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Polar

Sunset on Arctic Sea Ice, near Svalbard, 2009

No Such Thing as “Sustainable” Arctic Management

Sunset on Arctic Sea Ice, near Svalbard, 2009
Sunset on Arctic Sea Ice, Fram Strait, September 2009.© Dave Walsh

Here’s an idea. To hell with “sustainably managing” the Arctic Ocean. Instead, how about we just stay out of it and leave it the fuck alone to look after itself, as it was doing before we humans came along and starting burning coal and oil and putting CO2 in the air and seawater?

Yesterday, as I sat towards the back of a two-thirds empty lecture theatre in one of Brussels’ stately buildings, I read on Twitter that the EU Parliament had passed a resolution in favour of protecting the Arctic environment, calling for the creation of a high seas sanctuary around the North Pole.

Clause 38 of the resolution states that the European Parliament:

“Supports the initiative by five Arctic coastal states to agree on interim precautionary measures to prevent any future fisheries in the Arctic high seas without the prior establishment of appropriate regulatory mechanisms, and supports the development of a network of Arctic conservation areas and, in particular, the protection of the international sea area around the North Pole outside the economic zones of the coastal states”

The rest of the document contains some pretty firm language on human rights, sea level rise and climate change – amongst other issues and expresses “strong concern regarding the rush for oil exploration and drilling in the Arctic”. Unfortunately, the sentence concludes “without adequate standards being enforced”. So, even the EU, while trying to be the good guy, accepts that there will be drilling.
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Dave Walsh speaking at Arctic Nocture in Solidarity with Arctic 30, Brussels.

Arctic Nocturne: An Evening of Solidarity with the Greenpeace Arctic 30

Dave Walsh speaking at Arctic Nocture in Solidarity with Arctic 30, Brussels.

On October 17th, for the last evening of my photo exhibition, The Arctic: Another World? we had a special event in solidarity with the 30 Greenpeace Arctic activists currently being held in detention in Russia, at Brussels’ beautiful Bibliothèque de Laeken, hosted by Greenpeace Belgium and the Ville de Bruxelles.

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The Arctic: Another World?

Arctic Exhibition in Brussels

The Arctic: Another World?

On Monday September 30, 2013, The Arctic: Another World?, a solo exhibition of my polar photography, will open at the Bibliothèque de Laeken in Brussels, presented by Greenpeace Belgium and the Ville de Bruxelles. Running until October 18, the exhibition is open to the public – so please come along if you’re in town. There’s a vernissage, as they say here – an official opening, at 11am on October 1st, and all are welcome.
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Scientists hiking across Humboldt Glacier

Greenland’s Glaciers: Waking the Sleeping Giants

Crunch, crunch, crunch, leap crevasse… “oomph”. Crunch, crunch, crunch, run, “hup!”, jump, CRUNCH, “oooof”.

It’s one o’clock on a windless morning. I’m walking on Humboldt Glacier in the high Arctic of northwest Greenland, my ears filled with the clumping of my own boots on the ice. The sky above is bright blue, and the sun is low, flirting with the horizon. It will be another few weeks before it sets.

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