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 on Jul 16, 2008 - View this thread

The Song of the Earth -- New Yorker music critic Alex Ross writes on composer John Luther Adams, who has created an installation work at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, Alaska in which geologic, astronomical, and meteorologic data are converted, in real time, into "a shimmering synthesized carillon." For a tiny hint of the experience, you can watch this Youtube video Hear more about the work from Living on Earth.
posted on May 6, 2008 - View this thread

"We badly underestimated the degree of damages and the risks of climate change," said Lord Stern in a speech in London yesterday. "All of the links in the chain are on average worse than we thought (pdf) a couple of years ago."
posted on Apr 18, 2008 - View this thread

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 on Feb 22, 2008 - View this thread

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 on Nov 25, 2007 - View this thread

Video (8MB, MPEG) of arctic sea ice extent, recorded from January to September 2007. [other formats] This summer a dramatic decrease compared to previous years in the extent of the north pole ice cap was observed. Scientists are freaked out [bugmenot]. This summer, the Northwest Passage was open for a few weeks, allowing three ships to traverse it.
posted on Oct 12, 2007 - View this thread

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 on Oct 8, 2007 - View this thread

Abandoned plane wrecks of the north. The Arctic North is a cruel environment for men and machine; for planes it is no different. The weather creates all sorts of hazards, the terrain offers its own variety of opportunities for disaster. (Warning: extreme comic sans.)
posted on Sep 13, 2007 - View this thread

"In an average August between 1979 and 2000, the Arctic Ocean was covered with about 3 million square miles of sea ice, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. By Labor Day this year, the total had shrunk to a little more than half that, shattering the previous record low set in 2005."
posted on Sep 7, 2007 - View this thread

Man buys Allsop, relists it as Allsopp - proving that on eBay, presentation is everything. via b3ta
posted on Aug 31, 2007 - View this thread

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 on Aug 27, 2007 - View this thread

Paul Nicklen's Northern Wildlife Photography.
posted on Jun 12, 2007 - View this thread

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 on Feb 2, 2007 - View this thread

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 on Oct 23, 2006 - View this thread

The Real North Pole Expedition is a journey to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, to the actual North Pole, using research submarines, tentatively scheduled for the summer of 2008. Spots are still available. And if that doesn’t interest you, they have other expeditions that might.
posted on Oct 21, 2006 - View this thread

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 on Jun 19, 2006 - View this thread

With global warming trends melting permafrost throughout the arctic circle, we may be seeing more and more of this phenomenon: Drunken Forests. An artist responds.
posted on Mar 15, 2006 - View this thread

A restaurant. A cathedral. A research center. Welcome to the Canadian territory of Nunavut, "where high winds, freezing temperatures, and the difficulty of transporting raw materials pose some interesting architectural constraints."
posted on Mar 14, 2006 - View this thread

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 on Oct 10, 2005 - View this thread

"I bet you look good on the dancefloor" is the new single by a hitherto unknown Sheffield band called the Arctic Monkeys. [warning direct QT link] Media hype has meant demand for their London gig is so high they have moved from playing a pub to playing the London Astoria. Their observations on northern culture have drawn comparisons with Oasis and Kaiser Chiefs - or will they go the way of other bands picked up then dumped by the media? (anyone remember Gay Dad?) Whether or not they last, you will probably be hearing them quite a lot in the next few months.
posted on Oct 1, 2005 - View this thread

Left Behind: Bush's Holy War on Nature. Chip Ward enumerates the bizarro-world logic and Orwellian language of current American environmental policy. Even as Katrina's aftermath is focusing attention on links between global warming and more severe hurricanes, and studies of arctic sea-ice suggest that we may be 'past the point of no return' of climate change, the Department of "Justice" seems intent on blaming the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups. This War on Terra may not end in our lifetimes (despite the number of lives it will end...)
posted on Sep 18, 2005 - View this thread

Images from the first International Polar Year (paradoxically 1881 to 1884).
Some are lovely, some bleak, some surreal.
posted on May 14, 2005 - View this thread

Sometimes it's hard for me to conceive that other contemporaneous people on this planet lead lives so dramatically different from my own. What if this or this or this constituted your daily commute? Or if this or this were among the challenges you faced in your daily job? The native people and arctic wildlife galleries offer a glimpse of the past preserved. More wonders at Bryan & Cherry Alexander Photography.
posted on Mar 5, 2005 - View this thread

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 on Feb 19, 2005 - View this thread

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 on Dec 28, 2004 - View this thread

Photographs of Nunavut, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories: the three northern territories of Canada which are possibly one step closer to becoming the 11th, 12th and 13th provinces and further establishing "Canadian sovereignty" of the Arctic. (Perhaps as a rebuke to the Denmark's plans to claim the North Pole?) [more au verso]
posted on Nov 23, 2004 - View this thread

The Arctic is melting, according to the Arctic Council report, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, which says the Arctic has lost 386,100 square miles of sea ice in the past 30 years, an area bigger than Texas and Arizona combined. A Pew Center report, Observed Impacts of Global Climate Change in the U.S., describes how global warming is disrupting animals, plants and insects. Perhaps it's all an E.U. conspiracy. WorldChanging has a world press roundup.
posted on Nov 10, 2004 - View this thread

Melting into the ocean. In the Alaskan Arctic, villages like Shishmaref have a front row view of global warming.
posted on Sep 30, 2004 - View this thread

The Expedition (real audio link). Dylan Moran's 15 minute monologue about an expedition to the Arctic with his brother-in-law is the first in a series of 4 by top UK comics.
posted on Jul 14, 2004 - View this thread

What do you do after you climb Mt. Everest? Climb it again from the other side, of course. The first woman to accomplish that feat. And then what? Cathy O’Dowd calls it the E to E Challenge. Everest to Everyday.

So let’s round up a couple of friends, hitch up the dogs and mush from Styggedalen to Nordkapp across 650 km of Arctic wilderness to support the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. And why not blog it daily with a website run from the back of a sled? Today, the sled fell in a river. Sure makes my life seem dull.
posted on Apr 16, 2004 - View this thread

An Educational Exploration of Nunavut. "Setting out to document arctic climate change we will dogsled the territory of Nunavut, meeting Inuit Elders and students, to explore traditional ecological knowledge in the remote communities visited along the trail while gathering scientific data daily from the field for NASA and Environment Canada." - a cool expedition to bring some attention to what many are describing as the greatest threat to mankind today.
posted on Nov 25, 2003 - View this thread

Oil drilling in the Lofoten Islands? Norway's gorgeous Lofoten Islands were the subject of a great post by madamjujujive last year. Now the World Wide Fund for Nature is sounding the alarm over the prospect of oil drilling there. A decision from the Norwegian government is expected next month.
posted on Nov 23, 2003 - View this thread

another canary tips over
as the administration (more specifically the white house council on environmental quality and its head james l. connaughton) continue to ignore and bury the warnings of the effects global warming from their own scientists.
posted on Sep 23, 2003 - View this thread

In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow, The fate of Franklin no man may know, The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell, Lord Franklin with his sailors do dwell...an Arctic mystery, involving the meeting of two cultures, cannabalism and the occult (see under "Still more mysteries", the heading "Why wasn't the accurate information (etc.)")
posted on Aug 28, 2003 - View this thread

North: An Intuitive Arctic Exploration. 'Small stories', connected in some way with the Arctic region. Start exploring.
posted on Apr 17, 2003 - View this thread

Providing connectivity to the Saami nomadic community (pdf). The Saami Network Connectivity Project wants to provide wireless internet access for the nomadic Saami reindeer herders of Lapland (Sapmi.) The goal is to provide those Saami who live as herders with email, cached web access, remote schooling for children, and reindeer herd tracking telemetry.
posted on Mar 9, 2003 - View this thread

The Arctic Studies Center at the Smithsonian has several wonderful online exhibitions. I was especially fascinated by Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People. The Ainu are the indigenous people of Hokkaido, Japan, and may be closely related to the first Americans as well (previously discussed here.) There's also a collection of Ainu artifacts and photographs at the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. [ASC links via plep (again.)]
posted on Mar 5, 2003 - View this thread

The warm water ocean currents of the Gulf Stream are why London rarely gets snow yet Boston is fridged despite London being as far north as Montreal, Canada. New weather modeling research from Columbia University may turn this long-held belief on its head; London can thank the Rocky Mountains for its mild winters. Good news for the rest of Europe too in case the Gulf Stream stops due to Arctic melting.
posted on Jan 30, 2003 - View this thread

I have dreamed of Erebus. mcwetboy took you to the Arctic today. Now read one man's fascinating diary of his trip to Antarctica in 2001, as well as this year's coming journey to the bottom of the world. Lots of words here, and some cool pictures. Not to mention margaritas and guacamole.
posted on Nov 5, 2002 - View this thread

Lofoten Photogalerie - armchair travel through this breathtaking gallery of photos from Norwegian Islands located within the Arctic Circle. The region offers awesome vistas in every season. Links courtesy of Mefioso Kogiak who has an interesting story on his site about how he found this gem.
posted on Oct 29, 2002 - View this thread

The demise of the honey bucket. Many of us take running water and sewage services for granted. The Alaska Dept of Environmental Conservation is slowly converting rural Eskimo villages from a "fill and haul a bucket" sewage/water system to modern services. A fascinating look into the logistics required to bring these services into remote Artic villages.
posted on Sep 23, 2002 - View this thread

Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner is a spectacular Canadian film offering a rare glimpse into a rich aboriginal culture. It is written and produced by an independent Inuit film company and cast entirely with native actors from Igloolik, a settlement of about 1200 people in the Baffin region where it was filmed. Visually stunning, the story is based on local legend, with elements of stark realism, shamanism, suspense, humor and love. It's no surprise that it's raking in awards. I was spellbound. Can anyone recommend any other films by and about native cultures?
posted on Sep 22, 2002 - View this thread

Wild goose chase - "British wildlife experts are mourning the loss of Kerry the goose after tracking him by satellite all the way from Ireland to an Eskimo's kitchen in Arctic Canada." No, seriously.
posted on Aug 27, 2002 - View this thread

Japan leads move to cut whaling by Artic natives [nytimes, reg. req.]. After being defeated in recent I.W.C. votes Japan wins one.
posted on May 25, 2002 - View this thread

It's not often a weblog has you on the edge of your seat , but Dave Mill's email-posted accounts of his solo attempt to reach the true North Pole are gripping. Stalked by a Polar bear, 6 days to build a runway for his rescue plane before the full moon rips the floes to shreds - this one has it all. I guess he is a live ass.
posted on May 20, 2002 - View this thread

Senate blocks attempt to open Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The vote was, it sounds, an attempt to end a democrat-led filibuster that has kept the proposed energy bill on the Senate floor for five weeks.
posted on Apr 19, 2002 - View this thread

Svalbard, the Arctic pearl. It appears Svalbard has a tourism industry, a pretty good FAQ, some cold weather, but not that cold, since the Gulf Stream terminates there(scroll down to map). The Polar bears are being studied for PCB accumulation, which strikes me as interesting, considering the location of Svalbard. Granted, it's not out of the way, like Franz Josef Land, but then they don't have Restaurant Nansen, do they?
posted on Jan 29, 2002 - View this thread

"The President" Urges You to Speak Out Against Drilling in the Arctic Refuge Martin Sheen takes advantage of his bully pulpit. "I'm not a president, but I play one on TV."
posted on Jan 16, 2002 - View this thread

Biodiversity maps of Arctic Refuge pulled from Net, gov't scientist fired. To be expected, with the big to-do over Arctic drilling in Washington, but creepy nonetheless. A map of "caribou calving areas" is too hot for comfort? There were errors of course, but to wipe the site and fire the guy? Also a good argument for archiving. (from Cryptome)
posted on Mar 19, 2001 - View this thread

Artic Ice Cap is now perfect for slushballs and snowmen
Once the North Pole was covered in that kind of hard, dry, icy snow that you couldn't pack. Now sping is here! Robin red-breast and the Easter Bunny can't be far behind. Let's pelt each other with snowballs and build a fort before it all melts away, and the long summer of human-made Armageddon melts us all. What a world, what a world. Not that we haven't seen it coming.
posted on Aug 19, 2000 - View this thread