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Environmental Situation in the Arctic

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Book cover International Governance of the Arctic Marine Environment

Part of the book series: Hamburg Studies on Maritime Affairs ((HAMBURG,volume 27))

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Abstract

The earth’s climate is changing rapidly. The global temperature is rising “at a rate unprecedented in the experience of modern human society” and scientific research reveals that global warming will even accelerate over the next 100 years, causing physical, ecological, social, and economic changes, many of which have already commenced.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Susan J. Hassol, Impacts of a warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 8, available at: http://amap.no/workdocs/index.cfm?dirsub=%2FACIA%2Foverview/http://amap.no/acia//http://www.acia.uaf.edu/, last visited 17 December 2011.

  2. 2.

    Ibid., p. 10.

  3. 3.

    For the spatial definition of the Arctic Region see infra I.1.

  4. 4.

    For more details see. infra I.2.

  5. 5.

    Henry Huntington and Gunter Weller, in: Jim Berner et al., Arctic Climate Impact Assessment - Scientific Report, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 4.

  6. 6.

    NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally, see Seth Borenstein, “Rate of ice melt shocks warming experts: ‘The Arctic is screaming,’ says one; another calls 2007 a ‘watershed year’,” Associated Press, November 12, 2007, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22203980.

  7. 7.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, Arctic Council, April 2009, available at: http://www.pame.is/images/stories/PDF_Files/AMSA_2009_Report_2nd_print.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012, p. 26.

  8. 8.

    Huntington/Weller, supra note 5, p. 4.

  9. 9.

    See McBean et al., in: Arctic climate impact assessment (supra note 5), p. 23.

  10. 10.

    Hassol, supra note 1, pp. 34 and 36; for more details on the impacts of a warming Arctic climate on the global climate, see infra 2 a).

  11. 11.

    See Mike Bettwy, “Changes in the Arctic: Consequences for the World”, 24 January 2005 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/earthandsun/arctic_changes.html.

  12. 12.

    Colette de Roo, “Environmental governance in the marine Arctic,” Yearbook of Human Rights & Environment 9 (2009), 101–170, at 101.

  13. 13.

    See e.g. id. et al., “Environmental Governance in the Marine Arctic: Background Paper,” (Arctic Transform, 4 September 2008), p. 2.

  14. 14.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 4.

  15. 15.

    Huntington/Weller, supra note 5, p. 2.

  16. 16.

    North of the Arctic Circle, the sun is above the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year and below the horizon for 24 continuous hours at least once per year, see Arctic pollution issues: A state of the Arctic environment report (Oslo: AMAP, 1997), p. 6.

  17. 17.

    Donald Rothwell, The polar regions and the development of international law, 1. publ., Cambridge studies in international and comparative law: New series; 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 21.

  18. 18.

    Arctic Pollution Issues, supra note 16, p. 6.

  19. 19.

    AMAP assessment report: Arctic pollution issues, AMAP, Oslo 1998, p. 9.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., p. 10.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., p. 24.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., p. 10; in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, this belt is at approximately 63°N and swings north between Baffin Island and the coast of west Greenland. Off the east coast of Greenland, the marine boundary lies at approximately 65°N. In the European Arctic, the marine boundary is much farther north, pushed to about 80°N to the west of Svalbard by the warming effect of the North Atlantic Current. At the other entrance into the Arctic, warm Pacific water flows through the Bering Strait to meet Arctic Ocean water at about 72°N, forming a boundary that stretches from Wrangel Island in the west to Amundsen Gulf in the east, ibid.

  23. 23.

    Huntington/Weller, supra note 5, p. 2.

  24. 24.

    See homepage of the Arctic Council, About us, http://www.arctic-council.org/index.php/en/about-us, last visited 30 March 2012; regarding structure and work of the Arctic Council see Chap. 3, III. 1.

  25. 25.

    The number of countries that are considered as “Arctic States” naturally depends on the spatial definition of the region. Generally, the Arctic States have been referred to as the “Arctic Eight”, including those states who have either land territory north of the Arctic Circle or that are coastal states bordering the Arctic Ocean, see Donald R. Rothwell, “The Arctic in International Affairs: Time for a New Regime?” The Brown Journal of World Affairs XV, no. 1 (2008): 241–253, at 241 and footnote 4. However, sometimes only the “Arctic Five”, i.e. the coastal nations are regarded as Arctic States, see e.g. Brian van Pay, “National Maritime Claims in the Arctic,” in Changes in the Arctic environment and the law of the sea, ed. Myron H. Nordquist, John N. Moore and Tomas H. Heidar, 61–77, Center for Oceans Law and Policy (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2010), at 65.

  26. 26.

    Huntington/Weller, supra note 5, p. 2.

  27. 27.

    “In the North Atlantic, the southern boundary follows 62 °N, and includes the Faroe Islands, as described in ‘The Joint Assessment and Monitoring Programme’ of the OSPAR Convention. To the west, the Labrador and Greenland Seas are included in the AMAP area. In the Bering Sea area, the southern boundary is the Aleutian chain. Hudson Bay and the White Sea are considered part of the Arctic.”, Arctic pollution issues, supra note 16, p. 7.

  28. 28.

    AMAP, CAFF, EPPR and AHDR developed differing boundaries to delimit the Arctic for their purposes, see the UArctic Atlas, available at: http://www.uarctic.org/AtlasMapLayer.aspx?m=642&amid=5955, last visited 26 March 2012.

  29. 29.

    IMO, Guidelines for Ships Operating in Arctic Ice-Covered Waters, 23 December 2002, IMO doc. MSC/Circ.1056/MEPC/Circ.399, G-3.2.

  30. 30.

    FAO. Major Fishing Areas, Arctic Sea (Major Fishing Area 18), CWP Data Collection, available at: http://www.fao.org/fishery/area/Area18/en, last visited 26 March 2012.

  31. 31.

    Hassol, supra note 1.

  32. 32.

    ACIA Mission Statement, available at: www.acia.uaf.edu, last visited 26 March 2012.

  33. 33.

    Three hundred scientists participated in the study over a span of three years. The assessment’s findings and projections were released in the form of the 140-page synthesis report “Impacts of a Warming Arctic” in November 2004 (Hassol, supra note 1), and in the form of the scientific report later in 2005 (Berner et al., supra note 5).

  34. 34.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 10, 22 et seqq.; the other nine key findings were: (2) Arctic warming and its consequences have worldwide implications; (3) Arctic vegetation zones are very likely to shift, causing wide-ranging impacts; (4) Animal species’ diversity, ranges, and distribution will change; (5) Many coastal communities and facilities face increasing exposure to storms; (6) Reduced sea ice is very likely to increase marine transport and access to resources; (7) Thawing ground will disrupt transportation, buildings, and other infrastructure; (8) Indigenous communities are facing major economic and cultural impacts; (9) Elevated ultraviolet radiation levels will affect people, plants, and animals; and (10) Multiple influences interact to cause impacts to people and ecosystems, ibid., p.10 et seq.

  35. 35.

    Lenny Bernstein, R. K. Pachauri and Andy Reisinger, Climate change 2007: Synthesis report (Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC, 2008), p. 30.

  36. 36.

    McBean et al., supra note 9, p. 54.

  37. 37.

    Huntington/Weller, supra note 5, p. 3; Bernstein et al., supra note 35, p. 30.

  38. 38.

    J. Overpeck et al., “Arctic Environmental Change of the Last Four Centuries,” Science 278, no. 5341 (1997), 1251–1256, at 1252.

  39. 39.

    J. Overland/J. Walsh/M. Wang, Arctic Report Card 2008, October 2008, p. 2, available at: http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/report08/ArcticReportCard_full_report.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012.

  40. 40.

    National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) Press Release of 6 October 2009, available at: http://nsidc.org/news/press/20091005_minimumpr.html, last visited 26 March 2012.

  41. 41.

    Overland et al., supra note 39, p. 4.

  42. 42.

    Susan J. Hassol, Impacts of a warming Arctic, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, Highlights, p. 4.

  43. 43.

    Id., supra note 1, p. 28.

  44. 44.

    J. Richter-Menge, et al. (2006) State of the Arctic Report, NOAA OAR Special Report, NOAA/OAR/PMEL, Seattle, WA, p. 6, available at: http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/pubs/PDF/rich2952/rich2952.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012.

  45. 45.

    Rune G. Graversen et al., “Vertical structure of recent Arctic warming,” Nature 451, no. 7174 (2008), 53–56, at 53.

  46. 46.

    Bernstein et al., supra note 35, p. 30.

  47. 47.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 2; Bernstein et al., supra note 35, p. 37.

  48. 48.

    Bernstein et al., supra note 35, p. 39.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., p. 36.

  50. 50.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 2.

  51. 51.

    The troposphere is the lowest and densest part of the earth’s atmosphere in which most weather changes occur and temperature generally decreases rapidly with altitude and which extends from the earth’s surface to the bottom of the stratosphere, see Merriam Webster, online available at: http://www.merriam-webster.com, last visited 26 March 2012.

  52. 52.

    Bernstein et al., supra note 35, at 53.

  53. 53.

    C.T Tynan and D.P DeMaster, “Observations and Predictions of Arctic Climatic Change: Potential Effects on Marine Mammals,” Arctic and Alpine Research 50, no. 4 (1997), 308–322, at 308.

  54. 54.

    Sea ice covered with snow reflects about 85–90 % of sunlight, while ocean waters reflects just 10 %, Hassol, supra note 1, p. 34.

  55. 55.

    Mark C. J. A. Serreze, “The Arctic amplification debate,” Climatic Change 76, 3–4 (2006), 241–264, at 243.

  56. 56.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 35.

  57. 57.

    See ibid.

  58. 58.

    Huntington/Weller, supra note 5, p. 4.

  59. 59.

    For the limits of the Arctic Ocean, see. International Hydrographic Organization, Limits of Oceans and Seas, Special Publication No. 23, 3rd edition 1953, p. 11 et seq., available at: http://www.iho-ohi.net/iho_pubs/standard/S-23/S23_1953.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012.

  60. 60.

    Huntington/Weller, supra note 5, p. 10; however, there are varying figures concerning the Arctic Ocean, see Davor Vidas, Protecting the polar marine environment: interplay of regulatory frameworks, in: id., ed., Protecting the polar marine environment: Law and policy for pollution prevention (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 3–16, at 4.

  61. 61.

    Huntington/Weller, supra note 5, p. 12.

  62. 62.

    Ibid., p. 17.

  63. 63.

    McBean, et al., supra note 9, p. 26.

  64. 64.

    Ibid., p. 30.

  65. 65.

    The sea-ice extent refers to the total number of 25 × 25 kilometre square sections of ocean covered by at least 15 % ice, Daniel Cressey, naturenews, 18 September 2007, available at: http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070917/full/news070917-3.html, last visited 26 March 2012.

  66. 66.

    Corresponding to an area larger than all of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark combined, Hassol, supra note 1, p. 25.

  67. 67.

    National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Press Release from 1 October 2007, Arctic Sea Ice Shatters All Previous Record Lows, available at: http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/20071001_pressrelease.html, last visited 26 March 2012.

  68. 68.

    E.g. persistent high pressure over the central Arctic, resulting in a circulation pattern in which ice tended to drift out of the western Arctic and a younger and thinner ice cover to start with., NSIDC News, Issue No. 61, Fall 2007, p. 1, available at: http://nsidc.org/pubs/notes/61/Notes_61_web.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012.

  69. 69.

    Ibid.

  70. 70.

    NSIDC, Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis, 15 September 2011, Arctic sea ice at minimum extent, available at: http://nsidc.org/asina/2011/091511.html, last visited 26 March 2012.

  71. 71.

    Georg Heygster, University of Bremen, Press Release, New Historic Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 2011, 16 September 2011, available at: http://www.iup.uni-bremen.de:8084/amsr/minimum2011-en.pdf, p. 1, last visited 26 March 2012.

  72. 72.

    NSIDC Press Release, supra note 67.

  73. 73.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 25.

  74. 74.

    J. Richter-Menge, et al., Arctic Report Card 2008, available at: http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/report08/ArcticReportCard_full_report.pdf, p. 10.

  75. 75.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 30.

  76. 76.

    Ola M. Johannessen et al., “Arctic climate change: observed and modelled temperature and sea-ice variability,” Tellus A 56 (2004), 328–341, at 337; John E. Walsh and Michael S. Timlin, “Northern Hemisphere sea ice simulations by global climate models,” Polar Research 22, no. 1 (2003), 75–82, at 81.

  77. 77.

    Marika M. Holland, Cecilia M. Bitz and Bruno Tremblay, “Future abrupt reductions in the summer Arctic sea ice,” Geophysical Research Letters 33 (2006), L23503.

  78. 78.

    NSIDC Press Release, supra note 67.

  79. 79.

    More on the Northwest Passage and the legal regime governing it infra Chap. 3, IV. 1. g).

  80. 80.

    NSIDC Press Release, supra note 67.

  81. 81.

    Ibid.

  82. 82.

    On this issue, see. infra 3. a).

  83. 83.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 25; Mark C. Serreze, Marika M. Holland and Julienne Stroeve, “Perspectives on the Arctic’s Shrinking Sea-Ice Cover,” Science 315, no. 5818 (2007), 1533–1536, at 1536.

  84. 84.

    Loeng et al., Arctic Climate Impact Assessment – Scientific Report, supra note 5, p. 454.

  85. 85.

    Huntington/Weller, supra note 5, p. 12.

  86. 86.

    Terry V. Callaghan et al., Arctic Climate Impact Assessment – Scientific Report, supra note 5, p. 266.

  87. 87.

    Martin Sommerkorn and Neil Hamilton, “Arctic Climate Impact Science - an update since ACIA”, WWF International Arctic Programme, Oslo, April 2008, p. 60; the ACIA Report held that “[a]nimal species diversity, ranges, and distribution will change”, see Hassol, supra note 1, p. 10.

  88. 88.

    Victor Smetacek and Stephen Nicol. “Polar ocean ecosystems in a changing world“, Nature 437 (2005) no. 7075, 362–368, at 362.

  89. 89.

    Loeng, et al., supra note 84, p. 480.

  90. 90.

    Ibid.

  91. 91.

    Stephen A. Macko, “Changes in the Arctic Environment,” in Changes in the Arctic environment and the law of the sea, supra note 25, 107–29, at 113.

  92. 92.

    Hassol supra note 1, p. 10.

  93. 93.

    Ibid., p. 58.

  94. 94.

    Ibid.

  95. 95.

    Ibid., p. 59.

  96. 96.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 122.

  97. 97.

    See CAFF homepage, Monitoring: The Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme (CBMP), available at: http://caff.is/monitoring, last visited 30 March 2012.

  98. 98.

    Ibid., About the ABA, available at: http://www.caff.is/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=576&Itemid=1073.

  99. 99.

    Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 – Selected indicators of change, available at: http://www.arcticbiodiversity.is/index.php/en/about, last visited 30 March 2012.

  100. 100.

    Arctic Biodiversity Trends 2010 – Selected indicators of change, CAFF International Secretariat, Akureyri, May 2010, available at: http://www.arcticbiodiversity.is/images/stories/report/pdf/Arctic_Biodiversity_Trends_Report_2010.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012.

  101. 101.

    Ibid., p. 13; species that are particularly declining are wild reindeer and caribou, see ibid.

  102. 102.

    Ibid.

  103. 103.

    Åke Bjørke/Lars Kullerud/Olav Hesjedal, BCS 100: The Circumpolar WorldModule 7: Environment, Climate Change, and Pollution, 3. Ozone Depletion, available at: http://www.grida.no/prog/polar/bsc/bsc7.htm, last visited 30 March 2012.

  104. 104.

    NOAA, Stratospheric Ozone, Monitoring and research in NOAA, available at: http://www.ozonelayer.noaa.gov/science/basics.htm, last visited 30 March 2012.

  105. 105.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 98.

  106. 106.

    Ibid., p. 99.

  107. 107.

    Hassol, supra note 1, p. 105.

  108. 108.

    IPCC, Special Reports, The Regional Impacts of Climate Change, ch. 3, 3.1.

  109. 109.

    Ibid. In fact, “nowhere else on earth is there such a concentration of civilian and naval nuclear reactors”, Olav S. Stokke, Geir Hønneland and Peter J. Schei, “Pollution and conservation,” in International cooperation and arctic governance: Regime effectiveness and northern region building, ed. Olav Schram Stokke and Geir Hønneland, 78–111 (London: Routledge, 2007), at 81.

  110. 110.

    Øystein Jensen, The IMO Guidelines for Ships Operating in Arctic Ice-covered Waters, Fridtjof Nansens Insitutt Report 2/2007, p. 1.

  111. 111.

    Robert A. Lake, “The Physical Environment,” in The Challenge of Arctic shipping: Science, environmental assessment, and human values, ed. David L. VanderZwaag and Cynthia Lamson, 20–58 (Montreal Buffalo: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1990), at 20.

  112. 112.

    Nikolai Babich, Icebreakers and Ice Type Vessels Operation Experience at Northern Sea Route, Arctic Marine Transport Workshop, 28–30 September 2004, Appendix C, p. A-4.

  113. 113.

    Jensen, supra note 110, p. 2.

  114. 114.

    Donat Pharand, The law of the sea of the Arctic: With special reference to Canada, Collection des travaux (Ottawa: Univ. of Ottawa Press, 1973), p. 189 et seqq.

  115. 115.

    Ibid.; the search for a navigable route around the northern edge of the Americas has been aptly termed the “Arctic Grail” (term coined by Pierre Berton, The quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818–1909. New York: Lyons Press, 2000.); see Tavis Potts and Clive H. Schofield, “The Arctic,” International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 23, no. 1 (2008), 151–176, at 156; Michael Byers and Suzanne Lalonde, Who controls the Northwest Passage? Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 42, no. 4 (2009): 1133–1210, at 1135. The quest for a marine shortcut to the Orient for European trade goes back to 1497 when the Italian navigator John Cabot was sent by King Henry VII of England to find a northerly route to the Orient. Like many of his successors – among them Sir Francis Drake, Sir Martin Frobisher, Captain James Cook and many more – Cabot failed in accomplishing his mission. The first successful transit of the Northwest Passage by sea was not realized until almost 400 years later, when the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen completed the trip in a converted herring boat, the Gjoa, over a three-year span from 1903 to 1906 (Cynthia Lamson and David L. VanderZwaag, eds., Transit management in the Northwest Passage: Problems and prospects, Studies in polar research (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 3).

  116. 116.

    Pharand, supra note 114, p. 48.

  117. 117.

    L.F Liddle and W.N Burrell, “Problems in the Design of a Marine Transportation System for the Arctic,” Arctic and Alpine Research 28, no. 3 (1975), 183–193, at 185.

  118. 118.

    Claes L. Ragner, “Den norra sjövägen (The Northern Sea Route),” in Barents – ett gränsland i Norden (‘The Barents – A Nordic Borderland’), ed. Torsten Hallberg (Stockholm: Arena Norden, 2008), pp. 114–127, at 114.

  119. 119.

    Jensen, supra note 110, p. 2.

  120. 120.

    Douglas Brubaker and Willy Østreng, “The Military Impact on Regime Formation for the Northern Sea Route,” in Order for the oceans at the turn of the century, ed. Davor Vidas and Willy Østreng, 261–91 (The Hague; Boston: Kluwer Law International, 1999), at 261; there exist four different passages through the Northern Sea Route from the eastern Barents Sea to Bering Strait, one ‘traditional’ along the coast, one ‘central’, one ‘high-latitudinal’ and one ‘close-to-the-pole’, Douglas Brubaker, The Russian Arctic straits (Leiden, Boston: Nijhoff, 2005), p. 22.

  121. 121.

    Ibid., p. 6; Brubaker and Østreng, supra note 120; the search for the “Northeast Passage” was commenced in the 16th century by several expeditions sent out by the European colonial powers (mainly Great Britain and the Netherlands), but it was not until 1879 that a passage through the strait was completed. That year, the Finnish-Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld reached the Bering Strait onboard the steamer Vega (Ragner, supra note 118, at 115). The first time the whole route was completed by one navigation was the expedition guided by Otto Schmidt on the icebreaker Sibiryakov in 1932, Alexander S. Skaridov, “Northern Sea Route: Legal Issues and Current Transportation Practice,” in Changes in the Arctic environment and the law of the sea, supra note 25, 283–306, at 283. From 1932 to the early 1950s, regular navigation was organised and a special fleet and ports were constructed; from the 1950s to the 1970s the NSR track development was completed and transformed into a normally functioning main line during the summer-autumnal seasons of navigation; year round use of the NSR started in the late 1970s, Alexander G. Granberg, “The northern sea route: trends and prospects of commercial use,” Ocean & Coastal Management 41 (1998), 175–207, at 178.

  122. 122.

    Jensen, supra note 110, p. 2.

  123. 123.

    Willy Østreng, “International use of the Northern Sea Route: What is the problem?,” in National security and international environmental cooperation in the Arctic: The case of the Northern Sea route, ed. Willy Østreng, 1–21, Environment & policy 16 (Dordrecht: Kluwer Acad. Publ, 1999), at 3.

  124. 124.

    Both Routes Around Arctic Open at Summer’s End, NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the Day, September 9, 2008, available at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=9078, last visited 26 March 2012.

  125. 125.

    Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis, National Snow and Ice Data Center, September 17, 2009, Arctic sea ice reaches annual minimum extent, available at: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2009/091709.html, last visited 26 March 2012.

  126. 126.

    Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis, National Snow and Ice Data Center, October 4, 2010, Weather and feedbacks lead to third-lowest extent, available at: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2010/100410.html, last visited 26 March 2012.

  127. 127.

    Open water does not mean that the water is free of sea ice. For the purposes of navigation “open water” is defined by the World Meteorological Organization as areas where the ice covers less than one-tenth of the surface, see. Ice Chart Colour Code Standard, World Meteorological Organization/Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, WMO/TD-No. 1215, 2004, JCOMM Technical Report No. 24, p. 3, available at: http://www.aari.nw.ru/gdsidb/docs/wmo/JCOMM%20TR24%20colour%20standard.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012.

  128. 128.

    See Michael Byers, Unfrozen Sea: Michael Byers sails the Northwest Passage (27 March 2007), available at: http://www.ligi.ubc.ca/?p2=/modules/liu/publications/view.jsp&id=36, last visited 26 March 2012.

  129. 129.

    Alanna Mitchell, “The Northwest Passage Thawed,” The Globe and Mail, February 5, 2000.

  130. 130.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 103.

  131. 131.

    Current IMO regulations under MARPOL Annex VI that place requirements on the sulfur content of marine fuels, once implemented, will dramatically reduce SOx emissions from global shipping. As a result, observable impacts from SOx should decline and there may be indirect effects on the climate forcing properties of other air pollutants such as NOx and BC, ibid., p. 142.

  132. 132.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 142.

  133. 133.

    The Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment Working Group (PAME). More on the Arctic Council and its Working Groups infra Chap. 3, III. 1.

  134. 134.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7.

  135. 135.

    The total number of vessels reported as operating in the Arctic region (fishing vessels and the Great Circle Route traffic excluded) represents less than 2 % of the world’s registered fleet of oceangoing vessels over 100 gross tonnage, Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 89. It should be noted, however, that the availability of data and reporting on Arctic marine activity varied greatly between Arctic states; several states could not provide comprehensive data for 2004. Consequently, the AMSA database likely underestimates the levels of activity throughout the reporting year.

  136. 136.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 89.

  137. 137.

    Ibid., p. 72.

  138. 138.

    Lawson W. Brigham, “The Arctic Council’s Marine Shipping Assessment,” in Changes in the Arctic environment and the law of the sea, supra note 25, 159–76, at 165.

  139. 139.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 12.

  140. 140.

    Erik J. Molenaar and Robert Corell, “Arctic Shipping: Background paper,” (Arctic Transform, 12 February 2009), p. 10.

  141. 141.

    Hassol, supra note 1, at 82.

  142. 142.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 4.

  143. 143.

    Ibid., p. 77.

  144. 144.

    Ibid., p. 5.

  145. 145.

    Ibid., p. 93.

  146. 146.

    Ibid., p. 4.

  147. 147.

    No research or simulation has indicated that the winter sea ice cover will disappear during this century, see ibid., p. 25.

  148. 148.

    Franklyn Griffiths, “New Illusions of a Northwest Passage,” in International Energy Policy, the Arctic and the Law of the Sea, ed. Myron H. Nordquist, John N. Moore and Alexander S. Skaridov, 303–21 (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2005), at 308.

  149. 149.

    Pack ice is defined as a large area of floating sea ice fragments that are packed together, Hassol, supra note 1, p. 24.

  150. 150.

    Fast ice is sea ice that grows from the coast into the sea, remaining attached to the coast or grounded to a shallow sea floor, ibid.

  151. 151.

    Icebergs are chunks of ice that calve off a glacier or ice sheet and float at the ocean surface, ibid.

  152. 152.

    Glaciers and ice caps are land-based ice, with ice caps “capping” hills and mountains and glaciers usually referring to the ice filling the valleys, although the term glacier is often used to refer to ice caps as well, ibid.

  153. 153.

    Barnaby J. Feder, “A Legal Regime for the Arctic,” Ecology Law Quarterly 6 (1976–1978), 785–829, at 789; see Terence Armstrong, “Transportation of resources from and through the northern waters,” in Northern waters: Security and resource issues, ed. Clive Archer and David Scrivener, 55–69 (London: Croom Helm for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1986), at 58.

  154. 154.

    Patrick R.M. Toomey, Global Warming: Arctic Shipping, Canadian Polar Commission, Meridian (Fall/Winter 2007), 6–11, at 6.

  155. 155.

    Potts and Schofield, supra note 115, at 157.

  156. 156.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 5.

  157. 157.

    Ibid.

  158. 158.

    For example through discharges of oily ballast and bilge water, see Arctic pollution issues, supra note 16, p. 150.

  159. 159.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 134; Hal Mills, “The Environment and the Northwest Passage,” in Transit management in the Northwest Passage, supra note 115, 8–64, at 58; Øystein Jensen, “Arctic shipping guidelines: towards a legal regime for navigation safety and environmental protection?” Polar Record 44 (2008): 107–114, at 107.

  160. 160.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 136.

  161. 161.

    Ibid.; see Michael Byers and Suzanne Lalonde, supra note 115, at 1177 et seq.

  162. 162.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 136.

  163. 163.

    Arctic pollution issues, supra note 16, p. 152.

  164. 164.

    W.J Campbell and S. Martin, “Oil and Ice in the Arctic Ocean: Possible Large-Scale Interactions,” Science 181, no. 4094 (1973), 56–58, at 57.

  165. 165.

    Arctic pollution issues, supra note 16, p. 152.

  166. 166.

    Ibid.

  167. 167.

    Ibid., p. 153.

  168. 168.

    Østreng, supra note 123, at 10.

  169. 169.

    Vidas, supra note 60, p. 11; David L. VanderZwaag et al., “Governance of Arctic Marine Shipping,” (Marine & Environmental Law Institute; Dalhousie Law School, 10 October 2008), p. 24.

  170. 170.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 145.

  171. 171.

    Ibid., p. 146.

  172. 172.

    The sound of breaking the ice corresponds to a noise level of 170 decibel (dB) (re: 1 μPascal at 1 metre), Elena M.McCarthy, “International Regulation of Transboundary Pollutants: The Emerging Challenge of Ocean Noise” Ocean and Coastal Law Journal 6 (2001), 257–292, at 266. In addition to the high level of noise, all icebreaking operations can potentially cause disturbances to wildlife through the trail of open water left abaft, Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, 7, p. 146.

  173. 173.

    The term “invasive alien species” is understood in correspondence to the definition by the COP to the CBD and accordingly refers to “an alien species whose introduction and/or spread threaten biological diversity”, see COP 6 Decision VI/23, Alien species that threaten ecosystems, habitats or species, fn. 57. “Alien species” means “a species, subspecies or lower taxon, introduced outside its natural past or present distribution; includes any part, gametes, seeds, eggs, or propagules of such species that might survive and subsequently reproduce”, ibid.

  174. 174.

    Status, impacts and trends of alien species that threaten ecosystems, habitats and species, Convention on Biological Diversity, Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, Sixth Meeting, Montreal, 12–16 March 2011, UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/6/INF/11, p. 5.

  175. 175.

    D.A. Levin/J. Francisco-Ortega/R.K. Janzen, “Hybridisation and the extinction of rare plant species”. Conservation Biology 10 (1996): 10–16.

  176. 176.

    Christopher R. Pyke et al., “Current Practices and Future Opportunities for Policy on Climate Change and Invasive Species”. Conservation Biology 22, no. 3 (2008): 585–592, at 588.

  177. 177.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 150.

  178. 178.

    International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships Ballast Water and Sediments, adopted 13 February 2004, text available at: http://www.ecolex.org/server2.php/libcat/docs/TRE/Multilateral/En/TRE001412.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012.

  179. 179.

    See IMO, Global Ballast Water Management Programme, The Problem, available at: http://globallast.imo.org/index.asp?page=problem.htm&menu=true, last visited 26 March 2012.

  180. 180.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 150.

  181. 181.

    For example, shipwrecks in the Aleutians have caused significant ecological damage through the introduction of predatory rat species onto islands that have large aggregations of nesting seabirds, ibid., p. 151.

  182. 182.

    Lawson W. Brigham, “The emerging International Polar navigation Code: bi-polar relevance?” in Protecting the polar marine environment, supra note 60, 244–62, at 244.

  183. 183.

    Jensen, supra note 110, p. 2.

  184. 184.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 5.

  185. 185.

    Ibid., p. 91; the Arctic coastal states recognised this risk: “The Arctic Ocean is a unique ecosystem (…). Experience has shown how shipping disasters and subsequent pollution of the marine environment may cause irreversible disturbance of the ecological balance and major harm to the livelihoods of local inhabitants and indigenous communities. (…) Cooperation, including on the sharing of information, is a prerequisite for addressing these challenges.”, The Ilulissat Declaration, Arctic Ocean Conference Ilulissat, Greenland, 27–29 May 2008, available at: http://www.oceanlaw.org/downloads/arctic/Ilulissat_Declaration.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012. Recently, the Arctic Eight have concluded the Agreement on Cooperation on Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue in the Arctic (Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement), signed 12 May 2011, will enter into force 30 days after receipt of last notification that internal procedures for its entry into force have been fulfilled, see article 19(3) Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement, available at: http://arctic-council.npolar.no/accms/export/sites/default/en/meetings/2011-nuuk-ministerial/docs/Arctic_SAR_Agreement_EN_FINAL_for_signature_21-Apr-2011.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012. The Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement establishes the Search and Rescue (SAR) responsibility of each state party by defining an area of the Arctic in which it has the lead responsibility in organising responses to SAR incidents.

  186. 186.

    AMAP assessment report: Arctic pollution issues, supra note 19, p. 132.

  187. 187.

    Loeng et al., supra note 84, p. 484.

  188. 188.

    Loeng et al., supra note 84, p. 494 et seq., 507.

  189. 189.

    Willy Østreng, “The post-Cold War Arctic: Challenges and transition during the 1990s,” in Arctic Development and Environmental Challenges: Information needs for decision-making and international co-operation. Ringkjøbing/Gentofte: Scandinavian Seminar College, distributed by Erling Olsens Forlag, 1997; Papers from a Nordic Policy Seminar, Arendal, Norway, September 8–10, 1996, 33–49, at 35.

  190. 190.

    Loeng et al., supra note 84, p. 495.

  191. 191.

    The number of young surviving long enough to potentially enter the fishery, ibid., p. 495.

  192. 192.

    Ibid., p. 507.

  193. 193.

    Ibid., p. 495.

  194. 194.

    Ibid., p. 507.

  195. 195.

    Ibid.

  196. 196.

    Ibid., p. 494.

  197. 197.

    Ibid.

  198. 198.

    This implies extension into areas beyond national jurisdiction, which is significant for the conservation and management regime prevailing over the respective fish stocks. Regarding this issue see infra Chap. 3, V.

  199. 199.

    Fish species that would probably move northward include “Atlantic and Pacific herring and cod, walleye Pollock in the Bering Sea, and some of the flatfishes that might presently be limited by bottom temperatures in the northern areas of the marginal arctic seas. The southern limit of colder water fishes such as polar cod and capelin would be very likely either to shift its southern boundary northward or restrict its distribution more to continental slope regions. Salmons, which show high fidelity of return to natal streams, might possibly be affected in unknown ways that relate more to conditions in natal streams, early marine life, or feeding areas that might be outside the Arctic.” Loeng et al., supra note 84, p. 507.

  200. 200.

    E.g. herring and cod, Erik J. Molenaar et al., “Introduction to the background papers,” (Arctic Transform, 8 September 2008), p. 7.

  201. 201.

    WWF-Norway, WWF International Arctic Programme, Factsheet, Effects of Climate Change on Arctic Fish, Oslo February 2008, p. 3, available at http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/arctic_fish_factsheet.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012; Vilhjámsson/Hoel et. al., Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, supra note 5, at 770.

  202. 202.

    WWF-Norway, supra note 201, p. 2.

  203. 203.

    Vilhjálmsson/Hoel et al., supra note 5, p. 771.

  204. 204.

    Ibid., p. 770.

  205. 205.

    Erik J. Molenaar and Robert Corell, “Arctic Fisheries: Background Paper,” (Arctic Transform, 9 February 2009), p. 10.

  206. 206.

    WWF-Norway, supra note 201, p. 1. Approximately 40 % of the United States’ commercial fisheries (by weight) stem from the Bering Sea and about half of the fish consumed in the European Union is from the European Arctic.

  207. 207.

    See supra a) bb).

  208. 208.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 4.

  209. 209.

    Ibid., p. 72.

  210. 210.

    Ibid., p. 123.

  211. 211.

    Molenaar and Corell, supra note 205, p. 4; Erik J. Molenaar, “Arctic Fisheries Conservation and Management: Initial Steps of Reform of the International Legal Framework,” in The Yearbook of Polar Law, ed. Gudmundur Alfredsson and Timo Koivurova, 427–64 1 (Leiden Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009), at 433; Vilhjálmsson/Hoel, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, supra note 5, at 770.

  212. 212.

    Mikhail Gorbachev, The Speech in Murmansk at the ceremonial meeting on the occasion of the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal to the city of Murmansk: October 1, 1987 (Moscow: Novosti Press Agency, 1987), p. 730; reprinted on http://www.barentsinfo.fi/docs/Gorbachev_speech.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012.

  213. 213.

    Vilhjálmsson/Hoel et al., Hoel, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, supra note 5, p. 770.

  214. 214.

    Ibid., p. 692.

  215. 215.

    Huntington et al., Arctic Oil and Gas 2007, AMAP, Oslo 2007, p. 1.

  216. 216.

    Ibid., p. 13 f.

  217. 217.

    Skjoldal, Hein Rune, et al., AMAP Assessment 2007: Oil and Gas Activities in the Arctic – Effects and Potential Effects, p. 7_2.

  218. 218.

    Huntington et al., supra note 215, p. 17.

  219. 219.

    See Scott G. Borgerson, “Arctic Meltdown: The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming,” Foreign Affairs 87 (2008), 63–77, at 67.

  220. 220.

    Brenda S. Pierce, “US Geological Survey Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal: Estimates of Undiscovered Oil and Gas in the Highest Northern Latitudes,” in Changes in the Arctic environment and the law of the sea, supra note 25, 535–6, at 536.

  221. 221.

    Skjoldal et al., supra note 217.

  222. 222.

    Ibid., p. 7_3.

  223. 223.

    As seen recently during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, when thousands of barrels of oil a day gushed from a seabed well since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded on 20 April 2010 about 40 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast, it is extremely difficult to stop and clean up an offshore oil spill even in temperate regions, see Jonathan Owen, “BP boss defends company against Obama’s attack: The US President calls for those behind the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to take full responsibility,” The Independent world, May 16, 2010, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bp-boss-defends-company-against-obamas-attack-1974692.html.

  224. 224.

    Huntington et al., supra note 215, p. vi.

  225. 225.

    See NOAA, Emergency Response, Recent and Historical Incidents, Response to the Exxon Valdez Spill, available at: http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/response-exxon-valdez.html, last visited 26 March 2012.

  226. 226.

    Huntington et al., supra note 215, p. 24.

  227. 227.

    Ibid., p. 23.

  228. 228.

    With regard to the consequences the eventual use of the exploited resources for the climate one has to concur with Shaw: “There is something paradoxical about seeking in the Arctic the very carbon fuels that are melting the northern ice.” Richard Shaw, “A Russian Flag at the North Pole?” The journal of international maritime law 13, no. 4 (2007), 232–233, at 232.

  229. 229.

    See Brettania Walker and Raphaela Stimmelmayr, “The tip of the iceberg: Chemical contamination in the Arctic,” (WWF International Arctic Programme, February 2005), p. 8.

  230. 230.

    For more details, see infra Chap. 3, III. 1.

  231. 231.

    Rovaniemi Declaration, Declaration on the protection of the Arctic Environment, Rovaniemi, 14 June 1991, p. 1.

  232. 232.

    See Finland’s environmental administration, State of the environment, Acidification, available at: http://www.environment.fi/default.asp?node=6027&lan=EN, last visited 26 March 2012.

  233. 233.

    AMAP assessment report: Arctic pollution issues, supra note 19, p. 130.

  234. 234.

    Ibid., p. 131 et seq.

  235. 235.

    Ibid., p. 134.

  236. 236.

    Timothy J. Garrett and Lisa L. Verzella, LOOKING BACK: An Evolving History of Arctic Aerosols, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 89, no. 3 (2008), 299–302, at 299.

  237. 237.

    AMAP assessment report: Arctic pollution issues, supra note 19, p. 134.

  238. 238.

    Garrett and Verzella, supra note 236, p. 301 et seq.

  239. 239.

    Richard A. Feely, Christopher L. Sabine, and Victoria J. Fabry, Carbon Dioxide and our Ocean Legacy, The Pew Charitable Trusts, April 2006, p. 1, available at: http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/pubs/PDF/feel2899/feel2899.pdf, last visited 26 March 2012.

  240. 240.

    See Macko, supra note 91, at 114.

  241. 241.

    Over the past 200 years the oceans have absorbed 525 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or nearly half of the fossil fuel carbon emissions over this period, Feely et al., supra note 239.

  242. 242.

    Marah J. Hardt and Carl Safina, “Threatening Ocean Life from the Inside Out,” Scientific American 303, no. 2 (August 2010), 66–73, at 68.

  243. 243.

    E.g. Scott C. Doney et al., “Ocean Acidification: The Other CO2 Problem”, Annual Review of Marine Science 2009. 1:169–92.

  244. 244.

    Ibid.

  245. 245.

    AMAP Fact Sheet # 1, October 2000, p. 1; Barry C. Kelly et al., “Food Web–Specific Biomagnification of Persistent Organic Pollutants,” Science 317, no. 5835 (2007), 236–239, at 236.

  246. 246.

    Kelly et al., ibid.

  247. 247.

    Arctic pollution issues, supra note 16, p. 73.

  248. 248.

    ACAP Fact Sheet # 1, October 2000, p. 3.

  249. 249.

    AMAP Assessment, Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Arctic, 2002, p. xi. As indigenous people consume species higher up the Arctic food chain as part of their traditional diet, average POP intakes of these people are usually higher than those of people living in southern latitudes. Pregnant women and children are of great concern, because children are associated with the greatest vulnerability during the early years of life, ACAP Fact Sheet # 1, October 2000, supra 248, p. 4.

  250. 250.

    Arctic pollution issues, supra note 16, p. 91.

  251. 251.

    Arctic pollution issues, supra note 16, p. 145.

  252. 252.

    Ibid., p. 146.

  253. 253.

    Huntington et al., Arctic Oil and Gas 2007, AMAP, Oslo 2007, p. vi.

  254. 254.

    Arctic pollution issues, supra note 16, p. 94.

  255. 255.

    Pacyna, AMAP Assessment 2002: Heavy Metals in the Arctic, p. 5.

  256. 256.

    Ibid., p. 7.

  257. 257.

    Arctic pollution issues, supra note 16, p. 97.

  258. 258.

    AMAP/ACAP, Fact Sheet, Mercury – a priority pollutant, January 2005, p. 1.

  259. 259.

    Ibid.

  260. 260.

    AEPS, Declaration on the protection of the Arctic environment, p. 16.

  261. 261.

    Ibid., p. 17.

  262. 262.

    Ibid.

  263. 263.

    ACAP Fact Sheet # 2, supra 248, p. 1.

  264. 264.

    Radionuclides are radioactive isotopes of elements, AMAP Fact Sheet # 2, May 2001, p. 1.

  265. 265.

    Arctic pollution issues, supra note 16, p. 112.

  266. 266.

    Ibid.

  267. 267.

    ACAP Fact Sheet # 2, supra 248, p. 2.

  268. 268.

    Ibid, p. 3.

  269. 269.

    See the map supra I.1.

  270. 270.

    Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report, supra note 7, p. 136.

  271. 271.

    Macko, supra note 91, at 108.

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Weidemann, L. (2014). Environmental Situation in the Arctic. In: International Governance of the Arctic Marine Environment. Hamburg Studies on Maritime Affairs, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04471-2_2

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