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Introduction. The Arctic is located in the uppermost region of the northern hemisphere. The region consists of of the area around Greenland, USSR, Canada and Alaska (refer to appendices Fig. 1). The Arctic is mostly covered by frozen ice all year long. This region also surrounds the Arctic Ocean.
So far the Artic is a naive environment, humans have not yet fully explored the region. But as people search for the resource, more and more people will move into to the area to take what they can, this can tip the balance of the environment, resulting in pollution and destruction of this once perfect environment if the proper management steps are not in place ahead of the rush. Physical Geography The Arctic region is located across seven countries and covers an area of 10. 4 million square miles, in which Siberia covers eight million square miles, which is bigger than Canada and the United States combined. One third of Canada is within the Arctic, among it over 1. 2 million square miles are taiga and tundra, and 0. 7 million of it is the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
Greenland covers 0. 8 million square miles. Alaska covers 0. 6 million square miles. Same is the region where the indigenous people in Scandinavia lives, it occupies the smallest area with approximately 0. 3 million square miles. Polar climate describes the Arctic, which means much of this area has a freezing cold climate and covered with ice all year. Harsh winters, low temperatures, and little snow or rainfall characterizes the arctic climate. In winter the days are shorter because the North Pole faces away from the sun, the sun does not set till midsummer and it is only strong enough to warm the top layer of the earth.
Three feet below the surface the ground stays frozen. Frozen ground, called permafrost, covers most of this region. The shallow layer is called the active layer, because this layer freezes and thaws throughout the year. In the summer the active layer can thaw just long enough for plants and microorganisms to grow. The thickness of the frozen ground below this active layer varies from a few feet to hundreds of feet. The Arctic Circle is the border of a zone where the sun doesnt rise at least one day in winter and never sets during at least one day in summer.
The North Pole is not the coldest spot in the Arctic because the ocean moderates its climate. Oymyakon in northeastern Siberia holds the record low temperature of - 68 C (- 90 F). The coldest recorded temperature for North America is - 65 C (- 85 F), at the city Snag in Yukon Territory. The low precipitation averages less than 250 mm (10 in) per year (refer to appendices Fig. 2), the moisture being received in almost all locations.
Regardless of their distance from industrialized areas, smog like haze sometimes blankets the Polar Regions. The Arctic area is a cold desert and is mostly flat land from the end of the forest to the ocean. This landscape is a barren place (refer to appendices Fig. 3). Rocks are scattered across the ground and the constant freezing and thawing breaks the rocks into smaller pieces. Trees cannot grow in this region because the soil is always frozen from the cold weather. Only small, strong plants are able to survive in the arctic.
Plants grow close to the ground where they find protection from cold winds. Over time, plants adapt, so they can get as much sunshine and water as possible for making food. The animals that live on the tundra rely on these plants for food. Economic Activities Industry and the Artic. This land of the Arctic was considered useless and only hospitable to those native to it, but once large amounts of oil and fish had been found there was a rush of interest in the land.
For thousands of years people have been fishing to meet their own needs in the Arctic but only recently it becomes commercialized, professional fishermen are taking all kinds of fish including whales and seals. Some of these fishermen have become so good at their job that the government had to put a limit or even stop the capture of certain animals. In Alaska, fishing provides more jobs than any other industry. Fishing is now done on a very large scale using the latest technology.
There are many mineral deposits within the Artic Circle: In Russia: nickel, iron ore, apatite, diamonds, gold, tin, coal, mica, and tungsten. In Sweden: iron ore. In Greenland: lead, zinc, molybdenum and cryolite. In Spits Bergen: coal. Canada: uranium, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, tungsten and iron ore. The digging out of minerals would disturb the habitats of animal and can also harm the environment.
Industry that is designed to make minerals, produce lot waste products that are harmful to the environment of the Artic. Because of this there are no very large industries in the Arctic. However Russia, Canada, Greenland and Iceland have several small manufacturing plants there. The conifer forest at the edge of the Arctic region is another important resource. Forestry is a major industry in Arctic Russia, Sweden and Finland. The government of these countries gives financial support to it because it provides a lot of employment in the arctic areas.
The largest industry in the Artic is oil. The rush began in 1968 when a large oil field was discovered, there was a great deal of protest about the development of the oil field because of the environment concern, but the development went ahead. Extracted oil from the field makes its way through a 1300 -kilometer pipeline to Port Valdez. Although steps were taken to limit the pipelines affecting on the environment it still disrupts the migration of caribou. In 1989 the super tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground, spilled millions of gallons of crude oil into the Prince William Sound (refer to appendices Fig. 4). In a week workers counted 24000 Dead Sea birds and 1000 sea otters.
The effects of the slick were felt throughout the food chain from photo plankton to bears. The Exxon company funded the clean up but there was no compensation for the hundreds of people that lost their job as a result of the slick. Social Patterns Outsiders think the Arctic as a barren, inhospitable and largely unexplored tracts of wilderness. The arctic region is home to a various number on indigenous peoples who have lived there for thousands of years on the resources of land and sea, as hunters, fishermen and reindeer herders (refer to appendices Fig. 5).
The Arctic is one of the world's least populated areas. The natives are thought to be descendants of a people who migrated northward from central Asia after the ice age and then spread west into Europe and east into North America. The indigenous peoples of the Arctic can trace similar origins in Central Asia. The total Inuit population is about 125, 000 and occupies a large geographical area, stretching from east Greenland across the north of Canada to the coasts of Alaska and Chukotka. The arctic region is home to dozens of indigenous people (refer to appendices Fig. 6) with a remarkable history. Natives that live in the Arctic include the Inuit, Den, and Mtis nations of Canada; the Inuit of Kalaalit Nunaat; the Eskimo (Aleut, Yupik), Den, and Tlingit of Alaska; the Sami people of Scandinavia; and the Chukchi, Even, Yakut, ...
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