The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. From the week where Donald Trump became president we look at his drilling ambitions in Alaska, continued protests in Greenland, and a year dedicated to glaciers.
The Polar Retrospective is a collaborative effort by the Polar Journal team. Each writer chooses a topic they found interesting and important in the past week. The intitials at the end of each section indicate the author. We hope you enjoy it.
«Drill, baby drill»? Oil companies show little interest in Alaska
Some things are as bad as they seem — or worse, and others are not. When it comes to oil drilling in Alaska, the latter could be the case. According to Reuters, US oil and gas companies are largely showing little interest in the “drill, baby drill” mantra of former and new President Donald Trump, who opened up large areas of Alaska for development by executive order.
High financial risks, long project timelines and potential for future governments to reverse the policy make such projects unattractive.
Even the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which holds an estimated 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil, has attracted little interest. An auction of production licenses in 2022 did not attract any bids, underlining the industry’s reluctance to invest in such remote and logistically difficult areas.
In addition, companies are increasingly prioritizing shareholder profits over expanding operations and focusing on more accessible regions such as Texas and New Mexico, where US oil production has already reached record highs.
Nevertheless, the companies are pleased with the easing and hope for more. Dustin Meyers, Senior Vice President of Policy at the American Petroleum Institute, said: “The administration deserves a lot of credit […].”
So it remains to be seen whether Trump’s desire for more Arctic oil and gas will be fulfilled or whether the companies will stick to their cautious strategy and thus unintentionally protect Alaska’s sensitive ecosystems and wildlife from further development. J.H.
Greenlandic protests against forced child removals continue
Greenland has had the world’s attention in recent weeks. Very little of that attention, however, has gone to the political case that currently seems most important to its people: the forced removal of their children by Danish authorities.
Polar Journal AG covered the case in December, and since then it has continued to unfold in Greenlandic news and Facebook feeds.
Last week protesters were on the streets in Greenland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Sapmi (home of the Sami people) in Finland. “I shouldn’t be protesting against stealing children,” read one sign in Copenhagen according to KNR.
The protesters believe that Danish authorities do not sufficiently take Greenlandic cultural differences into account in cases involving child protective services. So-called ‘parent competency tests’ have been under particular criticism.
Following the protests, the Danish government announced that 480 individual cases will be reevaluated, revaluations that will likely lead to ‘many’ children coming home, according to a lawyer Sermitsiaq spoke to.
A year dedicated to the world’s glaciers
“This international year must be a wake-up call for the world,” said the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Celeste Saulo, at the official launch of the International Year of Glacier Preservation at the WMO’s headquarters in Geneva on last Tuesday. The same organisation declared that 2024 was the warmest year on record. The international initiative is backed by 75 international organisations and 35 countries.
The objectives of this special year are :
- The development of a global glacier monitoring system.
- The development of a warning system for risks linked to the retreat of ice.
- Promoting the sustainable use of fresh water.
- Preserving the cultural and traditional heritage of societies around the cryosphere.
- Involving young people in glacier preservation and climate action.
“If we lose the Antarctic ice, we will have a 67-metre rise in sea levels, which will affect many countries,” said the French spokesman. “We need the support of countries to maximise our success.”
The Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences will be presented at one ocean summit in Nice this year, he tell. Rising sea levels on the one hand, and dwindling freshwater supplies for 2 billion people on the other, are at stake. Bahodur Sheralizoda, Chairman of Tajikistan’s Environmental Protection Committee, has announced the opening of an international conference on glaciers in Dushanbe in May.
“Ice is also a kind of frozen library,” said glaciologist Jérôme Chappellaz, from the Ice Memory project, stressing the importance of passing on the ice to future generations. “It memorises global and locals variations in CO2, chemical compounds and bacteria from the atmosphere.” C.L.
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