Towards midnight on 27 June 1787, it was clear, serene and moonlit, Edward Gibbon, certainly the greatest historian of his own, and possibly of any other, era laid down his pen after having written the last lines of his masterpiece The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. He did this in the agreeable surroundings of the summer house in his garden at Lausanne overlooking the lake. He commented that his first emotion was the recovery of his freedom after so many years of unremitting labour but soon ‘a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken my everlasting leave’ of the ‘old and agreeable companion’ that his book had become to him over the years (Murray 1896: 333–334).

The remarkable rescue of Shackleton's men from Elephant Island, after the sinking of Endurance, and from Ross Island, has been recounted many times by both participants and historians. There has been little critical examination of the part played by governments, nor assessment of some of Shackleton's own actions. In this paper we explore more fully from official British archival sources the extent to which the British Government was prepared to underwrite the rescue efforts; the importance of the plea made by Emily Shackleton directly to the Prime Minister; the role and actions of the Relief Advisory Committee (especially in respect of limiting Shackleton's actions); the significance of the media rights to the debt-laden expedition, and how such preoccupation could have influenced Shackleton's endeavour to rescue his marooned parties.

Time is without doubt a very relative concept. As we all know, sometimes it moves quickly, sometimes it moves slowly and sometimes it seems to be at a standstill, although this cannot be said about the waning Finnish summer. At least it should be waning, but it seems as if it is gathering way at the moment. But irrespective of what time feels like for us individually, and irrespective of this strange 2015 Finnish summer, one thing is certain: time moves inexorably. And with moving time come changes, probably the mere definition of time anyway. Either way, Polar Record is subject to time as well and in order to keep up with time, one needs to adapt.

In this article the author isolates an anecdote from Roland Huntford's account of the Scott and Amundsen expeditions’ meeting on 4 February 1911 at Framheim, the Norwegian base in the Bay of Whales. In this anecdote, Lieutenant Victor Campbell allegedly told Roald Amundsen that a British motor sledge was ‘already on terra firma’, which consequently led Amundsen to worry that a British motor-sledge had already travelled across the Great Ice Barrier to reach the Beardmore Glacier. The author demonstrates the primary evidence that indicates that this anecdote is unrealistic: Amundsen's journal further indicates that he did not consider Scott's vehicles a threat. This ‘terra firma’ myth has skewed our modern understanding of events, ascribing to Amundsen an erroneous motivation (a supposed fear of the British motor sledges) to explain and excuse his too-early start for the south pole in September 1911, which was an error that nearly led to a Norwegian death (that of Lieutenant Kristian Prestrud). In reality, fear of Scott's motor sledges was not the reason for Amundsen's ‘false start’. This article concludes with a discussion on the hazards of attributing ‘hidden motivations’ to historical figures without citation of primary evidence, and recommends that Huntford include clearly-cited references and endnotes for the next edition of his joint biography of Scott and Amundsen, in keeping with modern standards of scholarship.

The observed greening of Arctic vegetation and the expansion of shrubs in the last few decades probably have profound implications for the tundra ecosystem, including feedbacks to climate. Uncertainty surrounding this vegetation shift and its implications calls for monitoring of vegetation structural parameters, such as fractional cover of shrubs. In this study, CANAPI, a semi-automated image interpretation algorithm that identifies and traces crowns by locating its crescent-shaped sunlit portion, was evaluated for its ability to derive structural data for tall (> 0.5 m) shrubs in the Arctic. CANAPI estimates of shrub canopy parameters were obtained from high-resolution imagery at 26 sites (250 m x 250 m each) by adjusting the algorithm's parameters and filter settings for each site, such that the number of crowns delineated by CANAPI roughly matched those observed in the high-resolution imagery. The CANAPI estimates were then compared with field measurements to evaluate the algorithm's performance. CANAPI successfully retrieved fractional cover (R2 = 0.83, P < 0.001), mean crown radius (R2 = 0.81, P < 0.001), and total number of shrubs (R2 = 0.54, P < 0.001). CANAPI performed best in sparse vegetation where shrub canopies were distinct, while it tended to underestimate shrub cover where shrubs were clustered. The CANAPI algorithm and the regression equations presented here can be used in Arctic tundra environments to derive vegetation parameters from any sub-meter panchromatic imagery.

For centuries the Arctic has served as a stage of imagination and has inspired countless artists in different ways. Also the music genre of heavy metal frequently utilises the ‘north’ and the Arctic. This paper briefly explores how two heavy metal subgenres, black metal and Viking metal, approach and utilise narratives associated with the ‘north’. By using lyrics of black and Viking metal bands, different forms of utilisation come to the fore, ranging from narratives of death to the raging Northman. Also polar exploration finds musical expression and is a source for generating extreme conceptual settings.

Insurance is an important component of shipping costs, albeit minor when compared to capital, crew or fuel. If the literature of Arctic shipping agrees that insurance premiums are likely to be higher for Arctic shipping, no study so far has tried to assess the cost of Arctic shipping insurance premiums, nor what specific demands insurance firms might formulate before agreeing to give coverage to a shipping company, thus presenting obstacles to entry in the Arctic shipping market. We first present insurance policies and costs as they are discussed in the literature on Arctic shipping. We also sketch out how their risk-assessment process was influenced by the IMO (International Maritime Organization) and classification societies. Then we outline the results of a survey conducted between 2012 and 2013 with insurance firms on their Arctic shipping policies.

The great wave of immigrants to the United States during the late 1800s brought many talented individuals who enriched American culture and society. Notable among them stands the Italian-born artist, Albert L. Operti (1852–1927), a versatile painter, illustrator and sculptor. For much of his professional career, Operti served as a scenic artist for the Metropolitan Opera House and later as an exhibit artist for the American Museum of Natural History. However, he maintained an avid personal interest in polar explorers and the history of polar exploration, ultimately turning his artistic skills to the subject. Operti served as official artist for Robert E. Peary during his Arctic expeditions of 1896 and 1897, producing paintings, drawings and even plaster casts of the Inuit from the expedition. Over the course of his lifetime he painted a number of ‘great’ pictures depicting, in a factually accurate manner, important incidents in Arctic history along with numerous smaller paintings, sketches, illustrations and studies. The quality of his work never rivaled his more talented contemporaries in the field of ‘great’ paintings, such as the prominent artists William Bradford and Frederic Church. Nonetheless, Operti achieved some recognition in his time as a painter of historical Arctic scenes, but the full extent of his contributions are little known and have been largely unexamined. Unlike the explorers themselves whose legacy rests upon geographic or scientific accomplishments and written narratives, Operti's legacy stands upon the body of distinctive artwork that served to convey, in realistic and graphic terms, the hardships and accomplishments of those explorers. This article recounts the life of Operti and his role as an historian in disseminating knowledge of the polar regions and its explorers to the public.

The Arctic is commonly perceived as a pristine wilderness, yet more than four centuries of human industry have not left Svalbard untouched. This paper explores the historical dimension of human-induced ecosystem change using human presence as a proxy. Its aims are fourfold: to reconstruct and quantify historical human presence, to ascertain if human presence is a suitable indicator of long-term anthropogenic pressure, to deduce trends in anthropogenic pressure on five selected species of game animal, and to postulate trends in their subpopulation sizes. Published sources give rise to 57 datasets dealing with the annual voyages to Svalbard as well as the participants in them. All known archaeological sites are visualised in a distribution map. Despite the large amount of data, the quantification of historical human presence remains biased and partial. Only with the aid of a timeline of known milestones is it possible to make hypotheses about changes in anthropogenic pressure and animal subpopulations over time. The exercise is nonetheless a necessary and instructive one: it confirms that the erroneous view of Svalbard as a pristine ecosystem hinders timely historical-ecological research. Future work must aim at the systematic quantification of past human impact in a holistic approach to environmental conservation and restoration.

This article surveys ten years of Asian involvement with Arctic research, from 2004 to 2013. The Asian countries have consolidated their Arctic research efforts, with publication output, funding and infrastructure showing a marked increase from 2008. Most of this research is in the natural sciences and relates to climate change, but there is also an emerging branch of social science studies. National polar institutes play important roles as links between the science communities and governments. Asian polar research still focuses more on Antarctica than the Arctic. As to the relationship between research and policies, there is little evidence that the Asian governments have aspirations of gaining political influence through their Arctic research.

The Arctic provides one of the most striking signatures of climate change impacts. Accelerated loss of sea ice extent and thickness, loss in biodiversity, changing atmospheric circulation patterns, and melting permafrost portray only a few aspects of a rapidly changing Arctic. In recognition of the inter-, multi-, and trans-disciplinary (Keil 2015) discussions, tools, mechanisms, and implementation strategies necessary to address these challenging and pervasive issues of this century, the first Potsdam Summer School, entitled ‘Arctic in the Anthropocene’, took place in June–July, 2014. The summer school was coordinated by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), and the University of Potsdam, in conjunction with the city of Potsdam. The principal vision of the summer school was to eliminate disciplinary language barriers, and to foster communication amongst individuals trained in law and international relations, public health, and science, with the goal of extending an integrated science-policy dialogue for the benefit of humanity, the planet that we inhabit, and for which we share a collective responsibility.

In a recent interesting contribution to this journal, G.A. Mawer suggested that Antarctica was first so named in 1890 (Mawer 2008). New evidence however reveals that Antarctica first received its modern one-word name as early as 1840 at a congress of Italian scientists. The new name was soon adapted for other languages, and its use in English can be traced from 1849. A hypothesis is advanced as to why alternative French and German names were coined later in the century. The first map to use the new place name was published in 1843, and the first map to show a complete outline of the continent, estimated from expedition reports, was produced in 1844. But nothing could become the settled name of the south polar continent until its existence was confirmed at the turn of the twentieth century.

Recent records of increasing temperature, melting of sea-ice, retreating glaciers, thawing permafrost, increasing sea levels, and increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events provide clear evidence of global climate change, particularly in the Arctic. The impacts of climate change are not only environmental, but also influence social, economic, psychological, and political conditions in the region. The confluence of these conditions emphasises the need for improved communication of climate information and formulation of ethical responses to address changes in the Arctic. This review explores the meaning of ethical communication followed by an overview of the barriers to ethical communication including uncertainties related to climate change, and constructions of varying interpretations of climate change due to discipline-specific perspectives of science, journalism, and law, in the Arctic. The final section of this paper summarises key elements of ethical communication, and integration of ethical principles in formulating decision-making strategies to address climate change in the Arctic.

In recent years, interest in the economic potential of the Arctic has been mounting, facilitated by environmental developments caused by climate change. In this context, the viability of shipping in Arctic waters is pivotal. This article explores the interplay of market considerations and the non-market drivers (climatic, navigational and political components) regarding the viability of the most prominent Arctic shipping route, the northern sea route (NSR), as a global shipping route. In particular, it concentrates on the Russian ice-breaking tariff policy on the NSR and presents a review from 1991, when the route was officially opened to international shipping, until 2014. The study integrates qualitative and longitudinal quantitative data related to NSR traffic, ice-breaking tariffs and ice conditions. The paper shows that the ice-breaking fees play a key role for the functioning of the NSR by providing a source of funding for the ice-breaking fleet, which constitutes a basis for safe shipping. However, the development of the NSR into a competitive transcontinental shipping route is determined by a dynamic mixture of factors in which the Russian ice-breaking fee represents an additional cost item for shipping companies and shippers. It is argued that the development of ice-breaking tariff policy has been guided by structural changes in external factors consequently influencing the demand for ice-breaking services (a derivative of NSR demand), which limits the extent to which tariff policy influences the attractiveness of the NSR in a global context.

This note addresses the recent announcement regarding Argentina's submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. While the commission considered much of Argentina's submitted materials regarding the outer continental shelf (and sovereign rights that accrue to the seabed), it deliberately excluded areas of controversy including the Falkland Islands and Antarctica. What should be of interest to Polar Record readers is how consistently international media, including British journalists, misunderstand international maritime law and ‘stoke’ the fires of Argentine and British nationalisms. The Argentine government, however, was not an innocent party and its own press releases were ambiguous on the matter concerned, even if the commission had recognised the merit of much of their scientific-technical submission.

This paper summarises the first 25 years of data on hydrological work carried out each summer on the Onyx River, Wright Valley, by summer teams of field hydrologists of the New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme. The assignment expanded from the single water-level recording weir site near Lake Vanda to a second site near the Wright Lower Glacier together with a number of tributary stream measurements that were installed as the programme progressed. This work was carried out together with Dry Valleys lake level and glacial measurements and is as of much historical as of scientific interest as it contains much inaugural Antarctic hydrology work.

Maritime traffic is increasing in Arctic seas in the context of climate change. The rapid melting of sea ice led to the widespread belief that traffic was set to expand rapidly, challenging Canadian and Russian-claimed sovereignties over their respective Arctic passage, and underlining the risk posed by such a traffic in a risky but fragile environment. If projections on potential traffic for the medium term are probably exaggerated, the increasing traffic nevertheless challenges the adequacy of the regulatory framework.

In recent decades, the mining industry has expanded globally especially in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Mines often boost rural economies, but may have also negative impacts on environment and local livelihoods, such as tourism and reindeer herding. That is why acceptability and undeniable right to operate – the social licence (SL) to mine has become more and more important in mining related discussions. We examine empirically issues relating to SL in two mining projects in Finnish Lapland, Hannukainen in Kolari and Suurikuusikko in Kittilä. The main results emphasise the importance of transparency in mining operations and the continuity of communications with local stakeholders in building and maintaining the SL to mine. If the transparency of operations is lacking and issues come to publicity only via the media, this may affect the public image of a company and finally challenge its SL to operate and, in the long term, potentially effect the financing decisions of mining investors. We show that acquiring and keeping up a SL links not only to the developments in the actual mining site, but is also connected to processes taking place in other localities. These connections may emerge in various scales; between various local communities, mining companies and global financing principles, for instance. We use and propose ‘multi-sited ethnography’ as a method to describe and better understand complex linkages which may effect the SL to mine.

This article addresses knowledge management in governing vulnerable polar areas and tourism. Since the 1870s, Svalbard has been a cruise tourism destination. Due to less ice during the summer period, the number of tourists visiting the remote northeast corner of the archipelago has increased significantly, and the potential negative impact on this vulnerable natural environment has become an issue. The standard modes of managing these areas have either been to apply the precautionary principle or measures based on scientific evidence. As management models, however, both principles are contested for a number of reasons. This paper argues for a third model that is partly based on a form of monitoring knowledge that has circulated in ‘communities of practice’ and that has been developed over time. This form of knowledge constitutes viable expertise for the governing and management of the environment-tourism nexus in the area, but it needs to be acknowledged as a complementary management platform. This article demonstrates how such monitoring can be done, and it suggests some principles for the development of monitoring knowledge for administrative and management purposes.

Lack of support and interest among the public is one of the major challenges in strengthening and sustaining the future national agendas on Antarctica. The main goal of this study is to identify the perception of Malaysia's public with regard to Antarctic values and Malaysian involvement in the region. A survey on Malaysia's young citizen perception on Antarctic has been conducted for mapping out the future landscape of Malaysian involvement in the Antarctic region. Surveys have been conducted on respondents from secondary schools and universities in Malaysia. A questionnaire was designed to seek respondents’ knowledge and awareness on the values of Antarctica and their opinions on Malaysia's involvement. The results of the study showed that respondents had a high level of awareness of Antarctic environmental issues. However, general knowledge about the Antarctic region was still intermediate. On the other hand, the results of this study showed that the young citizens had positive and strong support for strengthening Malaysia's Antarctic involvement. This study hopes to contribute as baseline data on the matter. Such background information will reflect on the national strategy in strengthening Malaysia's current policy and future involvement in Antarctica.