The Arctic This Week: News for May 26 - June 1, 2012 - The Arctic Institute

Posted - Monday, June 4, 2012 -By Tom Fries - The Arctic Institute Center for Circumpolar Security Studies

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Thanks for joining us this week! We take the time to find the most interesting stories, the best writing and the threads that tie it all together. If you like what you read, please share it with others. Your feedback and comments are always welcome; feel free to contact the author directly. All opinions and any mistakes are the author’s own.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Thank you, as always, for your readership. I hope you’ll excuse a brief gap next week while I attend a week-long event abroad. I look forward to sharing our next edition with you on 18 June!

BEST READS OF THE WEEK

If you’ve only got a few minutes this week, spend your time on these particularly useful, informative, creative or well-written pieces.

The policy wonks among you absolutely must read a newly-released set of recommendations for Canada’s upcoming chairmanship of the Arctic Council from the Munk-Gordon Arctic Security Program. The recommendations are actionable and discrete, the report is written well and information-rich without being dry…it’s an exemplary piece.

Bob Reiss, author of The Eskimo and the Oil Man, wrote a guest post on Forbes explaining why he has come to support Shell’s drilling plans in Alaskan waters despite his own environmentalist leanings. One Shell rig headed for Arctic prospects that’s gotten a lot of coverage is the Kulluk, and a nice article from the Seattle Times covers the refurbishment of that huge beast, which is almost complete. Popular Mechanics also wrote an in-depth description of the rig, its staff, and what might be done to mitigate a spill should something, god forbid, happen.

The complex tug of war over the appropriate role for individuals, researchers, governments and industry in the Arctic never ceases to fascinate. A Fortune blog from Jon Birger regarding Shell’s Arctic plans illustrates this nicely, as does an article from Alaska Dispatch on the shrill, infantile (in my estimation) fight between Alaska’s governor and various federal environmental agencies. Providing another perspective on the same issue is a nice piece from the Moscow Times on the legacy of a Soviet-era decision to artificially expand the range of Kamchatka crabs, thereby supporting fisheries.

The engineering that’s necessary to make a go of it in the North can be simply jaw-dropping. While the Nord Stream pipeline isn’t technically Arctic, it’s a useful analogue for work that might eventually need to be done; check out the work that will go into connecting two sections of the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic (Natural Gas Europe, AB). Wow.

Complete Post at:
http://www.thearcticinstitute.org/2012/06/news-arctic-060412-this-week.html