CRYOPOLITICS - Original news, photos & maps from the Arctic

The US is using a mine in Greenland to counter China

Russia’s war in Ukraine pushes China to reorient Arctic plans

Radar returns to the Arctic, thrusting communities into geopolitical crosshairs

At Arctic Spirit, Finland promotes green energy, but not without debate

From climate change to color change: Is autumn in the Arctic losing its luster?

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Russia

Navalny & Nord Stream 2: It all goes back to the Arctic

The poisoning of Putin's fiercest critic, Alexei Navalny, could disrupt plans for Nord Stream 2, which would bring gas from…

USA/Alaska

What the Arctic reveals about coronavirus

The biological residues of the 1918 Spanish Flu dug up from the Arctic's frozen recesses may inform how we react…

Climate Change

Welcome to the geoengineered Arctic

At Arctic Circle 2019, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, it seemed, had not gotten the memo: Oil is out,…

Mining Mia BennettJune 20, 2022 0

The US is using a mine in Greenland to counter China

The U.S. has offered $657 million to develop the world's northernmost mine in Greenland to counter China. Is it worth it?Continue Reading →

Geopolitics

The geopolitical collapse of the Arctic

Hint: It's not because of climate change.

Geopolitics

Russia’s war in Ukraine pushes China to reorient Arctic plans

As Russia is frozen out of its own backyard, for China to realize its visions for polar and global development,…

Travel & Photo

Central Asia’s collapsing water tower

Remembering a trek through Central Asian highlands where glaciers look like spilled milk - and where they irrigate actual dairy…

Fieldwork Friday: Snow globes and screens

As the pandemic lingers on and the possibilities for doing fieldwork, particularly in the social sciences, remain remote, I thought…

A night at the volcano

An essay accompanied by photos and maps on the 3 times I tried to see flowing lava at Iceland's Fagradalsfjall…

The surprising industrial legacy of Iceland’s remote Westfjords

Tucked away into the Hornstrandir Peninsula's silent fjords and icy rivers, rusting ruins from the 20th-century whaling industry remind those…

Asia & the Arctic

A Chinese sailboat is circumnavigating the Arctic

Chinese artist-sailor Zhai Mo (翟墨) has just set sail from Shanghai to embark on a four-month journey around the Arctic…

China & the Arctic – A View to 2050 | Hong Kong and online

This symposium will leverage Hong Kong’s historic position as a meeting place between East and West to bring together social…

Musk ox diplomacy: When the US sent two Arctic animals to China

While a population of musk ox may have survived in southern Siberia and Mongolia, the animals don't seem to have…

China reveals Arctic geopolitics to be above Pompeo’s pay grade

Pompeo’s swashbuckling fantasies aside, geopolitical competition in the contemporary Arctic is not about who controls swaths of continents or oceans.…

Maps & Satellite Imagery

Could NASA’s newest satellite witness an ice-free Arctic Ocean?

Landsat 9 will continue NASA's important work documenting 50 years of changes to the Earth's surface from space. But for…

Cross-polar flights leave trails of pollution in their wake, hurting the Arctic.

Russia’s extension of US overflight rights hurts the Arctic

Every week, hundreds of flights on U.S. airlines pass through Russian airspace. Only a handful of these flights actually start…

New European satellite provides crystal-clear view of Arctic

Featured image: Ice flowing out to sea near Ilulissat, Greenland In June of last year, a satellite called Sentinel-2 rocketed into space.…

Seen from space: Canadian highway to Arctic Ocean nears completion

Featured image: The Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway seen from space with NASA’s Landsat-8 satellite. A few days ago, The Washington Post ran a story…