Rushing for the Arctic's Riches. [Opinion] While many existing oil and gas reserves in other parts of the world are facing steep decline, the Arctic is thought to possess vast untapped reservoirs. Approximately 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil deposits and 30 percent of its natural gas reserves are above the Arctic Circle, according to the United States Geological Survey. Eager to tap into this largess, Russia and its Arctic neighbors - Canada, Norway, the United States, Iceland and Denmark (by virtue of its authority over Greenland) - have encouraged energy companies to drill in the region. New York Times

Greenland, Faroes Pledge Closer Partnership. Denmark's two self-governing territories wrapped up two days of meetings in Torshavn today with an agreement to work closer together on common issues. Faroese premier Kaj Leo Johannesen, marking his first official meeting with Aleqa Hammond after she was elected as that country's leader on March 12 of this year, said he hoped the meeting marked the start of a formalised partnership. Arctic Journal

Grand Claims of the Arctic Kind. The recent flourish of activity ahead of today's deadline to file claims for Arctic Ocean territory has been touted by the states involved as diplomacy at its best. Experts, however, say the race to secure offshore jurisdictional claims over the Arctic seafloor may have been an exercise in futility. Alleged serious disputes regarding the 'shared' territory between the six nations bordering the Arctic Ocean (Denmark, Canada, Russia, Norway, the US and Iceland) "do not make sense" according to Timo Koivurova, director of the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law at Finland's University of Lapland. Arctic Journal

US Navy Predicts Summer Ice Free Arctic by 2016. An ongoing US Department of Energy-backed research project led by a US Navy scientist predicts that the Arctic could lose its summer sea ice cover as early as 2016 - 84 years ahead of conventional model projections. The project, based out of the US Naval Postgraduate School's Department of Oceanography, uses complex modelling techniques that make its projections more accurate than others. The Guardian

Study: Permafrost Along Alaska Highway Gradually Disappearing. Permafrost along the Canadian portion of the fabled Alaska Highway is disappearing, and coverage is steadily moving north, a newly published research paper reports. Testing in 1964 found permafrost at 57 percent of sites examined along an 825-mile stretch of highway running from Fort St. John, B.C., to Whitehorse, Yukon. But in 2007 and 2008, when the 55 sites in the 1964 survey were retested, scientists found that only 29 percent still had permafrost. The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters and discussed about a month later at a permafrost conference at Purdue University, was conducted by researchers at the University of Ottawa and the Geological Survey of Canada. Alaska Dispatch

Senators' Push for New Icebreakers Long Odds. In Mid-November, U.S. Senators Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act cosponsored by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) that would authorize spending on up to four icebreakers. While a total of four icebreakers would cost approximately $3.207 billion in 2008 dollars, the per-ship amount of about $802 million is small compared to the cost of an amphibious assault ship ($3 billion) or aircraft carrier ($11 billion). The Navy would contract the construction of the icebreakers, which would then be turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard. The USS Healy, the only icebreaker that the U.S. has in service at the moment, was in fact similarly funded by the defense budget and then given over to the Coast Guard. Alaska Dispatch

Arctic States Renew Vow to Help Protect Polar Bears. Forty years after the five countries that house polar bear populations agreed to act to protect the animal, progress has been made, but climate change and economic development are placing new pressure on their habitat. "Today we face new challenges with the ship traffic increase and the oil and gas development," Canada's environment minister, Leona Aglukkaq, told a polar bear conservation forum held in Moscow this week and organised by the World Wildlife Fund. Arctic Journal

Analysis: The Elephant in the Room-Mental Health in Arctic Communities. It probably won't surprise many readers to learn that northern Canada has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world. As Josef Stalin said to Winston Churchill, one death is a tragedy, but a million is a statistic, and it seems that northern and Aboriginal suicide has become just that in the South. But there are daily tragedies in northern communities and until we get a handle on northern suicide and depression, our best efforts at promoting economic and political development in the North will go unrealized. Alaska Dispatch

New Study Says Arctic Ice Melt and Extreme Weather Conditions in the US, Europe Linked. Extreme and erratic weather conditions, such as worsening heat waves, cold snaps and downpours in the U.S. and Europe, could be linked to Arctic ice melt, scientists said on Sunday. The new study published in the journal "Nature Climate Change," warned of increasingly extreme weather across "much of North America and Eurasia where billions of people will be affected," Reuters reported. The new findings have further roiled a debate on the impact of global warming on climate change, as international scientists and studies differ significantly on whether human-caused global warming is responsible for climate change or not. International Business Times

Greenland is Once Again Catching the Imagination of Outsiders. International business executives and diplomats are retracing Egede's journey. The rapid melting of the northern polar ice has set off something of a scramble for the resources buried below. By US estimates, the Arctic may hold 13 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of its untapped gas as well as untold mineral resources. The London-based think-tank Chatham House talks of an Arctic "cold rush." Greenland, a frozen and mostly empty sprawl of a country reaching up from the Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean, sees a chance to reclaim its pre-colonial identity. "I guess we are in the business of nation-building," says Vittus Qujaukitsoq, the minister of economy in a government with its sights on independence. FT Magazine