The Midnight Sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months near the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, where the sun remains visible at the local midnight. This short, time lapse film was shot in June 2011 over 17 days and incorporates 38,000 images. The photographer/videographer traveled over 2,900 miles throughout Iceland.
Midnight Sun (SL-vimeo, via) [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Oct 18, 2011 -
24 comments
High Arctic Relocation. In the 1950s several Inuit families were relocated from the relatively balmy
Inukjuak, in northern Quebec, to settlements in what are now called Grise Fiord and Resolute in the far north of Canada with few resources to survive the extremely harsh climate.
[more inside]
posted by dabug
on Sep 9, 2011 -
24 comments
"Snowball Cam has no visible moving parts but [is] able to roll across most terrains, even up hill." A
new generation of spycams - very mobile spycams - have been prowling the northern arctic islands of Norway for an
upcoming BBC TV program on polar bears. Bilzzard Cam has two electric motors that propel it across the snow - on skis - at speeds up to 40 mph. When threatened by the bears, it releases the onboard decoy device - the Snowball Cam - seen in action
here.
posted by woodblock100
on Dec 23, 2010 -
34 comments
For hundreds of years, mariners have dreamed of an Arctic shortcut that would allow them to speed trade between Asia and the West. Two German ships are poised to complete that transit for the first time, aided by the retreat of Arctic ice that scientists have linked to global warming.
Arctic Shortcut Beckons Shippers as Ice Thaws.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Sep 11, 2009 -
24 comments
"I filled my water bottles , fuel bottle and ate some snacks. I reset my altimeter to 1300ft and started shortly past 2pm. The first sign stated 'Eagle Plains 363, Inuvik 735'. The distances were measured in kilometers with green km posts every 2km along the road. A few kilometers down the road, I crossed an old fire burn area with dead trees still standing. The sun was shining and I was eager to get started on the road. The gravel was occasionally soft as the road slowly climbed along the valley."
An enterprising man relates his journey up the
Dempster Highway on bicycle.
[more inside]
posted by Avenger
on Jun 19, 2009 -
14 comments
In 2009,
a remarkably gifted politician, confronting a remarkably difficult set of challenges, will
have to learn to say "No we can't",
Guantánamo will prove a moral minefield,
economic recovery will be invisible to the naked eye,
governments must prepare for the day they stop financial guarantees,
we will judge our commitment to sustainability,
scientists should research the causes of religion,
we will all be potential online paparazzi,
English will have more words than any other language (but it's meaningless),
Afghanistan will see a surge of Western (read: American) troops,
Iran will continue its nuclear quest while
diplomacy lies in shambles,
the sea floor is the new frontier,
we should rethink aging,
(non-)voters will continue to thwart the European project --
but cheap travel will continue to buoy it --
though it has some unfinished business to attend to, and
a Nordic defence bond will blossom.
The Economist: The World in 2009.
[more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Nov 27, 2008 -
31 comments
Dispatches from Polar Scientists -- A compilation of blogs "in celebration of the International Polar Year (2007-08), [giving] you an up-close-and-personal look at research in extreme environments through the thoughts and experiences of the scientists working there. We’ll post their photos, videos, and blogs on this site."
posted by fourcheesemac
on Jul 16, 2008 -
10 comments
New Jersey is drowning , or rather it would if the the future as predicted by David Spratty & Philip Sutton in
climate code red comes true. Philip Sutton said in
an interview that "within five years the Arctic ice in the summertime will be all gone.". With all the ice melting, the waterlevels rise - will your house be under water?
posted by dabitch
on Feb 22, 2008 -
66 comments
The Last Iceberg suffers, as many photography sites do, from a mildly irritating flash interface; but if you can get over that fact, you'll see some genuinely amazing polar photography of isolated icebergs & ice shelves.
posted by jonson
on Nov 25, 2007 -
17 comments
In 1897, pioneering Swedish balloonist Salomon August Andrée and two companions took off for the north pole in a hot air balloon. In 1930 their bodies were found, along with records of their expedition.
This archive of newspaper articles tells their story.
(So does Wikipedia, of course.) Many of the photos they took are
here, along with a lot of text in Polish that I can't read any more than most of you can, so don't come complaining to me.
posted by dersins
on Oct 8, 2007 -
12 comments
Dead Road - Museum of Communism in the Open. "It was one of the most ambitious projects of the Stalin era, known as the
'railway of bones'. At least 10 people a day died during the four years of its construction [actually 1947-1953], but unlike most of Uncle Joe's grand designs it was never completed and now sits unfinished in the tundra, an icy road to nowhere." The
transpolar railway was built by labour camps
^ 501 and 503 and construction was stopped after the amnesty following Stalin's death in 1953; 800km, about half, was built. Some sections are currently in operation, but much is abandoned:
depot and locomotives in Dolgoe,
Dolgoe itself,
labour camps,
more spectacular decay. (Previously:
Norilsk, which was supposed to see an extension of the line.)
posted by parudox
on Aug 27, 2007 -
13 comments
Tales from the DEW Line. In the mid-50's, the Distant Early Warning, or
DEW Line, a series of radar stations along the 69th paralell, began scanning the arctic skies for signs of soviet bombers. Though cut off from direct contact with civilization, and often hoping that nothing would happen, staffers of these remote outposts still found plenty worth writing about or photographing (
1,
2,
3).
posted by Durhey
on Feb 2, 2007 -
36 comments
During the 19th century, thousands of men took to the seas to hunt for whales. The indigenous peoples of the Arctic practiced whaling for several millennia before that. Technological change and changes in mores have reduced the whaling industry to a heavily regulated shadow of what it used to be. But it hasn’t disappeared altogether. Even now, at the dawn of the 21st century, ships prowl the seas in search of a spout or a gigantic fin. A few months ago,
Outside magazine published an account of a whale hunt aboard the Norwegian ship Sofie.
posted by jason's_planet
on Oct 23, 2006 -
21 comments
The last hope of life on earth: Svalbard. Most of humanity
depends on just 12 plant species, down from over 7,000 historically. Fortunately, seeds can be viable for
up to thousands of years, and seed banks have already preserved many species, including the
entire plant population of Antarctica. But with
seed banks being destroyed as the result of wars and accident, Norway has
has begun work on an underground facility, protected by polar bears, in the
Arctic permafrost that is designed to hold millions of seeds, as
"final safety net" for humanity.
posted by blahblahblah
on Jun 19, 2006 -
36 comments
Global warming -- the upside: the entrepreneurs poised to make millions from new ports and shipping lanes in the formerly ice-bound Arctic circle. A fascinating New York Times article on the international land-grab following the news (reported
here, discussed
here, whitewashed
here,
et. al.) that the polar ice caps and Siberian permafrost are melting. Goodbye Gulf Stream, hello Club Med Santa-style -- first SUV to the North Pole wins!
posted by digaman
on Oct 10, 2005 -
53 comments
Bancroft and Arnesen are in Russia ready to start their newest adventure:
starting Monday, as polar explorers in their own right, they'll try to become the first women in history to ski across the top of the world - two women pulling two sleds across 1,000 miles of frozen ocean. No dogs, no men and one .44 Magnum revolver.
They may not be taking men, but they are taking a laptop so you can
track their progress.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy
on Feb 19, 2005 -
13 comments
Arctic Blue Books Online - 'a searchable, World-Wide Web version of Andrew Taylor's unique index to the 19th Century British Parliamentary Papers concerned with the Canadian Arctic. '
posted by plep
on Dec 28, 2004 -
2 comments
