region:antarctic

La liste des incidents du USCG Polar Star continue à s’allonger. Les capacités polaires des garde-côtes états-uniens sont à la merci d’un incident…

FIRE IN ANTARCTIC OCEAN Aboard USCG’s Last Heavy Icebreaker – gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/fire-in-antarctic-ocean-uscg-icebreaker-mcmurdo

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The 150-member crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sta_r fought a fire at approximately 9 p.m. PST Feb. 10 that broke out in the ship’s incinerator room about 650 miles north of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.

After initial response efforts using four fire extinguishers failed, fire crews spent almost two hours extinguishing the fire. Fire damage was contained inside the incinerator housing, while firefighting water used to cool exhaust pipe in the surrounding area damaged several electrical systems and insulation in the room.

Repairs are already being planned for the Polar Star’s upcoming maintenance period. The incinerator will need to be full functional before next year’s mission.
[…]
“_It’s always a serious matter whenever a shipboard fire breaks out at sea, and it’s even more concerning when that ship is in one of the most remote places on Earth,” said Vice Adm. Linda Fagan, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific Area.
[…]
The Feb. 10 fire was not the first engineering casualty faced by the Polar Star crew this deployment. While en route to Antarctica, one of the ship’s electrical systems began to smoke, causing damage to wiring in an electrical switchboard, and one of the ship’s two evaporators used to make drinkable water failed. The electrical switchboard was repaired by the crew, and the ship’s evaporator was repaired after parts were received during a port call in Wellington, New Zealand.

The ship also experienced a leak from the shaft that drives the ship’s propeller, which halted icebreaking operations to send scuba divers into the water to repair the seal around the shaft. A hyperbaric chamber on loan from the U.S. Navy aboard the ship allows Coast Guard divers to make external emergency repairs and inspections of the ship’s hull at sea.

The Polar Star also experienced ship-wide power outages while breaking ice. Crew members spent nine hours shutting down the ship’s power plant and rebooting the electrical system in order to remedy the outages.

The U.S. Coast Guard maintains two icebreakers – the Coast Guard Cutter Healy, which is a medium icebreaker, and the Polar Star, the United States’ only heavy icebreaker. If a catastrophic event, such as getting stuck in the ice, were to happen to the Healy in the Arctic or to the Polar Star near Antarctica, the U.S. Coast Guard is left without a self-rescue capability.

By contrast, Russia currently operates more than 40 icebreakers – several of which are nuclear powered.

nouvel épisode après ►https://seenthis.net/messages/754347 il y a 6 semaines.

European slaughter of Native Americans changed the climate, study says - CNN
▻https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/01/world/european-colonization-climate-change-trnd/index.html

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/190131212303-01-european-settlers-1-2-illustration-super-tease.jpg

But by combining archaeological evidence, historical data and analysis of carbon found in Antarctic ice, the UCL researchers showed how the reforestation — directly caused by the Europeans’ arrival — was a key component of the global chill, they said.
“For once, we’ve been able to balance all the boxes and realize that the only way the Little Ice Age was so intense is ... because of the genocide of millions of people,” Maslin told CNN.

#colonisation #génocide #Amériques #climat #petite_ère_glaciaire #reforestation

Japan to resume commercial whaling after pulling out of #IWC | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-whaling-idUSKCN1OP03O

https://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20181226&t=2&i=1339040339&w=1200&r=LYNXNPEEBP02L#.jpg

Japan will resume commercial whaling from July in its waters and exclusive economic zone while ending its controversial hunts in the Antarctic, it said on Wednesday, as it announced its withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Australia and New Zealand welcomed the decision to abandon the Antarctic whale hunt, but expressed disappointment that Japan would engage in any killing of the ocean mammals.

The decision, some experts said, allows Japan to save the money it spends to support Antarctic whaling while taking a tough pro-whaling stance - a matter of national pride for some conservatives.

But doubts exist about whether Japanese commercial whaling can be economically viable, especially as fewer people than ever are eating whale meat, they said.

“From July 2019, after the withdrawal comes into effect on June 30, Japan will conduct commercial whaling within Japan’s territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone, and will cease the take of whales in the Antarctic Ocean/the Southern Hemisphere,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a statement announcing the decision.

#baleine
#Commission_baleinière_internationale

#Fridtjof_Nansen, WWI, and the Beginning of the Modern Refugee Regime

This week–on November 11–marked the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I. In terms of refugee law, the Great War is usually eclipsed by WWII, which gave rise to the Refugee Convention (in 1951). The Convention forms the basis for our international and domestic humanitarian law up until today.

But the First World War was also foundational to our current refugee regime, and so it’s too bad that WWI developments in refugee law get short shrift. Upwards of 10 million people were displaced by the War and the subsequent rise of the Soviet Union. Many would never return home and would permanently resettle in other countries. This mass movement of civilians led to political, cultural, and social changes, and predictably, to a backlash against refugees (as a security, economic, and health threat) that sounds all-too familiar today.

Probably the most prominent figure in post-WWI refugee resettlement was a Norwegian wunderkind named Fridtjof Nansen. Mr. Nansen was born in 1861. He was a record-breaking skater and skier. He studied zoology in university, and went on to become a world famous artic explorer. In 1888, he led the first expedition to cross Greenland, and in 1895, he came within 4 degrees of the North Pole, the furthest north anyone had traveled to date. After his career in the Artic, he turned to science, where he made important contributions to the fields of neurology and oceanography. Mr. Nansen served as a diplomat and advocated for separation of Norway and Sweden (which had been united since 1814). Norway became independent in 1905.

Norway was neutral during the First World War, and during those years, Mr. Nansen was involved in organizing his nation’s defense. In 1917, he was dispatched to Washington, where he negotiated a deal to help alleviate a severe food shortage in his country.

After World War I, Mr. Nansen successfully helped advocate for Norway’s involvement in the League of Nations, and he served as a delegate to that body. He became involved in the repatriation of prisoners of war, and between 1920 and 1922, led the effort to resettle over 400,000 POWs in 30 different countries. In 1921, Mr. Nansen became the League’s High Commissioner for Refugees and helped resettle two million Russians displaced by the revolution. At the same time, he was working to relieve a massive famine in Russia, but had trouble securing international aid (due largely to suspicion of the new Marxist government). He also assisted Armenian refugees after the genocide there, and devised a controversial population exchange between Turkey and Greece, which resolved a Greek refugee crisis, but also resulted in the expulsion (with compensation) of Turks from Greece.

Mr. Nansen created the “Nansen” passports in 1922, a document that allowed stateless people to travel legally across borders. By WWII, 52 nations recognized the passport as a legal travel document. Nansen passports were originally created to help refugees from the Russian civil war, but over 20 years, they were used by more than 450,000 individuals from various countries (including a number of well-known figures, such as Marc Chagall, Aristotle Onassis, G.I. Gurdjiieff, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and Igor Stravinsky). The passports served as a foundation for a clearly-defined legal status for refugees, and some scholars consider the creation of the Nansen passports as the beginning of international refugee law.

In 1922, Mr. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee cited “his work for the repatriation of the prisoners of war, his work for the Russian refugees, his work to bring succour to the millions of Russians afflicted by famine, and finally his present work for the refugees in Asia Minor and Thrace.”

Mr. Nansen continued his involvement in the League of Nations through the 1920s, and he flirted with Norwegian politics, though he seems to have no major ambitions in that direction. In 1926, Mr. Nansen came up with a legal definition for refugees from Russia and Armenia, and his definition was adopted by several dozen nations. This marked the first time that the term “refugee” was defined in international law, and it helped set the stage for later legal developments in the area of refugee protection.

Fridtjof Nansen died on May 3, 1930. After his death, a fellow delegate from the League of Nations eulogized, “Every good cause had his support. He was a fearless peacemaker, a friend of justice, an advocate always for the weak and suffering.”

Even after his death, Mr. Nansen’s work continued. The League of Nations established the Nansen International Office for Refugees, which helped resettle tens of thousands of refugees during the inter-War years. The Nansen Office was also instrumental in establishing the Refugee Convention of 1933 (now, largely forgotten), the first international, multilateral treaty offering legal protection to refugees and granting them certain civic and economic rights. The 1933 Convention also established the principle of “non-refoulement,” the idea that nations cannot return individuals to countries where they face persecution. To this day, non-refoulement is a key concept of international (and U.S.) refugee law. For all this work, the Nansen Office was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1938.

Fridtjof Nansen’s legacy lives on in many ways. There are geographic features named after him in the Artic, Antarctic, and various places around the globe. In space, there is a crater on the moon named in his honor, as well as an asteroid. The oldest ski club in the United States is named for Mr. Nansen, and there is a species of fish that bears his name (Nansenia). A museum in Armenia documents his scientific and humanitarian achievements. And each year, the United Nations bestows the Nansen Refugee Award on an individual or organization that has assisted refugees, displaced or stateless people. For me, though, Mr. Nansen’s most enduring achievement is his pioneering work to help establish international refugee law, a legal regime which protects us all.

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Antarctic’s future in doubt after plan for world’s biggest marine reserve is blocked | World news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/02/plan-create-worlds-biggest-nature-reserve-antarctic-rejected

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A plan to turn a huge tract of pristine Antarctic ocean into the world’s biggest sanctuary has been rejected, throwing the future of one of the Earth’s most important ecosystems into doubt.

Environmental groups said Russia, China and Norway had played a part in blocking the proposal, with the other 22 members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, the organisation set up to protect Antarctic waters, backing the proposal.

The 1.8m sq km reserve – five times the size of Germany – would have banned all fishing in a vast area of the Weddell Sea and parts of the Antarctic peninsula, safeguarding species including penguins, killer whales, leopard seals and blue whales.

Experts said it would also have played a key role in tackling climate change, as the seas around the Antarctic soak up huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But following days of talks in Hobart in Tasmania, the CCAMLR rejected the plan, which needed unanimous agreement to pass.

Antarctic ice melting faster than ever, studies show | Environment | The Guardian

▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/13/antarctic-ice-melting-faster-than-ever-studies-show

Ceci est résolument pour l’ami dror alias @sinehebdo et une de ses listes « collapsologie »

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Ice in the Antarctic is melting at a record-breaking rate and the subsequent sea rises could have catastrophic consequences for cities around the world, according to two new studies.

A report led by scientists in the UK and US found the rate of melting from the Antarctic ice sheet has accelerated threefold in the last five years and is now vanishing faster than at any previously recorded time.

Putin suggested to develop a new Russian Atlas of the World

RTW May 6, 2018 | MEMRI

« Today we are facing attempts to gradually remove from the world map Russian names given by our explorers and travellers in past centuries and decades. »

▻https://www.memri.org/reports/russia-week-%E2%80%93-may-6-2018

Putin: ’We Do Not Have The Right To Condone Or Ignore The Distortion Of Historical And Geographical Truth’

Russian President Vladimir Putin chaired the tenth anniversary meeting of the Russian Geographical Society Board of Trustees. During the meeting, Putin complained of the “distortion” of the geographical truth on the world maps, and suggested to develop a new Russian Atlas of the World.

Putin: "… In general, toponymics – names of geographical and other places – require special attention. Today we are facing attempts to gradually remove from the world map Russian names given by our explorers and travellers in past centuries and decades. Let me emphasize that this erases the memory of Russia’s contribution to the exploration of the planet and developments in science. This s particularly striking in the Antarctic where the names given by the discoverers of the continent Lazarev and Bellinshausen have almost ceased to exist.

"Today very few people know that Borodino is the primordial, historical name of the island of Smith, that Snow is Maly Yaroslavets, Livingstone is Smolensk and so on. Meanwhile, we will celebrate the anniversary of the discovery of the Antarctic in 2020. This is the achievement of Russian seafarers. Examples of name substitution are not limited to the remote Antarctic, some are closer, but I will not dwell on them now.

"All this is the result, among other things, of the lack of modern domestically made maps. Only foreign ones are in the public domain, and they generally provide secondary names of geographical sites. As such, it is proposed to develop a new Russian Atlas of the World involving the Russian Geographical Society, so that all such cases will be addressed properly.

"We do not intend to impose anything on anyone, it is not necessary, but we do not have the right to condone or ignore the distortion of historical and geographical truth and justice in this case.

“I would ask Rosreestr (Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography) to develop the atlas together with the Russian Geographical Society and the Defense Ministry, which – provided all necessary procedures are followed – should provide access to its cartographic materials for the atlas developers and for travellers, tourists and motorists, including via modern computer technologies. The classification label on many maps is clearly outdated and looks simply archaic.”

#russie #poutine #géographie #toponymie #identité_nationale

A Maritime Revolution Is Coming, and No One’s in the Wheelhouse - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-28/boat-drones-propel-one-of-china-s-hottest-startups

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In the vast, freezing Ross Sea, China’s “Snow Dragon” icebreaker needed to find a safe anchorage before it could begin its mission to set up China’s fifth Antarctic research station. The solution was to deploy one of Zhang Yunfei’s freezer-tested boat drones to map the ocean floor. 

For Zhang, it was the latest in a string of government contracts — from surveying Tibetan lakes to testing river pollution — that have helped him turn a university project into China’s largest unmanned surface vessel company, one that has fired the interest of some of China’s biggest venture capitalists. In a pending round of funding, Oceanalpha Co. Ltd. may be valued at $780 million — about 40 times revenue — despite never having turned a profit.
[…]
The big prize is cargo. Zhang has a new partnership with Wuhan University of Technology, China’s Classification Society and Zhuhai municipal government that will use artificial intelligence to direct autonomous container vessels.

“There will be a huge revolution in the maritime industry within three years,” Zhang said. “Cargo ships will be autonomous before cars.”

The project, called #Cloudrift — a reference to the Chinese legend of the monkey king, who could summon a cloud on which he traveled — is racing against rivals to build an unmanned cargo ship this year. Norway has created a test area for pilotless vessels in the Trondheim Fjord in a joint effort by the Norwegian University of Science Technology and companies including Rolls Royce.

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UK, U.S. study Antarctic glacier, hoping to crack sea level risks | Agricultural Commodities | Reuters
▻https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL8N1S72CG

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Britain and the United States launched a $25 million project on Monday to study the risks of a collapse of a giant glacier in Antarctica that is already shrinking and nudging up global sea levels.

The five-year research, involving 100 scientists, would be the two nations’ biggest joint scientific project in Antarctica since the 1940s. Ice is thawing from Greenland to Antarctica and man-made global warming is accelerating the trend.

The scientists would study the Thwaites Glacier, which is roughly the size of Florida or Britain, in West Antarctica, the UK Natural Environment Research Council and U.S. National Science Foundation said in a joint statement.

(image issue de
Study shows Thwaites Glacier’s ice loss may not progress as quickly as thought
▻https://phys.org/news/2017-06-thwaites-glacier-ice-loss-quickly.html

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Scientists want to search for life on Jupiter’s moon. Their dress rehearsal is Antarctic oceans
▻https://massivesci.com/articles/europa-life-space-antarctica-oceans

An autonomous robot is practicing to search for life on Europa

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Antarctic Research Ship to Search for Wreck of Shackleton’s ’Endurance’ | Smart News | Smithsonian
▻https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/antarctic-research-ship-will-search-wreck-shackletons-endurance-1809

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The polar exploration ship Endurance has not been seen since 1915, when it was crushed by sea ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea during a failed Trans-Antarctic crossing by Ernest #Shackleton. But in 2019, Jonathan Amos at the BBC reports that a team of scientists will attempt to locate the wreck when they visit the area to study the #Larsen_C Ice Shelf, the mega-iceberg that broke off the continent last July.

The S.A. Agulhas II should reach the area in January or February as part of the Weddell Sea Expedition 2019. But the search for the remains of Endurance will be contingent on if the crew has the time and opportunity to send an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to the right location.
[…]
The final position of the ship when it sunk November 21, 1915 is believed to be about 100 to 150 nautical miles from Larsen C, making the ship an irresistible target. If it is found, it’s likely to be in excellent condition, reports Henry Bodkin at The Telegraph. That’s because the Antarctic Circumpolar Current may have kept wood-boring sea worms from damaging the wreck, which, if discovered, will be declared a protected historic monument.

https://media4.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2018_15/2395381/180411-sa-agulhas-ii-mn-1630_90d345bb48aa8430b39a07f6e4fe6eff.560;373;7;70;3.jpg

The last whalers: commuting from the North Sea to Antarctica | Aeon Essays
▻https://aeon.co/essays/the-last-whalers-commuting-from-the-north-sea-to-antarctica

In the mid-20th century, young men from #Shetland would come of age and travel to Edinburgh. ‘Quite a lot of Shetland boys did that,’ says Gibbie Fraser, who was that boy some 60 years ago. ‘And I remember goin’ and dere was a lot of men dere and dey all seemed huge and in dose days dey all wore … dere dress clothes as almost a uniform.’ For many, this would have been their first trip to the mainland, their first trip to ‘Scotland’ proper at all, and the boys would watch the double-decker buses for the first time, or board a black cab for the neighbourhood of Leith. There, they would stand in lines that snaked around city blocks.Shetlanders are some of the only living people who participated in Antarctic whaling. #Whaling in the Southern Ocean followed the devastation of whale stocks in the North Sea around #Britain, #Iceland and #Norway in the late-19th and early 20th centuries. Whaling has been a foundation of Shetland’s economy for more than 300 years. It began with subsistence whaling, in the 18th and 19th centuries, and then developed into large-scale #Arctic and #Greenland hunts in the mid-19th century. Salvesen began whaling in Shetland at Olna in 1904, when the company established a whaling station. ‘That’s where [they], I suppose in a way, came to appreciate the Shetland men,’ said Fraser.

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#baleines

Penguin mega-colony discovered using satellites and drones, raising scientists’ hopes
▻https://news.mongabay.com/wildtech/2018/03/penguin-mega-colony-discovered-using-satellites-and-drones-raising-sc

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Scientists have discovered a ‘supercolony’ of Adélie penguins in Antarctica’s remote Danger Islands, raising hopes that the bird’s population isn’t declining as rapidly as previously thought.

The discovery, which is documented in a paper published this week in Scientific Reports, came after Stony Brook University biologist Heather Lynch and NASA’s Mathew Schwaller noticed apparent guano stains in satellite images of the Danger Islands, a remote chain of normally ice-locked islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, in 2014.

#Pingouins #Antarctique

America’s Only Heavy Icebreaker Experienced Flooding, Engine Failure During Annual Antarctic Supply Mission – gCaptain
▻http://gcaptain.com/americas-only-polar-icebreaker-experienced-flooding-engine-failure-during-

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The United States’ only operational heavy icebreaker suffered both flooding and engine failure during this year’s icebreaking mission to Antarctica.

Despite these challenges, however, the USCGC Polar Star completed its Antarctic mission this week in support of National Science Foundation (NSF) after cutting a resupply channel through 15 miles of ice in the Ross Sea and escorting supply vessels to the continent.
[…]
Built more than 40 years ago, the 399-foot Polar Star is the only operational heavy icebreaker in the U.S. fleet. With a crew of nearly 150 people, it weighs 13,500 tons and uses 75,000 horsepower to break ice up to 21 feet thick.

The Coast Guard is currently in the process of procuring a single new heavy polar icebreaker, however, construction is not expected to begin until 2019 at the earliest, and the necessary funds have still not been appropriated. Delivery of the vessel is not expected until 2023, based on current estimates.

“If the Polar Star were to suffer a catastrophic mechanical failure, the Nation would not be able to support heavy icebreaker missions like Operation Deep Freeze, and our Nation has no vessel capable of rescuing the crew if the icebreakers were to fail in the ice,” said Vice Adm. Fred Midgette, commander, U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area in Alameda, California.

In the Arctic, at Least, Diplomacy Works - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-08/in-the-arctic-at-least-diplomacy-works

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Amid resurgent nationalism and talk of nuclear war, it’s been a rough year for global diplomacy. So a 10-party agreement to protect the waters of the planet’s far north qualifies as a minor miracle.

For the next 16 years, commercial fishing will be prohibited in the central Arctic, a Mediterranean-sized patch of icy ocean more than 200 nautical miles from any nation’s coastline. This will give scientists time to study whether fishing might safely be allowed there. The goal is to avoid the overfishing that has depleted fish populations in other parts of the world — pollock in the Bering Strait, for instance, or krill in the Antarctic Ocean.

Until recently, ice made commercial fishing impossible in the central Arctic. But global warming has changed things. The ice now melts enough in summer to expose as much as 40 percent of the water. 

The parties to the new agreement include countries with extensive Arctic coastlines (Russia, Canada), and major fishing industries (South Korea, China, Japan), as well as the United States and the European Union. They will next establish a polar research program so that scientists from around the world can survey the hundreds of species living in the central Arctic — as well as those drawn to the region’s warming waters — and learn how their food webs operate. 

That this work will be done in international waters before any fishing trawlers arrive is unprecedented. That so many countries could reach such a sensible, ecologically sound agreement shows what people can achieve when they’re prepared to cooperate.

Ice Apocalypse | Grist
▻http://grist.org/article/antarctica-doomsday-glaciers-could-flood-coastal-cities
▻https://grist.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/pineislandcalvingfront.jpg?w=1200&h=675&crop=1

Rapid collapse of #Antarctic glaciers could flood coastal cities by the end of this century.

pour la collection de @sinehebdo

A Photo Trip to Antarctica - The Atlantic
▻https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/11/a-photo-trip-to-antarctica/545888

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Collected here are images from the past few years of the Antarctic landscape, wildlife, research facilities, and some of the scientific work taking place there.

The thawing Arctic threatens an environmental #catastrophe - Skating on thin ice
▻https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21721364-commercial-opportunities-are-vastly-outweighed-damage-climate-th
Commercial opportunities are vastly outweighed by damage to the climate

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[...]

Amid all this bad news about the state of the Arctic, the #business opportunities associated with warming were supposed to cheer at least a few. The Arctic is an ocean covered in ice, ringed by land (whereas the Antarctic is a lump of land covered in ice, ringed by ocean). The eight Arctic countries have interests in shipping, fishing and drilling in the region. But finding profits amid the thaw is tough. Prospects look bleaker in many industries than they did five years ago as the risks are better understood.

The Arctic contains more than a fifth of the world’s untapped hydrocarbon resources. But in the North American Arctic offshore drilling was banned in December almost everywhere to protect ecosystems (although Donald Trump may reverse the moratorium). Elsewhere, low prices and the difficulties of operating in the Arctic’s dangerous waters now repel big firms attracted to the region back when oil fetched over $100 a barrel.

In a stunning about-turn, Shell ended operations in the Chukchi Sea in 2015 after spending $7bn on exploration there. It says it did not find enough oil to justify continuing. Russian firms, such as Rosneft, are proving hardier. They have fewer opportunities to invest elsewhere, after all, and Russia needs the money. Low oil prices have taken a toll on an economy which relies on the Arctic for a fifth of GDP and a fifth of exports.

The shipping industry is another for which Arctic promise has drifted away. In theory shipping firms should benefit from access to a more open seaway. Using it to sail from northern Europe to north-east Asia can cut the length of voyages by two-fifths compared with travelling via the Suez Canal. But an expected shipping boom has not materialised. In 2012 only 1m tonnes of goods were shipped through the northern passage, a paltry level of activity yet one not achieved since.

Even in the summer months the Arctic ocean is stormy, making timely delivery of goods impossible to guarantee. Drifting ice also poses a danger. Ships must be strengthened to withstand it, adding to construction costs. And a lack of coastal infrastructure, such as deepwater ports, means that spills of the heavy fuel oil that powers most vessels could wreak havoc on both ecosystems and reputations, because clean-up missions would have to set out from much farther away and would take much longer to be effective.

A new Polar Code from the International Maritime Organisation, which regulates shipping, came into force at the beginning of the year to try to address some of these concerns. It bans sewage discharges in polar waters and ones of oily mixtures. America and Canada, among others, want to go further. For one thing, they want a ban on heavy fuel-oil (as there is in the Antarctic, which has various special protections).

Mining firms, interested in metals such as copper, are eyeing up the Arctic. But most firms do not have the experience to negotiate with indigenous groups over projects on their land (about one in ten people in the region is from such a group). And many of the inhabitants oppose development anyway. In Norway the Sami parliament, which represents Sami people from across the country, is wary. Jon Petter Gintal, who deals with international affairs at the parliament, says blighting the landscape would be foolish. Tourists, keen to see rugged natural beauty, may sustain the Arctic economy in future decades as traditional livelihoods, such a reindeer herding, prove harder to maintain.

#climat

Le volcan #Samalas
vu hier sur arte magnifique enquête sur le responsable des années glaciaires de 1257/1300
▻https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/067061-000-A/le-mysterieux-volcan-du-moyen-age
#enregistrement_minéral

Space in Images - 2017 - 09 - Giant berg on the move
▻http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2017/09/Giant_berg_on_the_move

http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2017/09/giant_berg_on_the_move/17161299-1-eng-GB/Giant_berg_on_the_move_node_full_image_2.gif

Witnessed by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission on 12 July 2017, a lump of ice more than twice the size of Luxembourg broke off the Larsen C ice shelf, spawning one of the largest icebergs on record and changing the outline of the Antarctic Peninsula forever. Over the following two months, systematic observations from Sentinel-1 showed that the A68 berg remained close, buffeting back and forth against the ice shelf. It was unclear what would happen to the berg because they can remain in one place for years.

However, the mission has revealed that A68 is now on the move and drifting out to sea. Images from 16 September show that there is a gap of about 18 km as the berg appears to be turning away from the shelf.

Scientists Discover 91 Volcanoes Hidden Beneath Antarctic Ice Sheet
▻https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/08/14/scientists-discover-91-volcanos-lying-beneath-antarctic-ice-sheet

https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/674190949/960x0.jpg?fit=scale

What is troubling scientists is the ability for these volcanoes, if they erupted, to cause wide scale melting and breakup of Antarctica’s ice sheets. The research was conducted by a group of geologists at the University of Edinburgh and recently published in a special publication of the Geological Society of London.

#antarctique #volcans #climat

Great Scott! Fruity find puts icing on Antarctic cake (From South Wales Argus)
▻http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/national/15469663.Great_Scott__Fruity_find_puts_icing_on_Antarctic_cake

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DG2mJ3VV0AEQX8v.jpg

A century-old fruitcake has been discovered in Antarctica in “excellent condition” after being preserved in the continent’s sub-zero temperatures.

It was found in the Cape Adare and is believed to have belonged to British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, who is better known as Scott of the Antarctic.

The tin containing the discovery had rusted, but conservators found the cake still wrapped in paper and smelling edible.
[…]
The cake is said to have links to Scott’s expedition in the 1910s as he was recorded as having been partial to those made by Huntley & Palmers.

Scott’s mission to the South Pole – named Terra Nova – may have ultimately been successful but the group was beaten to the milestone by a Norwegian group of explorers.

The entire party died on the way back from the Pole, with their bodies discovered some 13 months later.

News Feature: Can animal culture drive evolution?
▻http://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7734.full

Killer whales, also known as orcas (Orcinus orca), have a geographic range stretching from the Antarctic to the Arctic. As a species, their diet includes birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles. But as individuals, they typically fall into groups with highly specialized diets and hunting traditions passed down over generations. Increasingly, scientists refer to these learned feeding strategies as #culture, roughly defined as information that affects behavior and is passed among individuals and across generations through social learning, such as teaching or imitation.

Scientists once placed culture squarely in the human domain. But discoveries in recent decades suggest that a wide range of cultural practices—from foraging tactics and vocal displays to habitat use and play—may influence the lives of other animals as well. Studies attribute additional orca behaviors, such as migration routes and song repertoires, to culture. Other research suggests that a finch’s song, a chimpanzee’s nut cracking, and a guppy’s foraging route are all manifestations of culture. Between 2012 and 2014, over 100 research groups published work on animal culture covering 66 species, according to a recent review.

Now, scientists are exploring whether culture may shape not only the lives of nonhuman animals but the evolution of a species. “Culture affects animals’ lives and their survival and their fitness,” says the review’s coauthor, behavioral scientist Andrew Whiten of the University of St Andrews in Scotland. “We’ve learned that’s the case to an extent that could hardly have been appreciated half a century ago.” Based on work in whales, dolphins, and birds, some researchers contend that animal culture is likely a common mechanism underlying animal evolution. But testing this hypothesis remains a monumental challenge.

300 000 fois plus grand que celui qui a coulé le Titanic, un iceberg se détache de l’Antarctique
12 juillet 2017
▻https://www.rtbf.be/info/societe/detail_un-iceberg-geant-se-detache-de-l-antarctique?id=9658208

https://ds1.static.rtbf.be/article/image/1248x702/d/c/c/86f67a3f0d4b5406d3589997bf019e44.jpg

Un iceberg de mille milliards de tonnes, l’un des plus gros jamais vus, vient de se former après s’être détaché du continent Antarctique, ont affirmé mercredi des chercheurs de l’Université de Swansea (Royaume-Uni).

« La formation s’est produite entre lundi et mercredi », précisent les scientifiques, qui surveillaient l’évolution de ce bloc de glace gigantesque.

Ce gigantesque iceberg pourrait rendre la navigation très hasardeuse pour les navires voguant à proximité du continent gelé, rapportait, il y a 15 jours, des scientifiques.

Une immense faille de 175 km de long, identifiée depuis 2014, s’était créée sur la barrière de Larsen, une formation de glace le long de la côte orientale de la péninsule Antarctique du Cap Longing.
5000 km2

Cette faille, appelée Larsen C, a isolé un morceau de banquise de 5000 km2 qui, le 21 juin, n’était plus relié au reste du continent que par un bras de glace de 13 km. Celui-ci a cédé.

L’iceberg qui menace de se détacher est 300 000 fois plus grand que celui qui a coulé le Titanic et l’un des plus grands jamais enregistrés.

#Larsen_C #Climat

Scientists Know How Big the Larsen C Iceberg Will Be | Climate Central
▻http://www.climatecentral.org/news/scientists-larsen-c-iceberg-size-21595

http://assets.climatecentral.org/images/made/7_5_17_Brian_IcebergTrips1_600_315_s_c1_c_c.jpg

It’s the final countdown. The European Space Agency said on Wednesday that just three miles separate the Larsen C crack — a rift slicing the front off a major Antarctic ice shelf — from open water.

Like a tailor with a tape measure, scientists have been measuring the crack using ESA satellites. The next Sentinel-1 satellite pass will happen later this week, providing a high-resolution look at whether the Larsen C ice shelf has finally calved an iceberg.

http://assets.climatecentral.org/images/uploads/news/7_5_17_Brian_CryoSatLarsenCEstimate.gif