Abstract
The rapid changes occurring in the Arctic region in the past 10–20 years have become one of the biggest stories in climate change. Temperatures in the Arctic are rising higher than anywhere else on Earth—and more quickly as well. Sea ice has been melting in the summer season at an astonishing rate, and scientists are only beginning to understand the consequences of this thaw for global climate patterns. Many marine species are being affected dramatically by changes in the Arctic environment, with the plight of the polar bear in particular becoming popularized as a symbol of the negative consequences of Arctic warming and global climate change.
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Notes
- 1.
Henry Huntington and Gunter Weller, “An Introduction to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment,” in Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 3; 4 degrees from National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), “Climate Change in the Arctic,” https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic-meteorology/climate_change.html; 50-year period and Figure 7–1 from U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, “GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP),” http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/maps/, viewed November 7, 2014.
- 2.
Figure 7–2 from F. Fetterer et al., “Sea Ice Index,” NSIDC, http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/, viewed November 2014; D. Perovich et al., “Sea Ice,” in M. O. Jeffries, J. Richter Menge, and J. E. Overland, eds., Arctic Report Card 2014 (Washington, DC: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, December 2014), 35.
- 3.
Kristina Pistone, Ian Eisenman, and V. Ramanathan, “Observational Determination of Albedo Decrease Caused by Vanishing Arctic Sea Ice,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 9 (2014): 3322–26.
- 4.
See, for example, Natalia Shakhova et al., “Ebullition and Storm-Induced Methane Release from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf,” Nature Geoscience 7 (2014): 64–70.
- 5.
Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Arctic Ocean Acidification 2013: An Overview (Oslo, Norway: 2014), ix.
- 6.
Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
- 7.
Jessica Gordon, “Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to Hold Hearing After Rejecting Inuit Climate Change Petition,” Sustainable Development Law & Policy, Winter 2007, 55.
- 8.
E. Rignot et al., “Acceleration of the Contribution of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets to Sea Level Rise,” Geophysical Research Letters (2011), 38.
- 9.
See, for example, Dim Coumou et al., “Quasi-Resonant Circulation Regimes and Hemispheric Synchronization of Extreme Weather in Boreal Summer,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no. 34 (August 26, 2014): 12331–36; Baek-Min Kim et al., “Weakening of the Stratospheric Polar Vortex by Arctic Sea-Ice Loss,” Nature Communications 5 (September 2, 2014).
- 10.
Save the Arctic website, www.savethearctic.org; European Commission, “European Parliament Resolution of 9 October 2008 on Arctic Governance” (Brussels: October 9, 2008).
- 11.
Oklaik Eegeeisak, Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Conference, remarks made at Arctic Council meeting, Reykjavik, Iceland, November 2, 2014.
- 12.
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 76 (5), Part VI, “Continental Shelf,” www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part6.htm.
- 13.
Figure 7–3 from maribus gGmbH, World Ocean Review 1 (Hamburg: 2010).
- 14.
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/43/chapter-33; M. Nuttall, “Self-Rule in Greenland: Towards the World’s First Independent Inuit State?” Indigenous Affairs 3–4 (2008): 64–70; Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, “Vision of Self-Government,” https://www.itk.ca/about-inuit/vision-self-government; Yukon First Nations Land Claims Settlement Act, http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/Y-2.3/; Canada Yukon Oil and Gas Accord, https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1369314748335/1369314778328; Yukon Northern Affairs Program Devolution Transfer Agreement, www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1297283624739/1297283711723; Northwest Territories Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement, http://devolution.gov.nt.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Final-Devolution-Agreement.pdf.
- 15.
* Although the United States is not party to UNCLOS, it generally abides by the principles of the Law of the Sea, most of which is customary international law.
- 16.
Robert Papp, Jr., “The U.S. Arctic Council Chairmanship,” remarks made at the Passing the Arctic Council Torch conference, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC, September 30, 2014.
- 17.
Clifford Krauss, “Shell Submits a Plan for New Exploration of Alaskan Arctic Oil,” New York Times, August 28, 2014; Kevin McGwin, “Cairn ‘Too Busy’ for Greenland in 2014,” Arctic Journal, January 21, 2014.
- 18.
Gro Harlem Brundtland and World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1987), 41.
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Exner-Pirot, H. (2015). Whose Arctic Is It?. In: State of the World 2015. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-611-0_7
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