Threats to the Arctic

Going back a scant 150 years or so, virtually nothing was known about the Arctic regions except by a handful of explorers and, of course, the people who actually lived there. The concept of the Arctic was “imagined yet unseen,” to quote Potter (2007), who added that it functioned for the nineteenth century “much as the moon and outer space did for the twentieth” (3). Things could scarcely be more different in the present day. It is probably safe to say that a reasonable majority of the world’s population has an idea of where and what the Arctic regions are. And those fortunate enough to have had an education will probably have an idea of what is occurring, such as the ice is melting, and polar bears are suffering. The most accessible parts of the Arctic and subarctic have been tourist destinations for some time, and the oxymoronic term “eco-tourism” has been coined with its attendant phrase “last chance to see. …” Cruise ships penetrate to the far north with unfortunate consequences for local populations as well as giving rise to concerns that a “second Titanic” is an accident waiting to happen.

Elias notes in his Introduction that the early explorers who traveled to the Arctic were not going there for the fun of it; they were hoping to find shorter trade routes to the East, in particular a way through the infamous Northwest Passage, ultimately for monetary gain for the governments involved. (Notable exceptions were the Scottish explorer John Rae; see McGoogan 2001.) Similar mercenary interests dominate today as the Arctic is currently experiencing an unprecedented level of economic, industrial, and military activity. Just how to solve the conflicts involved is extremely problematic. The crux of the matter is how to balance the potential new resources of economic benefits, often tied up with questions regarding, on the one hand, interests from various sources together with objectives of national defense and, on the other, potential environmental degradation. Local people and other stakeholders often hold opposing viewpoints regarding all the issues. Just how to meet sustainability goals and combine all the issues in a manner beneficial to those most concerned is a complex problem. The last chapter in Elias’s book, “Changing Political Landscape,” is a tour de force in the way it presents and elucidates the complexity of the current geopolitical landscape.

The earlier sections and chapters in the book are largely concerned with explaining the myriad interlinking natural elements that make up the Arctic world. Section I concerns the Arctic Seas with chapters on loss of sea ice, rising sea surface temperatures, changes in ocean circulation patterns, sea level change, impacts of ocean acidification on arctic marine ecosystems, impacts of chemical pollution on marine ecosystems, impacts of overfishing in arctic and subarctic waters, and impacts of global shipping to Arctic Ocean ecosystems. Section II focuses on arctic ice with an extensive chapter on the decline in mountain glaciers. Section III focuses on arctic lands with chapters on the Greenland ice sheet, changes in terrestrial environments, impacts of global change, and impacts of oil and mineral extraction. Section IV considers arctic people with chapters on impacts of permafrost degradation, threats to native ways of life, and, as noted, the final chapter on changing political landscapes of the Arctic.

The Introduction provides a very useful synopsis of all aspects of the topic. Perhaps it is churlish, then, to have wished for a more nuanced description of climatic variations in the recent past rather than just a very brief commentary on the so-called Little Ice Age, a term, it has been argued, that should refer only to glaciation rather than climate and is generally somewhat controversial (Grove 1988; Lockwood et al. 2017). But this is a minor quibble regarding a work that is astonishingly broad in its description of the current threats to the Arctic. It is truly an encyclopedic work. The book is written in very readable prose and should be an extremely valuable reference work for a wide audience: university-level students, the interested public, and experts in the various fields that are covered.