There is no doubt that most Canadian Arctic settlements will be affected because they are predominantly in exposed locations on the shoreline. Iqaluit, a quickly sprawling capital of Nunavut with a population of about 7500 is the focus of my research on Inuit urbanization and Arctic cultural capitals. Iqaluit is mostly under 10m above high tide, rising to a ridge about 30m above sea level. The most dramatic case is Tuktoyaktuk, at the mouth of the the Mackenzie Delta on the Beaufort Sea where many parts of the town have been undermined by tidal action. However other settlements such as Pangnirtung, on Baffin Island, have already suffered from major storms; flooding washed out a key bridge.

Yesterday, Forum on the Future released its report ‘Megacities on the Move‘ that argues for planning to ensure more sustainable access to goods and services in cities.  They present four scenarios as videos – one solution, ‘Planopolis’ is here. But urban access to goods such as food depends on long supply chains back to rural locations.  We need solutions for the far corners of the world as well as cities.

- Rob

Survivall at MAM Salvador by A. Lemos, M. Fiorelli and R. Shields (Photo copyright A. Lemos and M. Fiorelli)

An update to our previous post on “locative art” using Google Maps and our collective article in Wi – Journal of Mobile Media (Hexagram Institute) – where Andre Lemos recently discussed locative media in Brazil.  Survivall is a locative art piece online here and there.

-Rob

Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland captured by NASA satellite Terra – MODIS on April 15, 2010.

Editor update: Alain de Botton imagines a world without planes

The section on The World’s Freshwater has some gorgeous maps, The Hidden Water We Use section presents some startling infographics, and photography by Edward Burtynsky puts California’s Pipe Dream in new light.

“As developments such as Discovery Bay increase in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, so does the flood hazard. More than a million people now live behind delta levees.”

“Grass is not an option in Salton City, which survives on water pumped in from the Colorado River. With 20 million more residents expected in California by 2050, the quest for water is never over.”

It is reported that the low-lying coral islands are being innundated during storm tides making the subsistence gardening of their residents impossible.  Dan Box plans to blog the move over the next months.  Although the process has been ongoing since 2003, there are funding problems for residents who are all forced to re-establish themselves anew.

These enormous scrapers, seen through a storm of dust and a late spring snow shower, are moving earth to establish a new oil sands mine.

-Andriko and Rob

In its 11th hour, the Bush Administration has authorized a new US Arctic Policy (National Security Presidential Directive 66), which will serve as a continuing, broad policy guideline to government agencies until replaced. That is, it has effect until the next Arctic policy (which can take years to produce). It governs seven broad areas of the American approach to the Arctic: national security and homeland security, international governance, extended continental shelf and boundary issues, promotion of international scientific cooperation, maritime transportation, economic issues, including energy resources, and environmental protection and conservation of natural resources.

Although there is sceptical acceptance of ‘the effects of climate change and increasing human activity in the Arctic region’ the main focus is access to oil and gas reserves on the extended continental shelf, beyond current territorial waters north of Alaska. These reserves are technically recoverable and would be easier to control.

One intended audience is the US Senate, where as the Guardian summarizes: ‘One of the main obstacles to staking a [American] claim on the Arctic seafloor [ie. the extended continental shelf] has been opposition in the Senate to ratification of the United Nations’ 1982 Law of the Sea Convention’

In concert with this policy, US News and World Report mentions that in one ‘midnight regulation‘ by which the outgoing President is attempting to tie the hands of incoming US President Barack Obama,, the Administration recently eliminated an important provision in the US Endangered Species Act requiring “independent scientific reviews” before construction or drilling can occur in an endangered species’ habitat – such as polar bears.

Another major focus is on the right to over-fly and also to freely navigate the Arctic – which will be contested by Canada should the Northwest Passage routes across its Arctic Archipelago become ice-free enough to transit. China’s Xinghua News Agency quotes Bush saying:

Preserving the rights and duties relating to navigation and over flight in the Arctic region supports our ability to exercise these rights throughout the world, including through strategic straits.

The document ignores the signing of the Ilulisat Declaration by all Arctic coastal states, claiming ‘aggressive moves by other countries’. This raises fear without providing facts, as Gunnar Sander notes in a comment to a Wall Street Journal article. Although commentators do not appreciate it, one key audience of this policy is likely to be China, which plans its own voyage to the pole in 2010 and anticipates that a shortcut route over the pole to Europe will become its main shipping route for goods if the polar cap melts.

Ironically, anticipating that melting ice will make access to hydrocarbon and other resources easier is rather ghoulish: give the extra absorption of solar energy by dark-coloured ocean compared to the white ice (the albedo effect) this implies that the planet will have been heating up at a faster than anticipated rate with sea-level rise affecting major capitals: New York, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Mumbai, all of Bangladesh, the Yucatan, the San Francisco Bay Area and so on. Perhaps the extra fuel will be needed for the lifeboats or for constructing dikes.

(Followup: Google this)

-Rob

Bryan and Cherry Alexander: Inglefield Bay Clouds, Greenland.  With more photos from The Mail on Sunday, Online.

- Rob

Flood in Venice, Italy  Copyright www.NotationPhoto.com. Originally uploaded to Flickr.com by Minneapolis Pro.

Sea water rose to its highest level in 20 years, topping 156 cm, flooding the squares of the City. The usual flood level has been 110cm. It is hoped flood defences will be completed by 2011. As vita venexiàn comments,

I am grateful I don’t have to go out this morning, and feel for the folks with two young children on the ground level below who, although they’ve installed the barriera at their door, have been hauling stuff off the floor since the wee hours, just in case.”

Like New Orleans, Venice is defined by the interaction between everything that comprises a city and the water in its midst.

- Rob