8 Reasons the Arctic Circle Needs Our Help

8 Reasons the Arctic Circle Needs Our Help


1) Petroleum Development

Petroleum Development is becoming more prominent in the Arctic Circle. The drilling for oil in this region has become so dangerous that large oil spills are calculated yearly. These oil spills damage the permafrost, tundra, and of course the natural habitats of animals and wildlife itself (Chance, 2007).

2) Hydroelectric Development 

Hydroelectric Development impacts the landscape, contaminates species in the food web with mercury poisoning, and creates greenhouse gases released into the environment (Rosenberg, Bodaly & Usher, 1995).

3) Mining Development

Mining Development produces the same complications as the above two developments. Mining also impacts the landscape, contaminates the food source for many species, and releases harmful gases into the environment.

4) Organic Pollutants and Heavy Metals


Organic Pollutants and Heavy Metals are showing up on the shores of the arctic circle. Previous centuries included minimal pollutants flowing into the arctic circle and being absorbed by the frost. However, today new harmful chemicals are flowing into the arctic circle. These chemicals, according to the article "Persistent Organic Pollutants in The Arctic", "Pose a risk to air-breathing animals including birds, terrestrial and marine mammals, and humans because of their slow rate of elimination from the lungs. “These low Kow—high Koa chemicals, representing a third of organic chemicals in commercial use, constitute an unidentified class of potentially bioaccumulative substances that require regulatory assessment to prevent possible ecosystem and human health consequences." (Byrne, 2005)

5) Ozone Layer Thinning

Ozone Layer Thinning. The following picture demonstrates where the ozone layer is and what other layers surround our earth.


http://www.cec.org/ods/EN/module01/cec_odspolicy_m01t01p01_e.asp?print=1

Each layer as a very important job. The Stratosphere is the top most layer of Earth and the closest layer to the sun. It is layered in temperature. It contains hotter temperatures closer to the top and colder temperatures closer to the ozone layer ("The importance of,"). The ozone layer is found within and close to the bottom of the stratosphere closest to the troposphere. "The ozone layer filters out much of the sun's ultraviolet light that would be harmful to most forms of life" ("The importance of,"). The troposphere, which is the layer closest to earth, is where the most "weather and the greenhouses effects occur" ("The importance of,").

The picture below shows where the ozone hole will occur


(Welch, 2012)
If an ozone hole were to occur in the arctic many people and species of wildlife would be subjected to harmful UV ray levels. As much as "700+ million people, wildlife and plants " will be subjected to radiation (Welch, 2012). 


6) Human Activities Melt Permafrost

Human Activities Melt Permafrost. Human activities include flying over the arctic circle. According to a Washington Post article, "Want to slow Arctic Melting? Stop flying over the North Pole", stated, "One way that humans could slow the melting of the sea ice--by preventing international flights from crossing over the Arctic circle. These cross-polar flights are a surprisingly large source of black carbon pollution in the region. and if those plans diverted course, that could help fend off the day when the Arctic sea-ice collapses for good" (Plumer, 2012).

7) Radionuclides and Nuclear Waste Dumping

Radionuclides and Nuclear Waste Dumping include materials of radioactive and nuclear material being released into the ecosystem. Particularly the dumping of nuclear and radioactive material into our oceans is prominent in the Arctic Circle, particularly around the old Soviet Union. According to the article "Nuclear wastes in the arctic: An analysis of arctic and other regional impacts from soviet nuclear contamination", "The most likely route of human exposure to radionuclides in the seas is through the food chain" (Nuclear wastes in," 1995). 

8) Eliminating Major Numbers of Wildlife

Eliminating Major Number of Wildlife includes the endangerment and extinction of many animals in the Arctic Circle. There are at least five species of animals that are endangered in the Alaskan arctic tundra (Wachman). The following list of animals' need your help. Their habitats and food supply are being destroyed by all of the above reasons. If even one of these species of animal goes extinct it will greatly upset the food chain and that might concurrently lead to another elimination of another species. It is all a domino effect.

1) Polar Bears
2) Arctic Fox
3) Arctic Peregrine Falcon
4) Eskimo Curlew
5) Wood Bison


Sources:

Byrne, S.C. (2005). Persistent organic pollutants in the arctic. Retrieved from http://www.akaction.org/Publications/stockholm_Convention_PDFs/POPs_in_the_Arctic_ACAT_May_2009.pdf

Chance, N. (2007, June 20). Sustainability, equity, and environmental protection. Retrieved from http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/NatResources/sustain.html

Layers of the Atmosphere [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.cec.org/ods/EN/module01/cec_odspolicy_m01t01p01_e.asp?print=1

Wachman, M. (n.d.). List of endangered animals in alaska's arctic tundra. Retrieved from http://traveltips.usatoday.com/list-endangered-animals-alaskas-arctic-tundra-61640.html

Nuclear wastes in the arctic: An analysis of arctic and other regional impacts from soviet nuclear contamination. (1995, September). Retrieved from http://ota.fas.org/reports/9504.pdf

Plumer, B. (2012, December 4). Want to slow arctic melting? stop flying over the north pole. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/04/want-to-slow-arctic-melting-stop-flying-over-the-north-pole/

Rosenberg, D. M., Bodaly, R. A., & Usher, P. J. (1995).Environmental and social impacts of large scale   hydro- electric development: who is listening?. Retrieved from http://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/public-events/archiv/alter-net/former-ss/2009/working-groups/literature/w-rosenberg.pdf

The importance of the ozone layer. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cec.org/ods/EN/module01/cec_odspolicy_m01t01p01_e.asp?print=1

Welch, C. (2012). The ozone hole. Retrieved from http://www.theozonehole.com/arcticozone.htm

North Pole Expedition Video and Interactive Map

http://www.intothearctic.gp/

The website includes a video (which is featured below)  about the disappearing Arctic Circle. It also includes an interactive map of the North Pole Expedition.

This expedition is greatly appreciated and the expeditioners themselves are, in my opinion, very brave. This harsh climate that they explored for at least five days must have been very exciting and scary at the same time.

I just wanted to thank them for their courage and their determination to support a wonderful and a limited known cause.

Greenpeace Sponsors "Save The Arctic North Pole Expedition"

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/Save-the-Arctic/

Greenpeace "Save The Arctic North Pole Expedition"

The expedition was labed "Project Aurora". 

A number of young people set out with one mission; to save the Arctic Circle. 

These young people carried a petition holding thousands of names who contributed to their expedition to the North Pole. 

"Right now, a team of Arctic defenders is in the North Pole to declare it protected on behalf of all life on earth.  They have planted a flag for the future on the seabed with a glass pod containing the names of nearly 2.7 million Arctic Defenders who joined us at savethearctic.org. "

The expedition began early in April 2013 and lasted for approximately five days. 

The planting of the time capsule (the glass pod) was a way of giving "normal" people a chance to see their actual contribution to the future of the environment.

This expedition was in protest, mainly, to offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Circle. This expedition brought light to the many complications that come with oil drilling in this part of the world.

The following was borrowed from the above website by greenpeace. The following is what every natural person should know about oil drilling in this part of the world and why it should be avoided for the future preservation of the Arctic Circle.

"

Top 10 reasons why Arctic oil drilling is a really bad idea

• 1.It’s extremely dangerous. The Arctic environment is one of the harshest in the world, and everything you do there is more complicated than anywhere else.
• 2. Our climate can’t afford it. As the impacts of climate change become more visible and the danger becomes greater, drilling for and burning more fossil fuels is pretty much the last thing we should be doing, especially in somewhere as fragile and untouched as the Arctic. 
• 3. Relief wells are harder to drill. In the case of a blowout – like happened with Deepwater Horizon – a relief well must be drilled, but the arrival of winter ice cuts the drilling season short. This means oil could be left gushing unstopped for up to two years.
• 4. Oil recovery is near impossible in ice. Standard spill technology like booms become useless in thick ice. According to a senior official at a Canadian firm specializing in oil spill response, “there is really no solution or method today that we’re aware of that can actually recover [spilt] oil from the Arctic.”
• 5. There isn’t nearly enough oil spill response capacity. The Arctic is remote — it has a small population, and few facilities available. About 6,000 ships were used to skim oil in the Deepwater Horizon disaster.Cairn Energy had a mere 14 ships availablein the Baffin Bay in Greenland; Shell has named only nine in their oil spill response plan for the Chukchi Sea.
• 6. Nature is even less capable of absorbing oil there than in lower latitudes. Lack of sunlight in winter and cold weather means that oil will take more time to break down. Oil will stay locked under the sea ice. More than 20 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, oil can still be found in the environment of Prince William Sound.
• 7. The local wildlife is very vulnerable to oil. Many bird species migrate to the Arctic in summer, as well as whales and seals. Polar bears and Arctic foxes, which rely heavily on marine and coastal resources to live, will be directly impacted by industrialization.
• 8. It’s hugely expensive – because of the extreme nature of operating on the frontiers of the world’s last great wilderness, looking for Arctic oil is incredibly expensive. In the last two years Cairn Energy has spent over a billion dollars to drill a handful of wells – and still found no oil.
• 9. A Three year fix – the US Geological Survey estimates the Arctic could hold up to 90 billion barrels of oil. This sounds a lot, but that would only satisfy three years of the world’s oil demand. These giant, rusting rigs with their inadequate oil spill response plans are risking the future of the Arctic for three years worth of oil. Surely it’s not worth taking such a risk?
• 10. We don’t really need to. Carmakers are perfectly capable of making only fuel-efficient vehicles. If companies like Volkswagen stopped blocking key efficiency laws, fuel-efficient vehicles would become the norm. This way, we would reduce our need for oil, help the planet, and save consumers some gas money.
• "

The Arctic

Many animals in the Arctic need our help to survive. 

Their home life is being destroyed and their very lives are threatened. 

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

 --Martin Luther King