Climate change: the Arctic is too precious to be left unprotected

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/01/observer-editorial-arctic-climate-environment

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A few days ago, the Arctic's cap of sea ice reached its annual maximum. Around 15 million square kilometres of icy wilderness now stretch over the planet's northern seas. With the arrival of spring much of that ice will start to disappear. Crucially, not all of it will return. Our planet is warming and year by year the average ice coverage in the high latitudes declines. For the people of the Arctic, this loss poses challenges. Native hunters can no longer travel across ice to reach their prey, for example, while the region's waters are being eyed up for commercial exploitation by a growing number of nations that include the US, Canada and Russia. Without thick coatings of ice, the region's oil, mineral deposits and shipping lanes begin to look like attractive propositions for development.

Transport seems a particularly tantalising consideration. A sea journey from western Europe to China usually requires a voyage through the Suez Canal and takes around 15 days. Head north, along a Siberian coast that is free of ice, and you could do the journey in 10 days, a considerable saving in man-hours, fuel, and carbon emissions. For good measure, the danger of pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa is avoided. As a result, new deep-water harbours are being planned in the region with the US estimating that cargo transported on the Siberia coast route is likely to increase from 1.8m tonnes in 2010 to more than 64m in 2020. This is a dramatic rise, to say the least.

Opening up the Arctic to development will undoubtedly bring benefits but the changes that are now being proposed also pose risks. Few treaties govern this region and it remains hopelessly exposed to ecological damage.

This point was raised in a recent report by the Finnish government which warned that combating oil spills – either from ships or oil rigs – in its icy waters is almost impossible with current technology. The Arctic is probably the most environmentally sensitive region on the planet. Yet few treaties exist to protect it. As one observer recently noted: there are more boats, more cargo, more water – and no one in charge.

An example of this dangerous disregard for regulation is provided by the US which has yet to ratify the UN Law of the Sea convention. Until it does, it cannot play a proper role in controlling affairs on Arctic sea routes. The problem is not confined to the US, of course. The world is obsessed with its current economic woes. Yet the planet will continue to warm with or without a financial crisis.

Last week, member nations of the Arctic Council – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden and the US – met to try to set some minimum rules to protect the region against pollution. The fact that such considerations are only now taking place reveals a dangerous lack of urgency among politicians in their reactions to the vast changes that are sweeping our planet.