Norway, Russia Dispute Arctic Shipping Route's Development. Norway and Russia are at odds over a shipping route across the Arctic which is becoming more accessible as climate change reduces sea ice, Russian media have reported. Russia is prioritizing the $11 billion development of the so-called Northern Sea Route (NSR), which requires new ports and heavy icebreakers to move goods. Running from the city of Murmansk near Russia's border with Norway to the Bering Strait near Alaska, the NSR is significantly shorter than the Suez Canal and could cut sea transport times from Asia to Europe. The Moscow Times

 

Macron Asks Shippers to Shun Arctic Route to Protect Environment. French President Emmanuel Macron is calling on container lines to avoid using a new Arctic shipping route to protect the environment. Speaking at the start of the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz in southwest France on Saturday, Macron said France's biggest shipping line, CMA CGM, has committed not to use the so-called Northern Sea Route being promoted by Russia as a faster way to ship cargo between Asia and Europe. Bloomberg

 

How Arctic Fires Are Impacting Earth's Atmosphere. More than two million acres of forest have burned in Alaska this year. NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with climate change researcher Nancy Fresco about the impact these fires have on the Earth's atmosphere.Wildfires are sweeping across the top of the planet. This summer alone, hundreds of wildfires have burned millions of acres of forest in Alaska, northern Canada and Siberia. Scientists at the University of Alaska's International Arctic Research Center see a link to climate change. As temperatures rise, they say fires are getting bigger, hotter and more frequent. Here to talk about all of this is Nancy Fresco. She is a climate scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. National Public Radio

 

In the Arctic, Scientists and First Nations Scramble to Save Artifacts Freed From Ice and Threatened by Climate Change. A patch of ice on a mountainside quietly melts away. Out of the deep freeze emerges a fully intact wooden dart. The dart, and the ice it was preserved in, are thousands of years old. "When something comes out of the ice, maybe we only have weeks to find it in perfect condition," says Christian Thomas, an archaeologist in the Yukon who spends part of his summer combing the mountains, near patches of melting ice. The Globe and Mail

Climate Change Makes Arctic Strategic Economic Hotspot. From a helicopter, Greenland's brilliant white ice and dark mountains make the desolation seem to go on forever. And the few people who live here - its whole population wouldn't fill a football stadium - are poor, with a high rate of substance abuse and suicide. One scientist called it the "end of the planet." When U.S. President Donald Trump floated the idea of buying Greenland, it was met with derision, seen as an awkward and inappropriate approach of an erstwhile ally. Voice of America