Canadians rank Arctic sovereignty as top foreign-policy priority

The Globe and Fail, as I call it, is not my favorite source of Canadian news (save maybe business stuff) but it's time for an update of this crucial issue here in my blog.  There is much on here on Arctic sovereignty (the Canadians LOSTA; they planted the flag too slow) and on the Law of the Sea as well as about the nuclear ARSENAL they are building up there in the planet's roof.  You may wish to check a few of them out by using that new search box I imposed on the blog (still working to fix up my links cloud down there at the bottom.  But that is time consuming and my brains get fried as I remember how much information I digested since I started.  I don't want you to miss something special I may have put on here, but then again I do want people to get the gist of the whole gestalt I am attempting to create !!)

So here goes with the latest "polls" on the Arctic.  Remember who is in charge up there - Fearless Leader  Harpo.  Nuff said.

JILL MAHONEY

Globe and Mail Update

Published Monday, Jan. 24, 2011 4:52PM EST

Last updated Monday, Jan. 24, 2011 5:37PM EST

A majority of Canadians see Arctic sovereignty as the country’s top foreign-policy priority and believe military resources should be shifted to the North from global conflicts, according to a new opinion poll.

The survey also found that Canadians are generally far less receptive to negotiation and compromises on Arctic disputes than Americans.

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“That traditional notion of what is a Canadian is kind of challenged by this. We sound more like what people would say Americans would sound like dealing with international issues. That’s quite an eye-opener,” said Neil Desai, director of programs and communications at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.

The findings are based on an Arctic-security poll of more than 9,000 people in the eight northern countries: Canada, the United States, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland. The surveys were conducted by Ekos Research for the Munk School.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper regularly reminds Canadians that his Conservative government is determined to defend this country’s sovereignty in the Far North. As well, climate change is causing Arctic ice to melt rapidly, opening up previously impassable waters and potential new international disputes.

Among the poll’s other findings:

» The environment ranks as the primary Arctic concern among Canadians, especially for northerners

» The top-of-mind conception of Arctic security is dominated by issues relating to sovereignty and border disputes, especially among southern Canadians

» There is a high degree of consensus among Canadians on the symbolic and public-policy significance of the Arctic

» The Arctic is a cornerstone of Canadians’ national identity

In contrast to Canadians’ intransigence on Arctic negotiation, the poll found that Canadians stand alone among northern countries in the view that the Northwest Passage is an internal Canadian waterway. Respondents in other countries largely see the passage as an international waterway.

Canadians’ hard-line views also come into play in the dispute over the Beaufort Sea. (Canada and the U.S. use different and conflicting methods to calculate the Canada-U.S. boundary in the resource-rich Beaufort Sea.)

The poll found about half of Canadian respondents said Canada should try to assert its full sovereignty rights over the Beaufort Sea compared to just 10 per cent of Americans. Sixty-two per cent of Americans said the U.S. government should try to strike a deal with Canada over the disputed area.

Those surveyed were also asked to name their preferred partner in dealing with Arctic issues – only Americans named Canada. By contrast, Canadians said they would choose Scandinavia.

In Canada, pollsters surveyed 2,053 people in the 10 provinces as well as 744 residents of the three territories in November and December. The poll’s margin of error for southern Canadians is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error for northerners is plus or minus 3.6 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

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• Innovation, progress, Nunavut
• Beware the fox in the Arctic henhouse

Peak Oil and a Changing Climate: Dandelion Salad "goodie"

videonation | January 03, 2011

The scientific community has long agreed that our dependence on fossil fuels inflicts massive damage on the environment and our health, while warming the globe in the process. But beyond the damage these fuels cause to us now, what will happen when the world’s supply of oil runs out?

In a new video series from The Nation and On The Earth Productions, Bill McKibben, Noam Chomsky, Nicole Foss, Richard Heinberg and other scientists, researchers and writers explain.
Go here to learn more about “Peak Oil and a Changing Climate,” and to see the other videos in the series.

Peak Oil and a Changing Climate: An Introduction (Video)



see
From Snowstorms to Heat Waves, How Global Warming Causes Extreme Weather and Climate Instability
Ralph Nader: Keynote on Energy and Policy
Energy crisis: Turning-point of humanity By Rudo de Ruijter
A Crude Awakening (2007)
Peak Oil
Global Warming on Dandelion Salad
http://vodpod.com/dandelionsalad/tag/peak%20oil
http://vodpod.com/dandelionsalad/tag/global%20warming
http://vodpod.com/dandelionsalad/tag/sustainability

SPECIAL real-world economics review

real-world economics review

Formerly the post-autistic economics review
Issue no. 46, 20 May 2008

Subscribers: 9,838 from over 150 countries

ISSN 1755-9472

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Back issues: 45 , 44 , 43 , 42 , 41 , 40 , 39 , 38- 1
www.paecon.net

You can download the whole issue as a pdf document by clicking here

or download articles individually by clicking on their pdf link.

In this issue:

The Financial Crisis

The housing bubble and the financial crisis

Dean Baker ............ ......... ......... . download pdf ............ ......... ............ 73

Global finance in crisis
Jacques Sapir ............ ......... .. .. download pdf ............ ......... ......... .... 82

End-of-the-world trade

Donald MacKenzie... ......... ........ download pdf ............ ............ ........102

An overview of climate change
Neva Goodwin ............ ......... ......... ...... download pdf ............ ......... ......... ...110

The unhappy thing about happiness economics
Helen Johns and Paul Ormerod ....... download pdf ............ ......... ......... ...139

Economics, conflict and war
Fanny Coulomb and J. Paul Dunne .. download pdf ............ ......... ......... ...147

Opinion

Milton Friedman and Trofim Lysenko
David A. Bainbridge ............ ......... ......... ... download pdf ............ ......... ......... ...158

The IMF's historic transition: Is less better?
Mark Weisbrot ............ ......... ......... ......... . download pdf ............ ......... ......... ...160

The great unravelling
Jayati Ghosh ............ ......... ......... ......... ... download pdf ............ ......... ......... ...162

Submissions, etc. ............ ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... .....164

La Nina's deise continues in the equatorial Pacific

Posted by wgnweather

What's happening at the OECD

Ministers to Discuss Environment and Global Competitiveness

from 28-Apr-2008 to 29-Apr-2008

Environment Ministers from OECD countries as well as from Chile, Estonia, Israel, Russia, Slovenia – countries that are candidates for OECD membership – and Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa have been invited to discuss cost-effective environmental policies that also bring economic and social benefits.

OECD ministers to discuss climate change, trade and global economy at annual meeting, Paris, 4-5 June 2008 from 04-Jun-2008 to 05-Jun-2008 The economic impact of climate change, rising food prices and a broad range of other trade, growth and development issues will be discussed at the OECD’s annual ministerial meeting in Paris on 4-5 June 2008. France, represented by Christine Lagarde, Minister for the Economy, Industry and Employment, will chair the meeting, with Mexico and Switzerland as Vice-Chairs.

Official visit of the Secretary-General to Sweden from 22-Apr-2008 to 23-Apr-2008 During his official visit, Angel Gurría met with Swedish government officials and gave a lecture at Stockholm School of Economics on "Tax and Growth: What direction should Sweden take?".

More flexibility in labour market policy management would boost growth, says OECD 21-Apr-2008 OECD governments could boost economic growth and help create jobs if local agencies and authorities had more power and autonomy to adjust employment and training programmes to meet local needs, concluded OECD employment ministers.

OECD Financial Markets Committee calls for fundamental reform of financial markets 15-Apr-2008 Fundamental reform of the financial system and its regulation is needed to address the issues highlighted by the current financial markets crisis, according to the OECD Financial Markets Committee. Priority should be given to private sector initiatives to speed up the recovery of financial markets but government intervention may be needed.

Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel appointed OECD Chief Economist 15-Apr-2008 Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel has been appointed Chief Economist of OECD. A national of both Germany and Chile, he joins OECD after twelve years as Chief of Economic Research at the Central Bank of Chile.

OECD countries stay open to commercial investments by sovereign wealth funds

09-Apr-2008

OECD countries are committed to keeping their investment frontiers open to sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as long as these funds invest for commercial, not political ends. That is the message in a letter from OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría to G7 Finance Ministers detailing a common OECD position on policies towards sovereign wealth funds.

Sea Level Increase Is Kept Down by Reservoirs, Masking Ice Melt

By Alex Morales

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Man-made reservoirs have cut sea- level gains by 30 millimeters (1.2 inches), masking the true extent of the contribution from melting ice, scientists said.

The two main contributors to rising sea levels are the melting of ice caps and glaciers and thermal expansion, when water takes up more space as it warms. Adding the effects of those two, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last year could only account for 1.1 millimeters of the 1.8-millimeter annual gain in sea levels observed since 1961.

Factoring in the findings on reservoirs takes the yearly increase to 2.4 millimeters, the researchers at the National Central University in Chung-Li, Taiwan, reported in the journal Science. That means it's probable that scientists have underestimated both melted ice and thermal expansion, Benjamin Fong Chao, lead author of the study, said yesterday.

``It's likely that both are higher, but that's the million- dollar question in the global warming debate,'' Chao said in a telephone interview from Chung-Li. ``We need to explain the sea- level rise budget, but we're not quite there yet.''

The UN panel last year said global warming will cause oceans to swell 18 to 59 centimeters (7 to 23 inches) by 2100, though they weren't certain how much melting ice sheets would contribute.

Of the observed annual sea level rise of 1.8 millimeters from 1961 to 2003, the panel attributed 0.4 millimeter to thermal expansion and 0.7 millimeter to ice-melt. The remaining 0.7 millimeter wasn't accounted for, they said.

Releasing all the water currently contained in reservoirs would add 30 millimeters to sea levels, according to the study.

Dams

The global average sea level rose about 17 centimeters last century, according to the IPCC. Including the water retained in reservoirs would bring the gain up to 20 centimeters.

Chao's team used the International Commission on Large Dams' World Register of Dams to calculate the volume of water that has been contained over land in more than 29,000 reservoirs globally. Including water that seeps into the soil surrounding reservoirs, about 10,800 cubic kilometers (2,600 cubic miles) of water is retained, they found.

``That's equivalent to about 3 centimeters of global sea level: this is surprisingly large,'' Chao said. ``The reservoirs keep water on land from flowing into the oceans. That actually reduces the global sea level.''

The team then used data on when dams were built, to calculate the year-by-year sea-level gain if all the water retained in dams had instead flowed into the oceans. They found that levels climbed at an ``essentially constant'' rate of 2.46 millimeters a year over the past eight decades, compared with the annual variations actually observed.

``Whether this means that the global changes causing the rise have been in operation in a rather steady fashion, or these changes fortuitously compensated one another over at least the past 80 years, remains to be examined,'' the researchers wrote.

Wilkens ice shelf rapidly melting

Ice shelf succumbs to warming

Carbon News and Info

Climate change news

Global warming science & technology

Wednesday, 26 March 2008

A large chunk of an Antarctic ice shelf has disintegrated over the last month, with scientists saying it's further evidence of the warming effect of human greenhouse gas emissions.

Satellite images show a 160-square mile area of the 5000-sq.m. Wilkins Ice Shelf in the south-west Antarctic below South America has broken up and a much larger area is at risk of falling away, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.

Lead scientist at the Center, Ted Scambos, told Reuters that half the entire shelf could disappear within a few years after being a permanent fixture for hundreds of years. The way it is shattering is consistent with previous ice shelf losses that subsequent studies have put down to global warming, he said.

The dramatic collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in Antarctica over just a month in 2002 helped raise awareness of climate change around the world and the British Antarctic Survey has since said human greenhouse emissions are responsible.

The collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf comes toward the end of the Southern Hemisphere summer and follows record ice-melt of the Arctic ice cap last Northern summer. Scientists have been surprised by the rate of polar thawing and say that global warming is occurring fastest in polar regions.

A separate study has concluded that soot particles falling on polar and mountain ice cover around the world may explain higher rates of ice thaw and overall global warming in recent years than had been predicted. Another study concluded that the high polar melt rates were due to a combination of factors, including natural events, not just the effects of human greenhouse gas emissions.

Reuters 25/3/08, Environment News Service 16/10/06

Related stories:
Arctic thaw natural and manmade
Soot the dark horse in global warming

Images of Wilkins Ice Shelf Breakup

Source: Breakup of the Larsen B Ice Shelf: 15 February 1998 - 18 March 1999

NSIDC has monitored the Wikins ice shelf for signs of retreat for several years. A review of historical data and older satellite images indicates that retreat rate along the northern edge of the Wilkins began to pick up in the mid to late 1980's. In the last few years, several small break-up events have occurred, with long narrow icebergs calving from the shelf front and then becoming entrapped in thick sea ice in front of the shelf.

In March of 1998, AVHRR images recorded what appeared to be a large break-up event along the northwestern front. The shelf appearance changed from solid white to mottled in images of reflectance, from a uniformly cold temperature to a mixture of warm and cold surfaces in thermal imagery. Recently, SAR data gathered in August of 1998 was examined, and it revealed that this event was a major retreat of nearly 1100 km².

Ordinarily, ice shelves calve relativly large bergs from their fronts; i.e., the majority of the area lost to maintain equilibrium is lost in a few major calving events. In the Larsen B, and as vividly illustrated here for the Wilkins, the retreating Peninsula ice shelves are calving thousands of bergs at once, suggesting that they are shattered in place before being dispersed by storms, currents, or wave action. A mechanism in which meltwater enhances ongoing, natural fracturing in the shelf was suggested many years ago by several scientists: current data supports the theory very well.

AVHRR: 28 January 1996

AVHRR: 20 November 1998

The breakups come as temperatures continue to rise and the melt season lengthens on both sides of the Antarctic Peninsula in the 1990's. Melt ponds are visible in other SAR images in the northeastern area of the Wilkins, and other field work by the British Antarctic Survey suggests that the snow on the shelf is saturated with water.

The lower image is an enhanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image acquired by Radarsat and provided by the Alaska Satellite Facility.

SAR Image: 16 August 1998

Also see:

Antarctic Meteorology and Climatology (Cambridge Atmospheric and Space Science Series) by J. C. King See all pages with references to "synoptic environment". Excerpt - on Page 39: " ... and surrounding sea areas. With so few in situ observations, this imagery is the only means of monitoring the broad-scale synoptic environment over the ... " Key Phrases: Weddell Sea, Antarctic Peninsula, Southern Ocean, Bellingshausen Sea, East Antarctica, Northern Hemisphere, katabatic layer, katabatic stream, katabatic jumps, mesocyclone activity, circumpolar trough, katabatic circulation (see more) Key Phrases: Weddell Sea, Antarctic Peninsula, Southern Ocean, Bellingshausen Sea, East Antarctica, Northern Hemisphere, Meteorological Office, New Zealand, Ross Sea, West Antarctica, Faraday Station, South Polar, South Pacific, Terra Nova Bay, South America, Cape Denison, Transantarctic Mountains, Marie Byrd Land, Ronne Ice Shelf, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Tasman Sea, Dronning Maud Land, Month Figure, Rothera Station, Pacific Ocean, katabatic layer, katabatic stream, katabatic jumps, mesocyclone activity, circumpolar trough, katabatic circulation, longitude tessera, strong surface temperature inversion, katabatic drainage flow, katabatic outflow, strong katabatic flow, mesoscale cyclogenesis, barotropic low, frequent cyclogenesis, katabatic surges, katabatic wind regime, persistent katabatic winds, water vapour imagery, synoptic environment, water vapour budget, climatological investigations, cyclogenesis events, unfrozen ocean, mesoscale weather systems, mean virtual temperature (see less)

---

Predictability of Weather and Climate by Tim Palmer See all pages with references to "synoptic environment". Key Phrases: Weather Rev, Met Office, Cambridge University Press, Tim Palmer, Renate Hagedorn, Monte Carlo, Southern Oscillation, North American, Academic Press, Shinfield Park, Technical Memorandum, Martin Ehrendorfer (see more)

US Co claim to develop the Arctic oil and gas

Vast oil potential in Arctic, new data says

Randy Boswell , Canwest News Service

Published: Thursday, March 20, 2008

A U.S.-based company that has controversially laid claim to nearly all of the Arctic Ocean's undersea oil said Thursday that new geological data suggests a "potentially vast" petroleum resource of 400 billion barrels.

That figure is backed by a respected Canadian researcher who recently signed on as the firm's chief scientific adviser.

Las Vegas-based Arctic Oil & Gas has raised eyebrows around the world with its roll-of-the-dice bid to lock up exclusive rights to extract oil and gas from rapidly melting areas of the central Arctic Ocean, currently beyond the territorial control of Canada, Russia and other polar nations

The company, which counts retired B.C. senator Edward Lawson among its directors, has filed a claim with the United Nations to act as the sole "development agent" of Arctic seabed oil and gas.

The firm acknowledges that the Arctic's petroleum deposits are the "common heritage of mankind," but has argued that the polar region requires a private "lead manager" to organize a multinational consortium of oil companies to extract undersea resources responsibly and equitably.

The Canadian government has dismissed the company's "alleged claim" over Arctic oil as having "no force in law," but experts in polar issues have raised alarms about the firm's actions, saying they could disrupt efforts to create an orderly regime for exploiting resources and protecting the Arctic environment under international law rather than a marketplace model.

In its latest statement about the polar seabed's "enormous reserve potential" for petroleum deposits, Arctic Oil & Gas cites recent scientific evidence that huge, floating mats of azolla - a prehistoric fern believed to have covered much of the Arctic Ocean during a planetary hothouse era about 55 million years ago - decomposed soon after the age of the dinosaurs and exist today as "vast hydrocarbon resources" trapped in layers of rock below the polar ice cap.

Bujak, a former geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Canada who now works as a private consultant in Canada and the U.K., is described in the Arctic Oil & Gas statement as confirming the "highly probable validity" of recent research pointing to rock layers "extremely rich" in "hydrocarbon precursors" throughout the Arctic basin.

Bujak, who previously worked for PetroCanada as a petroleum geologist, co-authored a landmark 2006 study in the journal Nature that first detailed the ancient azolla explosion that shows up today in Arctic seabed core samples.

He is also scheduled to describe the potential Arctic oil jackpot as the keynote speaker at a Calgary meeting of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists in May.

"We are extremely fortunate to have brought on board an expert of the calibre of Dr. Bujak," company CEO Peter Sterling says in the statement. "His expertise and his connection to other geoscientists allow us to validate data and confirm its utility in our pursuit of the vast hydrocarbon resources that we intend to successfully locate and extract in the 'Arctic Commons'."

Neither Bujak nor Lawson could be reached for comment on Thursday.

Scientists have predicted that global warming could leave the entire Arctic virtually ice-free for months at a time within 20 years. That prospect has hastened a scramble among nations with a polar coast - namely Canada, Russia, the U.S., Norway and Denmark, which controls Greenland - to try to strengthen their scientific claims under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to extended territorial sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean floor.

A report issued last week by the European Union's top two foreign policy officials also highlighted the looming international struggle over Arctic oil deposits.

Authored by Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Europe's commissioner for external relations, the study pointed to "potential consequences for international stability and European security interests" as the retreat of Arctic ice makes shipping and oil and gas exploration a reality in the region.

Noting the "rapid melting of the polar ice caps," the report noted that "the increased accessibility of the enormous hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic region is changing the geo-strategic dynamics of the region."

The EU report was just the latest in a string of recent warnings about potential clashes over Arctic resources - including a prediction from former U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Scott Borgerson of possible armed conflict between the U.S. and Canada over Arctic sovereignty.

"The United States should not underestimate Canadian passions on this issue," Borgerson, a fellow at the influential Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in an article in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. "Unless Washington leads the way toward a multilateral diplomatic solution, the Arctic could descend into armed conflict."

© Canwest News Service 2008