A new northern security - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 51

Environmental degradation in general, and especially environmental
risks, indicate not only conflict between man and nature, but mostly
between socio-economic and political forces (see Käkönen 1995). In the
North, these include radioactive waste and nuclear accidents (see the
nuclear problem of the Barents Sea area), long-range air and sea pollution
from the South to the North (especially radioactivity, toxics, mercury and
POPs) and pollution from the military (see the DEW Line). Further, land
claims by, and environmental conflicts between, the northern indigenous
peoples and the Arctic states might also continue in the circumpolar
North, even in the context of the Arctic Council, when trying to imple-
ment 'sustainable development' as a pillar of the Council and maintain it
as one of the main goals (see Heininen 2004b:39-41).

2 Utilization and transportation of energy resources: Existing oil and natu-

ral gas drilling and exploration of new fields of hydrocarbons represent
competition and some sort of 'hunt' for new and more natural resources
that indicate the strategic importance of the northernmost regions of the
globe. Following from this, there are plans for transportation of raw mate-
rials and other traffic, e.g. transportation of heavy oil and LNG gas from
the Russian Arctic to Europe and North America, and even to Asia via
the trans-Arctic sea routes. Transportation is becoming a relevant issue
for comprehensive security by affecting environmental security in the sea
and coastal areas, and human security in small communities and among
indigenous peoples.

3 Impacts of climate change: Climate change has multiple impacts, e.g.

melting of sea ice and glaciers and rising sea levels. By creating inse-
curity in northern regions and communities, especially in coastal areas,
threatening towns and settlements and other man-made infrastructure
as well as traditional livelihoods based on hunting and fishing, climate
change has a relevant security dimension, too. Dealing with the above-
mentioned fourth stage of northern security, the dramatic changes in the
sea ice conditions of the Arctic Ocean and other northern seas in the near
future might be particularly important and challenging. Current and rap-
idly increased thinning of the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean and many of the
glaciers in Greenland, which are much influenced by climate change, is
estimated to continue (ACIA 2004), and even melt faster than previously
expected. This will increase the ice-free areas of the Arctic, which, cor-
respondingly, creates new possibilities to increase both the utilization of
natural resources and the transportation of them, e.g. by oil tankers in the
trans-Arctic sea routes through the Arctic Ocean. Correspondingly, this
will all easily increase other activities and other traffic like, for example,
tourism by passenger yachts, and military patrolling and manoeuvres.

Climate change means new challenges and probable dramatic changes
in the northernmost regions of the globe, and it brings uncertainty that
is keenly related to climate change there. For example, one impact of