Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States; Eric Rignot, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, United States; Vladimir Romanovsky, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States; Peter Roopnarine, California Academy of Science, San Francisco, California, United States; Elisabeth Sæther, Bellona, Oslo, Norway; Gunnar Sander, Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway; Tatiana Saksina, World Wildlife Fund, Oslo, Norway; Igor Semiletov, Pacific Oceanological Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Russia; Mark Serreze, National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder, Colorado, United States; Whit Sheard, Pacific Environment, Anchorage, Alaska, United States; Andrew Shepherd, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Koji Shimada, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan; Roald Byhre Sirevaag, StatoilHydro, Stavanger, Norway; Mary Simon, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; David Smith, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; Mark Smith, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham, Wiltshire, United Kingdom; Janne Søreide, The University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Norway; Florian Stammler, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland; Michael Steele, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States; Anders Stenbakken, SIKU Extreme Arctic Challenge, Tasiilaq, Greenland; Fiamma Straneo, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States; Julienne Stroeve, National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder, Colorado, United States; Reko-Antti Suojanen, Aker Arctic Technology Inc., Helsinki, Finland; Ståle Sveinungsen, Vardø Vessel Traffic Services, Vardø, Norway; Marco Tedesco, City College of New York, New York, United States; Robert Thompson, REDOIL, Alaska, United States; Mary Louise Timmermans, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States; Annis May Timpson, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; John Toole, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States; Mead Treadwell, U.S. Arctic Research Commission, Anchorage, Alaska, United States; Robert D. Tustin, Lloyd’s Register Asia, Busan, South Korea; Virginie Vaté, University of Paris, Paris, France; Peter Wadhams, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom;
Katey Walter, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States; Muyin Wang, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States; Margaret Williams, World Wildlife Fund, Anchorage, Alaska, United States; Charlotte Wisnes, The North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission, Tromsø, Norway; Shaye Wolf, Center for Biological Diversity, San Francisco, California, United States; Charles Zender, University of California, Irvine, California, United States; Nikita Zimov, Northeast Science Station, Cherskii, Russia.
Further information came from some 250 public lectures I attended at conferences over an eighteen-month period, including: “Impact of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations” (2007), Washington, D.C., United States; “The Arctic Energy Summit Technology Conference” (2007), Anchorage, Alaska, United States; “Arctic Frontiers” (2008), Tromsø, Norway; “The Inhabited Arctic: Humanities and Social Science Research in the Circumpolar North” (2008), London, United Kingdom; “Earth’s Climate: Past, Present and Future” (2008), London, United Kingdom; “Arctic Passion Seminar” (2008), Helsinki, Finland; “Arctic Change” (2008), Quèbec, Canada; “American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting” (2008), San Francisco, United States; “Arctic Frontiers” (2009), Tromsø, Norway.
Written materials, especially scientific papers in the journals Geophysics Research Letters, Nature, Science, and Nature Geoscience, were very valuable, along with English-language newspapers from Nunavut, Greenland, Norway, Russia, Alaska, and the Barents Area. Two e-mail newsletters from the Institute of the North in Anchorage, Alaska (The Top of the World Telegraph from Nancy Hemsath and Arctic Synergy from Kristina Baiboro-dova), were particularly important and provided me with many leads that I would never otherwise have found. A blog called “Arctic Economics” (http://benmuse.typepad.com/arctic_economics/) was also very valuable and led to many new sources. Other blogs with valuable viewpoints included http://www.thearctic.is/ and http://arcticblog.arcticfocus.com/.
This book benefited greatly from early reading and editing by Elizabeth Else, associate editor of New Scientist magazine. To her goes the credit of beginning the book with the “Bear on the Beach,” the story of my first encounter with a polar bear, along with many other excellent ideas. At Smithsonian Books, executive editor Elisabeth Kallick Dyssegaard patiently worked through many drafts many times, adding enormous value and keeping me on track, assisted by the resourceful Kathryn Antony who made sure that I reached the finish line, almost on time. In London, Ed Faulkner, editorial director of Virgin Books, contributed many wise insights.
The diagrams were all created by Nigel Hawtin, graphics editor of New Scientist magazine.
Sources for the diagrams were as follows: Ice drift stations, Russian State Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, St. Petersburg and Fram Museum, Oslo; Arctic sea ice, U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center and DAMOCLES (www.seaice.dk); Russian Oil and Gas Fields, Gazprom and Lukoil; Yamal reindeer migration route, Stammler, Florian (2005). Reindeer Nomads Meet the Market: Culture, Property, and Globalisation at the “End of the Land.” Berlin: LIT Verlag; Arctic sectorial and equidistance divisions, Ron Macnab, Canadian Polar Commission.
Anders Oskal and Svein Mathiesen of the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, Kautokeino, Norway, kindly gave permission to quote the words of reindeer herders from their book on the EALÁT project.
Finally, a very special thank you to the European Environment Agency for arranging a visit to southeast Greenland.
NOTES
INTRODUCTION: THE BEAR ON THE BEACH
1. Bancroft, Douglas (2007). “Impact of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations.” Washington, D.C., July 10–12.
2. Lopez, Barry (1987). Arctic Dreams. Bantam Books. A classic, intense evocation of the Arctic.
3. For the threat to the polar deserts that lie at the edge of the permanent ice see the work of D. A. “Skip” Walker, director of the Alaska Geobotany Center at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks and the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Mapping Project.
CHAPTER ONE: TURN THE WORLD ON ITS SIDE
1. To learn to love mosquitoes, read this delightful book: Pielou, E. C. (1994). A Naturalist’s Guide to the Arctic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
CHAPTER TWO: IN AN INUIT LAND
1. A beautifully written account of the relocation and the feelings of those who experienced it can be found in McGrath, Melanie (2006). The Long Exile: A Tale of Inuit Betrayal and Survival in the High Arctic. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. There is also a wonderful and deeply researched book that tells you everything about the island on which Grise Fiord is located and includes a thorough account of the relocation: Dick, Lyle (2001). Muskox Land: Ellesmere Island in the Age of Contact. Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press.
2. Amagoalik, John (2007). Changing the Face of Canada. Iqaluit: Nunavut Arctic College. This biography is an important source for the creation of Nunavut, and its extensive notes by Louis McComber provide the best timeline of the north’s political development.
3. An incredible photographic record of the Alaskan whale hunt can be found in Hess, Bill (1999). Gift of the Whale: The Inupiat Bowhead Hunt, a Sacred Tradition. Seattle: Sasquatch Books.
4. Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic: Inuit, Saami, and the Indigenous Peoples of Chukotka. Poppel, Birger, Jack Cruise, Gérard Duhaime, Larisaa Abryu-tina. 2007. SLiCA Results. Anchorage: Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska, Anchorage.
5. Time magazine, “Milestones.” October 4, 1954.
6. See note 2 above.
7. A useful book that covers development up to the creation of Nunavut is. Dahl, Jens, Jack Hicks, and Peter Jull (2000). Inuit Regain Control of Their Lands and Their Lives. International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.
8. Wells, Zachariah (2004). Unsettled. Ontario: Insomniac
Press. A book of poetry that wonderfully evokes Iqaluit and other High North scenes.
9. The Nunavut Handbook: Travelling in Canada’s Arctic (2004). Iqaluit: Ayaya Marketing & Communications.
10. Henderson, Ailsa (2007). Nunavut: Rethinking Political Culture. Vancouver: UBC Press. A book full of insights about the new political process.
11. Loukacheva, Natalia (2007). The Arctic Promise: Legal and Political Autonomy of Greenland and Nunavut. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
12. See note 4 above.
13. Björkstén, Karin, Daniel Kripke, and Peter Bjerregaard (2009). “Accentuation of Suicides but Not Homicides with Rising Latitudes of Greenland in the Sunny Months.” BMC Psychiatry 9:20.
14. RCMP Review of Allegations Concerning Inuit Sled Dogs (2006). Final Report.
15. Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. NTI press release
16. Berger, Thomas (2006). The Nunavut Project. Conciliator’s Final Report.
17. UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: Indigenous Children’s Education and Languages. (2008) Indigenous Children’s Education and Indigenous Languages (document E/C.19/2005/7).
18. Krupnik, Igor, and Dyanna Jolly, eds. (2002). The Earth is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic Environmental Change. Fairbanks, Alaska: Arctic Research Consortium of the United States; Nickels, S., C. Furgal, M. Buell, and H. Moquin (2006). Putting the Human Face on Climate Change: Perspectives from Inuit in Canada. Ottawa: Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Nasivvik Centre for Inuit Health and Changing Environments at Université Laval and the Ajunnginiq Centre at the National Aboriginal Health Organization.
19. The Alaska Village Erosion Technical Assistance Program from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provides regular risk assessments.
20. The Mayer Report on Nunavut Devolution (2007). For the Ministry of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
CHAPTER THREE: NOMADS OF THE YAMAL
1. For a truly magical account of living among the Eveny reindeer herders, nothing beats this famous book: Vitebsky, Piers (2005). Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia. London: HarperCollins. For a valuable technical report see Jernsletten, Johnny-Leo L., and Konstantin Klokov (2002). Sustainable Reindeer Husbandry. Arctic Council 2000–2002. Tromsø: Centre for Sámi Studies, University of Tromsø.
2. Statistics on herding along with many atmospheric pictures of the reindeer herders and opinions expressed in their own words are found in a superb publication from the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, EALÁT: Reindeer Herder’s Voice: Reindeer Herding, Traditional Knowledge and Adaptation to Climate Change and Loss of Grazing Land, edited by Oskal, Anders, Johan Mathis Turi, Svein Mathiesen, and Philip Burgess (2008). See page 5.
3. Krupnik, Igor (1993). Arctic Adaptations: Native Whalers and Reindeer Herders of Northern Eurasia. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England.
4. Stammler, Florian et al. (2008). “Humans and Reindeer on the Move.” In Nomadic Peoples, published by Berghahn Journals.
5. A full account of the Yamal reindeer herders’ year, which I have drawn on here, is found in chapter 3 of a wonderful book, Stammler, Florian (2005). Reindeer Nomads Meet the Market: Culture, Property and Globalisation at the “End of the Land.” Münster: LIT Verlag.
6. Golovnev, Andrei V. and Gail Osherenko (1999). Siberian Survival: The Nenets and Their Story. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. The classic account of the Nenets. See page 98 for this story.
7. Quoted in note 2 above, page 53.
8. The “Declaration on Coexistence of Oil & Gas Activities and Indigenous Communities on Nenets and Other Territories in the Russian North” can be found on the Web site of the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland www.arcticcentre.org.
9. Gray, Patty A., and Florian Stammler (2002). “Siberia Caught between Collapse and Continuity.” Max Planck Research vol. 2, 55. The political issues facing indigenous people in the north of Russia are well described in the following three books, the first of which is notable for containing one of the few English translations of the short story “About That for Which There Is No Name” by the Nenets writer Anna Nergaki.
Pika, Alexander, Jens Dahl, and Ingo Larsen, eds. (1996). Anxious North: Indigenous People in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia. Selected documents, letters, and articles. Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs; Slezkine, Yuri (1994). Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press; Wessendorf, Kathrin, ed. (2005). An Indigenous Parliament? Realities and Perspectives in Russia and the Circumpolar North. Copenhagen: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.
10. See note 2 above, page 97.
11. Quoted in note 2 above, page 53.
CHAPTER FOUR: ADRIFT ON THE ICE
1. Drivenes, Einar-Arne, and Harald Dag Jølle, eds. (2006). Into the Ice: The History of Norway and the Polar Regions. Tromsø: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, page 76. A brilliant book with many unique pictures, this account has the advantage of showing many different expeditions in their historical context so that the continuity between them can be seen.
2. Reported in the Hartford Courant newspaper on February 19, 1897.
3. See note 1 above, pages 82 and 84; Nansen, Fridtjof (2000). Farthest North: The Incredible Three-Year Voyage to the Frozen Latitudes of the North. London: Gerald Duckworth.
4. See note 1 above, page 81.
5. The standard English-language account of Nansen’s life is Huntford, Roland (2001). Nansen. London: Abacus.
6. Papanin, Ivan (1939). Life on an Ice Floe. New York: Julian Messner. Now out of print, an account of bravery accompanied by eulogies to Stalin.
7. Althoff, William F. (2007). Drift Station: Arctic Outposts of Superpower Science. Dulles: Potomac Books. Strongly recommended for the account of scientists out on the ice. His description of Papanin’s NP1 is outstanding. Contains much information that cannot be found anywhere else.
8. Russian State Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, St. Petersburg.
9. Maloney, Sean M. “Canada’s Arctic Sky Spies.” Canadian Military Journal 9, no. 1.
10. A 110-pound intelligent seaglider, developed by researchers at the University of Washington, set a new record for an under-ice voyage in February 2009 when it surfaced off the coast of Greenland after traveling 450 miles under the ice in 51 days.
11. Stroeve, Julienne. “Arctic Sea Ice Shrinks as Temperatures Rise.” NSIDC Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis October 3, 2006.
CHAPTER FIVE: THE VIEW FROM BELOW
1. McLaren, Alfred Scott (2008). Unknown Waters: A First-Hand Account of the Historic Under-Ice Survey of the Siberian Continental Shelf by USS Queenfish. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. The only public account of a secret submarine mission, mapping waters close to Russia during the Cold War. Gripping.
2. Wadhams, Peter (1990) “Evidence of Thinning of the Arctic Ice Cover North of Greenland.” Nature 345: 795.
3. Rothrock, D. A., Y. Yu, and G. A. Maykut (1999). “Thinning of the Arctic Sea-Ice Cover.” Geophysical Research Letters 26: 3469–3472.
4. Maslanik, J. A., C. Fowler, J. Stroeve, S. Drobot, J. Zwally, D. Yi, and W. Emery (2007). “A Younger, Thinner Arctic Ice Cover: Increased Potential for Rapid Extensive Sea-Ice Loss.” Geophysical Research Letters 34: L24501; Fowler, C., W.J. Emery, and J. Maslanik (2004). “Satellite-Derived Evolution of Arctic Sea Ice Age: October 1978 to March 2003.” Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 1: 71–74.
5. Haas, Christian, Andreas Pfaffling, Stefan Hendricks, Lasse Rabenstein, Jean-Louis Etienne, and Ignatius Rigor (2008). “Reduced Ice Thickness in Arctic Transpolar Drift Favors Rapid Ice Retreat.” Geophysical Research Letters 35: L17501.
6. Shimada, Koji, Takashi Kamoshida, Motoyo Itoh, Shigeto Nishino, Eddy Carmack, Fiona McLaughlin, Sarah Zimmermann, and Andrey Proshutin-sky (2006). “Pacific Ocean Inflow: Influence on Catastrophic Reduction of Sea Ice Cover in the Arctic Ocean.” Geophysical Research Letters 33 (8): L08605; Sumata, Hiroshi, and Koji Shi
mada (2007). “Northward Transport of Pacific Summer Water along the Northwind Ridge in the Western Arctic Ocean.” Journal of Oceanography 63: 363–378.
CHAPTER SIX: THE LETHAL MIX
1. Perovich, Donald K., Jacqueline A. Richter-Menge, Kathleen F. Jones, and Bonnie Light (2008). “Sunlight, Water, and Ice: Extreme Arctic Sea Ice Melt During the Summer 2007.” Geophysical Research Letters 35: L11501; Perovich, Donald K., Bonnie Light, Hajo Eicken, Kathleen F. Jones, Kay Runciman, and Son V. Nghiem (2007). “Increasing Solar Heating of the Arctic Ocean and Adjacent Seas, 1979–2005: Attribution and Role in the Ice-Albedo Feedback.” Geophysical Research Letters 34: L19505; Nghiem, S. V., I. G. Rigor, D. K. Perovich, P. Clemente-Colón, J. W. Weatherly, and G. Neumann (2007). “Rapid Reduction of Arctic Perennial Sea Ice.” Geophysical Research Letters 34: L19504.
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