Newsletter: Research and power moves in the Arctic
The local fishing boats rests by the Honningsvåg dock i North Norway. Photo: Trine Jonassen, High North News.
Dear HNN reader! The blue economy is the future. It holds our food, jobs and the climate battle. In the week behind us, the sea has played the main role as battleground for the big powers, but also for research and adversity.
The big powers are rattling their economic sabers, and the USA looks to Denmark and just announced a USD 12.1 million aid package for Greenland. The American State Department stresses that this should not in any way be interpreted as the beginning of an attempt to “buy” Greenland.
What may come as a surprise to many, is the fact that Russian petroleum company Rosneft for many years has stood behind a lot of research in the Arctic. The company has now launched a research program to assess the sustainability of Arctic ecosystems based on research on key animal species in Russia worth monitoring.
The Corona virus affects everyone and everything, even the research vessel ‘Polarstern’, which is frozen into the polar ice and meant to drift along with it. Now, however, the icebreaker must break camp from its location in the ice and move towards Svalbard in order to replace staff and resupply.
More than 200 construction workers laboring to complete a supply base for Novatek have taken ill with Covid-19 in Belokamenka, Murmansk oblast. Regional authorities now buy electronic ankle bracelets to monitor patients confirmed positive for the virus.
Follow us into next week for fresh news from and about the High North. And do not forget to tip us off about what goes on in your Arctic!
All the best,
News editor for High North News
Trine Jonassen