This paper addresses two processes of social and cultural mobilisation. The first example is a regional movement, as manifested in social and cultural expressions of a north Norwegian identity that was particularly marked in the 1970s and early 80s. The other is the Saami movement, coming out strongly at about the same time, and being part of a global process of indigenous mobilisation. It is argued that although they are similar in the way they articulate a sense of identity and belonging in contrast to an overarching and encompassing state, they are different in their stated objectives, in their relation to the state and the type of achievements gained. The north Norwegian regional movement strived for inclusion into a wider national cultural tradition, and integration has been achieved by broadening the definition of what is considered Norwegian culture. The objective of the Saami movement was the opposite: to gain recognition as a people with a distinct culture, different from but equal in value with the Norwegian culture. The article is introduced by a theoretical discussion of the issues involved, framing the analysis of communicative strategies.

Climate warming is occurring most rapidly in the Arctic, which is both a sentinel and a driver of further global change. Ecosystems and human societies are already affected by warming. Permafrost thaws and species are on the move, bringing pathogens and vectors to virgin areas. During a five-year project, the CLINF – a Nordic Center of Excellence, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, has worked with the One Health concept, integrating environmental data with human and animal disease data in predictive models and creating maps of dynamic processes affecting the spread of infectious diseases. It is shown that tularemia outbreaks can be predicted even at a regional level with a manageable level of uncertainty. To decrease uncertainty, rapid development of new and harmonised technologies and databases is needed from currently highly heterogeneous data sources. A major source of uncertainty for the future of contaminants and infectious diseases in the Arctic, however, is associated with which paths the majority of the globe chooses to follow in the future. Diplomacy is one of the most powerful tools Arctic nations have to influence these choices of other nations, supported by Arctic science and One Health approaches that recognise the interconnection between people, animals, plants and their shared environment at the local, regional, national and global levels as essential for achieving a sustainable development for both the Arctic and the globe.

Russian and Australian primary sources were examined in an attempt to reconstruct the voyage of the first composite Soviet Antarctic expedition to Antarctica and from thence to Leningrad [St Petersburg]. This expedition had the aim of constructing a base for the Soviet International Geophysical Year (IGY) commitment. In a time of cold war tension and unresolved Antarctic claims, the Australian and New Zealand governments were wary of Soviet intentions and barely tolerated visits by Soviet expeditions. However, in their interactions with Australians and New Zealanders, the Soviets were careful to underline the friendly nature of their visits and avoided any sensitive political questions. The two governments’ apparent lack of enthusiasm for Ob and Lena entering their ports after fulfilling their task in Antarctica is contrasted with the generally more enthusiastic attitude of the Australian and New Zealand scientists and expedition members, with whom the Soviet personnel came into contact, some of whom developed lasting scientific relationships with the visitors.

A method has been developed for deducing the variation with height of the atmospheric temperature, using the observed form of a mirage as the input. This method is applicable to the class of mirages in which the object appears undistorted, although magnified, vertically displaced, and quite possibly inverted: here applied to an observation of this class of mirage made by Dr William Scoresby in 1822, it is used to deduce the nature of the temperature inversion prevailing on that occasion.

The boreal vegetation of the sub-Arctic comprises more than 30% of the Earth's forest area and plays a major role in controlling the global environment. In the 20th century the boreal vegetation of Fennoscandia was significantly changed by heavy industrialisation leaving many forest areas damaged or dying. Due to severe climate conditions of the sub-Arctic such vegetation changes are traceable over long periods of time. This provides an opportunity to study all types of human impact on vegetation in time and to develop methods to monitor geographical and structural changes in the vegetation cover. Here we present the first part of a larger study in which we use the remote sensing technique to investigate the dynamics of the boreal vegetation in Fennoscandia in context of human impact. We have developed a novel method for an automated analysis and mapping of vegetation and of all types of human impact based on a single support-vector-machines classifier (for the whole area). Implemented with free and open source software the method uses Landsat TM and ETM+ band data (for which it automatically performs atmospheric correction) and a number of indices like NDVI, NBR, etc. The accuracy of the 16-class classification has been assessed using field data and literature sources and determined to be 74.1%. The method has been successfully applied to a study area around Monchegorsk, Kola peninsula, Russia, the most industrialised part of northern Europe. We have characterised all major types of human impact on the boreal forest and tundra vegetation performing the change detection analysis in an area of 1750 km2 between 1986 and 2005. The analysis has confirmed industrial atmospheric pollutions as the primary type of human impact here. We have discussed the role of forest fires and uncovered temporal trends in the vegetation cover. We have found that during the 19 years covered by the study more than one third of all coniferous forest in the area was transformed primarily to wetland, deciduous forest and typical tundra vegetation. The success of the method in this area allows us to extend the study to the rest of Fennoscandia and look at large scale changes in the boreal vegetation cover.

In 1954 and 1955 the author was stationed at Hope Bay in Graham Land, as one of the twelve men at Base D of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. During this time an investigation was carried out into the physiology of sledge dogs. This investigation was divided into two main parts: the first was a study of the sledging diet, and the second of the factors affecting the work output of sledge dogs.

Like the northern periphery regions of other Arctic countries, the Russian North had a higher male–female sex ratio than the rest of the country. During the two decades following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the male sex ratio in the Russian North declined considerably, from 101 males per 100 females in 1989 to 92 in 2010. The regions and population of the Russian North were greatly impacted by the shift in northern development approaches from the centrally planned system of the Soviet Union to the market-oriented system of Russia. This paper examines the decline in the male population in the Russian North based on data from the 1989, 2002 and 2010 population censuses. The paper finds that only one quarter of the decline in the male sex ratio in the Russian North can be attributed to higher male outmigration and that three quarters are the result of significantly higher and widening gaps between females and males in life expectancy. The conclusion is that men in the Russian North coped with the social and economic upheavals by dying prematurely not by migrating. The leading causes of death for men were cardiovascular diseases and external causes such as murder, suicide and accidents.

In 1946 P.V. Glob published a gazetteer of Eskimo settlement sites in northeast Greenland, and this remains the most comprehensive list to date. Between 1990 and 1994, four expeditions visited a variety of locations between 72 and 75°N and recorded a significant number of new sites. In addition, some of the sites recorded by Glob were revisited, and revisions to his descriptions have been found to be necessary. This article draws attention to the limited archaeological survey work of recent years in the northeast fjords, and reviews the nomenclature used by previous authorities in describing the sites and structures of the region, in particular the so-called ‘mosaics’ or ‘children's playthings.’ It then goes on to offer revisions of some of Glob's descriptions (using Glob's numerical system), and concludes by listing and briefly describing the features of the sites recently discovered.

Recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitution Act 1982, and the establishment of the Office of Native Claims, would seem to have assured the rapid settlement of outstanding issues regarding aboriginal rights and native title to lands. More recently, the seeming abandonment by government of political and negotiated resolution of these issues has left litigation as the remaining recourse for native groups to protect their interests. The courts, however, have become increasingly demanding in terms of what must be proven in order to make a successful case at law. It is predicted that the costs and technical difficulties of providing such proofs will limit the number of rights cases before the courts, and the chances of success for those that are mounted.

By any measure, 1998 was a year of conflicting domestic and international interests regarding Russia's Northern Sea Route (NSR). The European Union sponsored an international demonstration project using a Finnish tanker during an April and May voyage to the Kara Sea. Russian icebreakers escorted the tanker, which carried a cargo of gas condensate from the Ob estuary to Europe. The International NSR Programme (INSROP) continued during a fifth year of interdisciplinary research concentrating on the integration of previous results and NSR voyage simulations. Lukoil and Gazprom forged ahead with building their own tanker fleets, while advertisements appeared in the Russian press protesting the use of foreign carriers in the Russian Arctic. In November Lukoil-affiliate companies acquired more than 50% interest in Murmansk Shipping Company, making Lukoil owner of 13% of the Russian merchant marine. Difficult escort operations through heavy ice were conducted late in the year so that Pevek would be supplied with adequate fuel to survive the coming winter.

On 19 March 1930 the German geologist, Hans K.E. Krüger, accompanied by a Dane, Åge Rose Bjare, and an Inughuk, Akqioq (the latter driving their dog sledge) set off westwards from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police post at Bache Peninsula, Ellesmere Island; two support sledges, driven by Inughuit, escorted them. It appears to have been Krüger's intention to study the geology of the coasts of the outer islands of the Canadian Arctic archipelago and to carry out soundings of the continental shelf and slope. The two support sledges turned back at Depot Point, Eureka Sound. Krüger, Bjare, and Akqioq were never seen again. This article reviews Krüger's background, his preparations for the expedition (which included two summers of field work in West Greenland and a wintering in northwest Greenland), and the extensive searches mounted by the RCMP in 1931 and 1932. Finally, it analyzes the evidence provided by three messages left by Krüger and subsequently recovered, with a view to making an educated guess as to the fate of the expedition.

Much ink has been spilled over the future prospects of a Northern native economy based on a mix of hunting, trapping and wage work. Information on the mixed economy appeared during debates over Northern pipeline development which raged during the 1970s; though the native lifestyle came under close scrutiny during that period, sceptics remain unconvinced of the very existence, let alone the viability, of a native mixed economy. In their view a way of life based on harvesting ‘country foods’ is moribund and should give place as soon as possible to a full-fledged wage economy; those who think otherwise, including the authors of pipeline inquiries, are misguided romantics. This paper re-examines the debates over the prospects for a native hunting economy, and comes down on the side of its proponents. The author concludes that, given proper institutional support, a mixed economy should persist into the next century, and shows that the critics of the bush economy have underestimated its contribution to the welfare of Northern natives.

The discovery of Heard Island (lat. 53°; 10′ S., long. 73°; 35′ E.) has usually been attributed to Capt. John J. Heard of the American barque Oriental, who sighted the island on 25 November 1853 during a voyage from Boston to Melbourne. The relevant passage from Captain Heard's log book has been published by the American Geographical Society. He did not get nearer than twenty miles and mentions only one island, which can definitely be identified with Heard. Satisfactory evidence, however, has been found which shows that Heard Island was first sighted by the British sealer Peter Kemp, Master of the brig Magnet, on 27 November 1833. Kemp's discovery apparently remained unpublished, and his journal has been lost. The only surviving evidence of his voyage is a track chart preserved in the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty.

After landing the Ross Sea shore party of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition at Cape Evans, McMurdo Sound, SY Aurora drifted for 313 days between May 1915 and March 1916 in the pack iceof the Ross Sea and Southern Ocean. During the drift A. H. Ninnis maintained observations of the fauna. He was out hunting on the pack ice on at least 86 days to augment the ship's slender provisions, taking 289 penguins, 10 other sea birds and 20 seals. He sighted whales on at least 15 days, including killer whales in July and August and four large whales, possibly blue whales, in November. He also noted birds returning south for the breeding season in spring, progress of moult in emperor penguins, pupping of crabeater and leopard seals, and food items of several seals and seabirds. Most of his report is presented here, edited to improve its readability and remove abbreviations; the text is preceded by a brief summary of the fauna seen and followed by footnotes on some of his observations.

From austral autumn to spring 1986 the West German research ship RV Polarstern made three consecutive cruises to Antarctica in 1986; of these the second and third (27 June–14 December) made up the Winter Weddell Sea Projet, the first detailed winter survey of the pack ice, oceanography and biota of the offshore and eastern coastal Weddell Sea south to 76°S. This article briefly describes the ship and outlines the scientific programme, which involved 137 scientists and technicians from 12 German and 16 non-German institutions. In the cruise of 27 June–17 September research was centred on physical and chemical investigations of the structure and dynamics of water, ice and lower atmosphere, including growth and movement of the icefield. The ship penetrated almost to the coast of Dronning Maud Land, failing, however, to find the Weddell Polynya which had appeared on satellite imagery in 1976–78. The cruise of 28 September–14 December added biological investigations to the programme; crossing the main body of pack ice to investigate the eastern coastal polynya, the biology of sea ice, plankton, fish and bottom fauna, and the breeding and feeding of seals and penguins were investigated. Use was made of a field station established on the mainland ice cliff. Helicopters extended the range of the work on both cruises.