Industrial Access

For the moment, Arctic waters are still relatively free from industrial activities. However, melting sea ice is making vast new areas more easily accessible for the first time. The U.S. and Canada will be confronted with key decisions regarding development within the next decade. How these countries respond will have a lasting impact on the survival of human communities and animal populations in Arctic regions. These decisions will also affect the Arctic’s ability to provide global ecosystem services such as regulating temperatures and offering habitat for migratory species.

The next few years present a window of opportunity to prevent rapid, unplanned industrialization. A precautionary, science-based approach is needed to ensure development is done in a way that protects this changing ecosystem and benefits northern communities. Preventing environmental problems will be more efficient and cost-effective than having to address them later.

These environmental issues include:

Offshore oil and gas: Opening the U.S. Arctic to offshore oil and gas leasing and development can pose environmental risks including oil spills, air pollution, noise pollution and contaminants. Before such development proceeds, more research is needed into how to prevent damage to the marine ecosystem. Comprehensive planning and monitoring must be done. Adequate response capabilities for oil spill clean-up in challenging Arctic conditions such as broken ice must be in place.

Industrial shipping: Loss of seasonal sea ice could open up new industrial shipping routes across the Arctic, turning once-quiet places into busy shipping lanes and bringing increased levels of noise, air and water pollution. More vessel traffic also increases the risk of accidents and spills. Such accidents could have dire consequences given the harsh weather and distance from response capabilities.

Commercial fishing: The depleted state of much of the world’s fisheries is a cautionary tale for the Arctic. Even new fisheries have suffered serious declines and, in many cases, fishery and ecosystem collapses. The retreat of sea ice and northward migration of fish will likely increase pressure to open the Arctic to commercial fishing at the same time that its marine ecosystem is undergoing fundamental changes. Unregulated commercial fishing could damage habitat, alter food webs and harm marine mammals and other species of importance to indigenous peoples’ subsistence way of life.