Next stop nowhere.

June 26, 2014 7:22 PM

A slide show of polar Svalbard (aka Spitzbergen).
The major settlement Longyearbyen (wiki) at 78 degrees North is the most northernmost settlement of any kind with greater than 1,000 permanent residents.
The UN is calling on Norway to close the coal mines on Svalbard. (See History) which is now better know for it's Global Seed Vault.
(previous).
posted by adamvasco (7 comments total)

The first link has autoplaying music fyi
posted by Small Dollar at 7:36 PM on June 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Closing the coal mines would require renegotiating the Svalbard Treaty .
posted by humanfont at 7:57 PM on June 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

How do the armored bears feel about this?
posted by nonasuch at 10:20 PM on June 26, 2014 [5 favorites]

Meetup?
posted by schmod at 5:58 AM on June 27, 2014

Here is a collection of webcams on Spitsbergen. There's lots of interesting stuff on the rest of the website, too.

Svalbard has been my current obsession for the last couple of years; I'm writing (sooooo slowly) a novel set there. I get super excited every time it's mentioned on MetaFilter!
posted by daisyk at 11:01 AM on June 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

For some reason, I have become fascinated lately with Longyearbyen. Thanks for this post!
posted by 4ster at 5:31 PM on June 27, 2014

Is coal mining in such a remote location profitable?
posted by Chrysostom at 10:55 AM on June 30, 2014