Iqaluit, Canada - Ministers from Arctic nations gathered in northern Canada on Friday to shine a spotlight on one of the planet's most remote regions, which thanks to climate change is becoming a new hotspot in tensions with Russia.
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as everywhere else on the globe, and US officials last month said the Arctic sea ice had reached its lowest winter point since satellite observations began in the late 1970s.
While the polar melt is of major concern because of rising sea levels, it is also opening up new ocean trade routes, and offering the tantalizing promise of untapped offshore oil and gas fields in an energy-hungry world.
With new opportunities, however, come new challenges and rivalries, something the United States will have to shepherd for the next two years as it takes over the chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
US Secretary of State John Kerry Friday arrived in the town of Iqaluit, on Baffin Island, to meet other ministers from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden.
They will be joined by observers from the region's indigenous peoples and nations, including from China.
"The dangers are enormous in terms of sea-level rise and what could happen if Greenland's ice melts," Kerry told the Washington Post Thursday.
"These compounded dangers, and the fact that this is pristine wilderness that's being affected, should jog someone's moral conscience."
While tackling climate change will be high on the US agenda as chair of the Arctic Council, Washington also hopes to improve ocean stewardship, maritime safety and the lives of the Arctic's four million inhabitants.
AFP
