The circumpolar world in 2001

As fears grow over the onset of global warming, Arctic residents see the signing of international treaties such as the Kyoto protocol and an international agreement controlling the use of Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs.

Meanwhile, a major circumpolar link is fractured as a 20-year-old scheduled airline service between Canada and Greenland dies.

January

* Norway plans to lift its ban on whale exports. Norwegians have been hunting whales since 1993, despite an international moratorium on the hunt. Norway’s whale products have until now been sold only within the country. But with the lifting of the ban, whale meat and blubber could end up being sold abroad, possibly to Japan, a heavy whale-consuming nation.
* Temperatures plummet in Russia’s central and far eastern regions. In the Kemerova district, a 30-year record is broken when the thermometer shows -57 C.
* The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects even more intense climate changes during the next century. The report’s draft summary says the Earth’s average temperature will rise 1.4 to 5.8 C by 2100, and sea levels are likely to jump by nearly a metre.

February

* Norway’s military wants to use a large area of Arctic Norway for a bombing test ground for Norwegian and NATO armed forces. The area covers about 200 square kilometres in Halkvarre, a traditional Sami reindeer herding ground in the heart of the Sami homeland.
* Sami go to court to stop the expropriation, saying it violates their rights as an ethnic minority.
* Correspondence between Jonathan Motzfeldt, premier of Greenland’s home rule government, and the newly elected U.S. president, George W. Bush, spark a diplomatic war of words between Denmark and Greenland over the Thule military base.
* Another U.N.-commissioned report comes up with a bad news scenario. It says an increase in natural disasters due to global warming will cost $300 billion a year in losses by 2050.
* A new $8-million cultural and conference centre is in the works for Nunavik. If all goes according to plan, the facility will be ready in time for the Inuit Circumpolar Conference bash, to be held in Kuujjuaq in summer 2002.

April/May

* Hans Pavia Rosing, from Greenland’s home rule government, and Aqqaluk Lynge, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, take a journey by dog team from Qaanaaq to Thule, the site of a huge U.S. military base. It is a symbolic trek to highlight the continuing distress of Thule’s former residents over loss of their traditional land as well as the home rule government’s unhappiness with its lack of power over foreign affairs and security.
* U.S. president George W. Bush announces he will sign and ask the Senate to ratify an international treaty that bans or severely restricts toxic chemicals or “POPs.” Canada has already signaled its intent to sign the treaty which will take effect when it is ratified by 50 nations.

June/July

* The Arctic Council meets for two days in Rovaniemi, Finland. The council was set up in 1996 to use co-operation as a way to better protect the circumpolar environment and work on sustainable development issues. Its eight member nations include Canada, the United States, the Russian Federation and the Nordic countries. Indigenous peoples’ organizations also participate in the council’s work. But they’re still trying to figure out how to tackle environmental and social issues at the same time.
* At the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, the University of the Arctic holds its official launch, showing off its plans for the future and introducing a high-powered group of governors and advisors.
* The Arctic’s wildlife and indigenous peoples are at risk from new infrastructures, warn scientists from the United Nations Environment Program or UNEP. The UNEP report, which is released in Rovaniemi, says within 50 years most of the Arctic will be affected by human activities that rely on transportation.
* The second Congress of the World Reindeer Herders’ Association is held in Inari, Finland, and attracts herders from across the circumpolar region.

August

* In Anadyr, ICC president Aqqaluk Lynge signs an agreement with Roman Abramovich, the governor of Chukotka to pave the way for more co-operation between indigenous peoples in Chukotka and Inuit from Canada, Greenland and Alaska. It will also strengthen the Chukotka branch of ICC.

September

* Travellers between Canada and Greenland see trouble ahead due to the cancellation of scheduled airline services between Iqaluit and Kangerlussuaq by First Air and Greenlandair. The last scheduled flight between the two countries is set to take off on Oct. 30. After that date, anyone travelling between Canada and Greenland will have to make a big detour through Copenhagen, Denmark or charter an aircraft to cross the Davis Strait.
* Canadian directors of the ICC get a preview of next summer’s get-together in Kuujjuaq at their annual general meeting in Nain, Labrador. The ICC Kuujjuaq meeting is scheduled for August 10 to 17.

October

* The mining giant Inco Ltd. submits a new work plan to the Government of Newfoundland to develop the Voisey’s Bay nickel and copper deposit in northern Labrador. After a breakdown in negotiations, the two parties are said to be closer than ever at striking a deal. A mine at Voisey’s Bay would supply hundreds of jobs and open up economic opportunities for Labrador Inuit. Over its 30-year life span, this mine would be worth billions of dollars to the economy.
* A 20-year-old link between Canada and Greenland is broken when a First Air jet flying from Kangerlussuaq to Iqaluit lands on the runway for the last time at 4:47 p.m. on Oct. 30. There are no more scheduled flights between the two Arctic communities.
* Progress toward making a deal intended to help slow down global warming comes in the closing moments of a two-week conference in Morocco. That’s when negotiators from 165 countries finally agree on rules for implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. This agreement calls on about 40 industrialized nations to limit carbon emissions – those so-called greenhouse gases which are responsible for global warming – or cut them back to 1990 levels. U.S. president Bush wants voluntary measures and won’t support the deal.
* No more mineral exploration or mining until our land claims are settled, say Sami leaders in Norway. A British mining company, Tertiary Minerals, has reported “significant finds” of gold, platinum and palladium in northern Norway’s Finnmark plateau. Sami-owned reindeer traditionally graze on this plateau’s highlands.

November

* The Aboriginal Pipeline Group signs a partnership deal with oil and gas producers that gives native groups a one-third equity in a pipeline that would run between the Mackenzie Delta and Alberta. The proposed 1,350 kilometre pipeline would carry one billion cubic feet of natural gas a day to the South. The Aboriginal Pipeline Group, headed by former NWT premier, Nellie Cournoyea, wants $1 billion in federal loan guarantees to pay for its share of the project.
* Greenlanders elect two people to represent Greenland in the Danish parliament in Copenhagen. Voters choose Kuupik Kleist, a former vice-president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and minister in the Home Rule government, and Lars Emil Johansen, a former Greenlandic premier. Kleist, running for the left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit Party, receives 6,369 votes, about 31 per cent of the total. This is the first time that Inuit Ataqatigiit Party has won a seat in the Danish parliament. Johansen, from the Siumut Party, receives 5,093 votes, or 26.2 per cent of the vote. Both candidates say they would seek more independence for Greenland and a review of the U.S.-Denmark defence agreement on the Thule Air Base.
* Meanwhile, voters in Denmark move very heavily toward the right. The ruling Social Democratic party suffers a massive decline in support, while right-wing parties do much better than predicted.

December

* The Winnipeg-based Great Canadian Travel Company will offer flights this summer to Sisimiut, Greenland, from Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal and Iqaluit, in conjunction with a Sisimiut cruise operator, Arctic Umiaq Line. The flights are scheduled to run from mid-June and last until the end of August.
* The Greenland government finds itself in disarray when the coalition that holds its 27-seat local parliament together crumbles in November. A majority of government members support a motion that would see their salaries double. The new package would include retirement benefits, annual free travel for families and access to better housing in Nuuk, where there is a 13-year waiting list for housing. This move to boost salaries and benefits causes the left-wing Inuit Ataqatigiit Party to bolt from the coalition. Young Greenlanders stage a protest and ask for a new election.
* The “Light of Peace” arrives in Greenland on Dec. 7 after travelling more than 7,000 kilometres from Bethlehem. The Light of Peace reflects a tradition similar to the Olympic flame that carries the spirit of the Olympic Games wherever it goes.
* U.S. President George W. Bush says the U.S. will pull out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. The ABM Treaty sets limits on the testing and use of anti-ballistic missiles. ICC president Aqqaluk Lynge says the U.S. decision to abandon this treaty is bad news for Inuit, and for world peace. Bush says the U.S. will press ahead with its plans to deploy a missile defense shield. The NMD system would include upgrades to American air force bases around the North, such as the Thule base, located in northern Greenland, and sites in Alaska. Lynge has previously called for more Inuit involvement in any discussions leading to upgrades of military bases in Inuit homelands.