to spray the iceberg from a
boat.
In his past work, Evaristti has been preoccupied with red and blood, a substance
that he says signals both life and death.
According to the art critics, Evaristti wants to show evil that results in
death.
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